I have a question. I read some of the pages, but I'm still not sure if the founders are generation 1 or 0 in the Neanderthal Stage or if it is my choice.

It's up to you, I'm personally playing with the founders as generation 1 so that I don't spend a lot of time in the Neanderthal era. You could change your mind during the first era. You might like the Neanderthal stage so you'll make your founders generation 0, or you might feel it drag on, so you'll change it to generation 1. Obviously you can't change what the founders are during the later eras, but again, it's completely up to you.

@Azombieatemyshoelace: It's definitely up to you. In my first attempt I had them as Gen 0, but when my computer died and I started over, i made them Gen 1. It's your choice, 'cause it's your game. You can change your mind at any point up until you switch eras (in fact I was debating about changing my Gen 0 to Gen 1 before my computer died). And you can switch at anytime after the required number of generations. So if you really like the Neanderthals and made your Founders be Gen 0, and really don't want to leave the era when Gen 3 becomes adults (that'd technically be four generations right there) you can continue on for another generation or two.You'll have to devise a story plot to get some new blood into the game since they'll be pretty inbred by game standards at that point, but again it's your game. And I really love your name btw. ~VP

I like having them as gen 1 which is how most people seem to play it but it's up to you and you can always change it.
For myself I'm playing with only 10 generations by cutting most of them down. This challenge is really adaptable and I don't think anyone's stuck 100% with the original rules (we pretty much all used showers and toilets in the first era)

If you want to be precise, I think the rules anticipate the founders to be generation 0. But everyone's doing whatever they want anyway, so go ahead and do as you like. I decided to play the founders as first gen because I'm a slow player and an additional generation to play through isn't really helping. :p



I don't think I would have endured this challenge for so long if there'd been stinking and wailing sims around all the time. XD

Really, really well said this!

Somebody drill this into my head please XD I've just finished Round 18 and it took 7 months to do so *flops on the floor in relief* and somehow (despite coldheartedly killing off a few families/sims) I have 26 lots and 142 sims... how does this happen?! Because I don't follow the above advice... I swear when I finally brave the next round a cataclysmic event of Pompeii proportions is going down! On the upside - I'm almost through the Roman Era YAY! Dark Ages here I come *does a little dance* I love the Roman Era, but it's been 2 1/2 years in the making and I'm about done XD Not to put any of the newbies off though! (welcome btw) it was well worth it! *crawls away now*

Btw, hey all! Looks like everyone is still going strong, which as always I am so glad to see; it's always really nice to see everyone again after vanishing off the face of the planet for a long while. Reality switched gears and I now have more time again (sort of) so hopefully I can catch up on some blog updating and am definitely looking forward to the end of the Roman Era - I shall make that a New Years goal I think! Taliah shall be started/starting? the Dark Ages before the year 2014 is through! Is that too easy? >_> I dunno... I have 3 more rounds and the last 2 rounds took 1 1/2 years so....*is just lazy* (don't say that yourself fool!)

Have a great New Years everyone and I hope to see you all again soon~

taliah~

PS: totally used showers and toilets =/ I don't think I lasted a day with the original rules, sims are just useless when they stink! XD

Definitely used showers and toilets from the get go. my toilet looks like a bucket to kept it form being completely modern, and I'm using the Uni Shower, and just pretending that that, the phones, and the fridge are the only sort of technology that survived the ship's crash landing.

And welcome back Taliah. I feel you on rounds taking forever. Stuff just gets in the way of playing sims. My last round took me three months to play. And I only know this b/c i put the date I update my website on its front page, and i update it as soon as i can after a round finishes. Otherwise it'll never get updated. But you probably hold the record on longest amount of time to play a round. Unless anyone else wants to chime in with their longest time playing a round? ~VP

I think I will wait a bit longer to decide what I'm going to do. I'm leaning toward them being gen one right now, though. My sims have had less children kidnapped recently so I think I might be good to go. Oh, and thank you, VioletPadfoot. I like your username, too.

Is it normal for me not to be able to find anyone for my sims to have kids with in the third generation? It seems like everyone is related. It's a bit annoying.

Totally normal. You're allowed to add a new sim to the mix. I added a new couple during second generation to help out and since then I've had no problems with matchmaking.

longest round record holder booyeah! *takes a bow* thank you, thank you all and may I hold it forever~ (who would want to beat that?!) LoL

I said it jokingly before but decided it was a good idea, so there's a plague about to hit Tempus with catastrophic results! I was reading about the real Roman Era and it seems it actually happened wiping out 25% of the population in short, whoa

taliah~

The lack of sims to marry was half the reason I didn't use money to determine who would be what class in the roman era. Instead I chose to have families that could marry to be of similar classes.
What helped me is to make a table with all the unmarried guys on one side and the girls on the other. Rather than the sims last name I'd put the initials of both sets of grandparents. Then it was easy to see who could marry who (they wouldn't have any of the same initials)
For example if Josie A is the granddaughter of family A and family B I wrote her as Josie AB
She would be able to marry Jack XY but not Mark AX because he is her first cousin. It wouldn't work if people didn't want to god mod marriages but for me there wasn't any other option (two of my families married into pretty much every other family twice making marriages tricky.)

My marriages are god-modded from the beginning. I too have a table that lists all the guys in one column and the girls in the other. Once I decide on a pairing, the girl's name is moved to a column next to the boy's and deleted from the girls column. In the next gen, I have a listing next to each name of what the mother's last name was, so I know who is related to who and can match them up that way. I remember from the first attempt going, "he's a Marroquin and his mother is a Schafer. Can't use her, she's a Marroquin... she's a schafer... her mom's a marroquin, aha! That one will work!" My families are all intermingled marriage wise. In the old version it was common to marry a sibling of your sibling's spouse. Never got far enough to marry of the next gen, but it would have been even more fun to figure things out. I knew (and know now) that I will be adding lots of sims when I hit the Roman Era. ~VP

I don't have a problem with brining in enough sims to keep my population going in the roman era.

I'm trying a different method of pairing my sims up this time round. It's quite random. All the teenage sims go to live in a special lot the season transition after the turn teen and they participate in a variety of stupid challenges (fishing, gardening and nature enthusiasm also go into it). The winners gain points so that by the end of the season I have a ranking of all the girls and all the boys. The highest ranking male marries the highest ranking unrelated female and so on and so forth.

I may have to god mod the marriages a bit more later on for the sake of diversity but so far I like the randomness of the new system. An added bonus is it adds an aspect of independence and a higher risk to the lives of my teens because while they'r enot doing the challenges they can do whatever they like, last season a girl murdered two of her fellow competitors before she attacked a third and lost.

If anyone's curious the challenges include seeing who catches the most fish in two hours (boots count against them), seeing who's the first to fertilize and plant a fenced in 3 x 3 garden plot (they get distracted by trying to plant in their neighbors' plots). Having them race across a pool to sit in a chair. Having a log rolling tournament. And chucking them all in a pool playing marco polo and see who quits first.

O_O... that sounds like fun! *wants to be in that game* XD sounds like a highly entertaining way to match sims up, and something that could be adapted for each era too

taliah~

lbsgirl, that sounds epic. i might have to adopt that! Right now my sims are somewhat deciding their own mates by their wants. A teen who get a want to go out/ sneak out with a member of the opposite sex is pretty much paired with that sim if that sim is not already attached. And kids that will transition soon that get friendship wants are tending to get paired together, if both kids get the want to be friends/best friends with one another. But challenges sound a lot more fun. I think I'll use that when I get back to playing. The only couple I have that is totally set in stone is Kaya Pineda and Clifford Scalon, and they look so cute together that I don't want to break them up. But any of my other couples have not established themselves yet and are fair game. Plus the teen lot could be very interesting since I have inteen installed, and ACR. And my game lately seems to be very intent on sims woohooing on their own. My first few pregnancies, I directed the sims to the bed, most every other time, AR has kicked in. But I suppose if I don't equip the teen lot with a double bed, I could avoid that. But it'd be much more fun and drama inducing to have the bed... Ok I'm done plotting out loud. I'm going to let these ideas percolate a bit and then possibly implement them. ~VP

Hey Taliah:
Glad to hear you have found some time to play. I agree about adapting the rules about toilets and showers. When the rules said that the Roman Sims had to go to the community lot baths to pee and shower, it made the Roman age last forever. If you don't take them then they pee on themselves and then stink. When they stink all they do is whine and complain. (well, can you blame them?). Looking forward to having a fellow Dark Ages player in 2014 (Kill off a few Romans in the amphitheater for adultery and fighting on lots in addition to your regular name drawings to make the rounds go quicker.)

...and I felt mean giving 40% of the population the plague! LoL XD Good idea though, and thanks! Looking forward to getting there.

taliah~

I'm going too easy on my sims again My death rate for gen 2 is under 40% I was hoping for higher. I need some logical ways to kill some.

Compared to your death rates, mine's minuscule. XD Something around 25%, I think. But on the other side, my sims have less children than most here as I don't have triplets & quads. :p

I think it's nearly impossible to continue the challenge form third generation on without either adding new sims or allowing cousins to marry. In my game, I currently have a huge majority of girls (7 girls vs. 2 boys) and still one of the boys, Kane Brandt, doesn't have any possible spouse available because the girls are way younger than him or his cousins. :<

As for ways to kill your sims, lbsgirl: You could include some sort of illness, too. Maybe the plague didn't exist under that form in prehistoric times, but they certainly had other diseases. Another possibility would be attacks by animals. I think there have already been people including that aspect in their challenge. Every time a wolf (or maybe just the leader of the pack?) enters a lot somebody could die. Or maybe when he snarls at one of your sims. ^-^ Just some ideas. ~

And I updated my blog a few days ago, in case anyone would like to take a look. Round 8 is now complete.

Edit: Oh, and btw my longest round took me 3 months and 2 weeks, so still far away from 7 months. XD

Although I can't join you guys in playing this challenge (at least, not at the moment), I'm having so much fun reading your stories and your progress! I expecially like your blog, TheFlyingRaccoon. I'm happy you had the time to update it. :D

I would just marry him off to a way younger sim you could even make it into a story.

The leader of the pack thing could work Although I'll have to be careful he doesn't get my really small families.

I think the average number of kids is around 6.6 (two of the founding couples suffered a death early on meaning few kids for them) but the average surviving number of kids is about 4. (That doesn't sound quite right I'll have to check in game). However I don't have many boys I only have 7. Compared to 25ish girls. WHich means best case scenario there will be 8 gen 3 households (a gen 2 teen married a founder who lost his wife back in round 1/2) which I can deal with.

Another idea I'm toying with is with the new households being established to give them a different name. It would really help seeing who's related around gen 4.

@ blackmiranda: Thank you very much and I'm happy that you enjoy my blog. ^-^

@lbsgirl: I took a look again and the only girl born up to know that isn't Kane's cousin is S4 and he's in the running to become emperor, so I'd rather not marry those two off. But if he becomes the emperor it would be quite funny for him to have a wife who's much younger (or maybe even a cousin). :p

My average number of kids is 6.6, too. XD But number of surviving kids is 5, so a little higher. And it would be even higher, if there hadn't been as many deaths last round. ._. But that's kind of a good thing, right? >_<

I added Sabine women and a few male slaves from the conquered territories (total of 10 new Sims) to start my roman age after the third generation. I only had to add new Sims for this first generation of Romans and then had enough after that to continue. :lovestruc

I think that this challenge will be impossible to complete as written (sighs, moans, and whines) . It has taken me one year to complete my two generations of Dark Ages from birth to marriages. So, I have decided to only play one generation for each age moving forward. I had already shortened it to two, but am getting bored with each age lasting so long. To make it more interesting, I had already incorporated extra challenges like Besieged and my own merchant challenge.

What are some of you doing to keep the game interesting while still staying close to the rules?

If you would like to see my timeline and how many generations I played for each age so I could get to the different ages faster (yes, I am a cheater) go to my rules page on my website. Adjusted Rules

I'm shortening the challenge to 10 generations, I would shorten it more but then I'd feel like there wasn't enough time to get used to all the eras.
I'm just trying to add new ideas into it and keep stuff happening. In later generations I'm going to kill sims so that only 2(or 3) children from each family marry and have their own children this will make my number of lots stabilize. I may also start playing with a ROS of disasters, one of which will occur each round.
All up I've been playing the neanderthal era for 1.5 years hopefully this time my challenge survives longer than Roman.

In my game the first gen 3 kids are just starting to be born, when these kids marry I'll be into the roman era.

Actually looking in game my average number of kids is 7.2 while the average surviving kids is 5.5. However only 17 of the gen 2 sims will have the chance to marry (unless some of those die).
I'm thinking of adding some form of challenge to the death in my teen camp thing. Not sure as to the form yet but if I kill 6 more gen 2 sims they'll have a 50% death rate. You may think I'm mad or whatever but I would like the percentage of sim deaths to go down each era.

lbsgirl. I'm blatantly stealing your teen camp idea. I will of course give you credit for the idea, but I really need a more creative way to pair up my teens. And maybe I'll have more deaths. I hate hate hate to see my kids fighting, so i keep Macroing them to "socialize... friendly" with one another. teens are another story. if they happen to want to kill one another, so be it. But out of curiosity, are there any more "events" than those you listed? ~VP

I'm so happy that people are still playing this!! :D
I just found this yesterday and immediately started downloading some basic items (desperately wanted caves, but don't have the space on my computer) and started my families this morning. Since I want to track the generations (and I take way too many pictures) I'm going to blog them.
For the most part I'm following all the rules, but I decided to add 2 bonus families in addition to the first 5, because I figure it will be easier to marry Sims off with a couple more bloodlines to blend.

I love this challenge idea! I have a medieval toilet that I'm using, lol. And I am using a compost bin, even though it wasn't on the list. I'm also allowing each family to have 1 cradle (looks more like something Daddy handrafted than the cribs with the fancy bedding) since they're going to have so many babies.

If anyone wants to see what's been going on with my first families, they're here
http://sims2storytime.wordpress.com...allenge-part-1/

@VP
Sure go ahead and use it
At the moment I only have the five tasks (1 per day) but I'm trying to come up with more for them to do, perhaps something that would get them making fiends or enemies with the other teens. I'll look for some more ideas, if you come up with any please let me know.

@samd440
Love the start of your challenge I find as I think many others did that it isn't the second generation that is hardest to marry but the third. It is however achievable if you're careful even with the original five. We all bended the rules a bit.

I tend to over create, lol. The family limit was a good thing, or it would take me a year to get through just one generation
Also, I LOVE your cave on the header of your TOT page!!

It is great that so many people have found the creative nature of this challenge to be so much fun and that folks blog or post to websites. I love everyone's talent!
I would like to suggest using pet beds for toddlers to sleep on if you decide not to use a lot of cribs. They will crawl over and sleep on their own when they are tired. I would also suggest at least a set of blocks to keep the kids inside so they don't get heatstroke.

That's a good idea, I didn't even know toddlers would go to pet beds and sleep, lol. Pets is actually the only EP I don't have installed, so I can't do that. I didn't have any issues with the heat until today, my last family the mom had heatstroke right before going into labor and afterward. I'm not sure why she had issues and none of my other Sims have.

I got all of my original families finished today though! I've played all of them through the first round, so all of the adults have 24 days until they become elders. Now it's time to start making my rounds again and see if anything interesting happens, lol. (My one Sim got her pregnancy bump LITERALLY as I was framing up the photo, so her Neanderthal outfit isn't showing. I was so annoyed, lol. Forgot to retake it afterward since she almost had a heat stroke. Oh well.)

I think I accidentally corrupted my hood I killed a child with fire and he disappeared and didn't get a grave stone even though he is dead. I have no unlink on delete and stuff so hopefully they work. If my hood does die, I'm going to start again at roman. After approaching 2yrs of neanderthal I'm getting a little sick of it...

Two real life years??? Ugh, I don't think I could do it! It's much harder. Sims don't handle the heat any better than I do, lol.

Was he from a different lot? Maybe the grave went back there? Or in someone's inventory maybe? :\

lbsgirl, I wouldn't worry too much about that disappeared gravestone. I had the same problem (back in Round 4, I think?) when Kazumi died, or rather did not die and simply disappeared. ._. When I tried to teleport her on the lot, a message popped up saying she died on another lot, which she definitely didn't. In any case, I've since been playing without any problems, so it doesn't mean that you can't play your 'hood anymore. It may even last for a long time.

The only thing you could try is running the hood checker on your hood (which is in fact always a good idea). If I remember right it will also locate graves that disappeared into pixel nirvana. ^-^

@ samd440: Nice start you've got there. Keep going and don't get discouraged by the sheer proportions of this challenge. In case, you'd like to know which rules changes some of us (or at least I) have made, you can take a look at my blog. I wrote them down there.
And I'm curious about two things in your challenge: Did you gave some of your families already children in CAS (Hunter & Violet)? And do you already know what you're going to do with Chandra? Because a life without constantly popping babies out is rather pointless for a prehistoric woman. =P Although: one more adult person -> more work done -> more money -> high possibility for Isaac's (and probably Kenya's) descendants to become the ruling family :> which is rather ironical considering that Chandra is a black woman XD

I'll check those out! Thanks.

Well, Isaac is completely useless. Seriously, I didn't realize I made him so lazy, but he won't do a thing. I tell him to go tend the garden (when he's green, even!) and he will tend one plant and then go lie down on the couch, lol. He won't fish for more than a couple of minutes. He's the most useless Sim I have ever come across, whereas Chandra is a really good worker and I can always seem to rely on her to do the gardening/cleaning up. Kenya is also rather lazy, but not as lazy as Isaac. So, I actually like Chandra more than the family, lol. Presently she maintains the household mostly by herself, while Kenya and Isaac relax in beds and on the couch.
I did, the two bonus families I gave Hunter and Violet (I figured they could get married at the time) but... Violet had a heatstroke, and was taken away, along with their newborn baby, so now... I don't know what will happen to Hunter... or ANYONE in my next generation, because all of the babies are boys!! All of them--except one. I guess she'll never worry about needing a date.

I love the loin cloths you have for your guys! I couldn't find any when I looked, lol

Did you try using the Batbox to respawn the missing grave? The option shows up once you activate testingcheats and then right-click on the Batbox.

Also, hi to all, I've just started this challenge! It's slow going at the moment, but I'm having a lot of fun with it now that my founding generation's kids have mostly aged up to children. Two adults have died off so far, and it's likely there will be a few more in this upcoming round. (And I am okay with this, there are already 18 offspring!)

Roman stage is taking SO LONG. I feel like I just breezed through Neanderthal, but Roman is killing me. 4 generations of this is too muchmuch. My 1st Emperor is an elder but not even close to death & his children are only teenagers.

Long Live His Imperial Majesty Cameron the First of His Name

Ugh, yeah, that's rough. How many different households do you have?

@samd: If you aren't far ahead of what you posted on your blog, I don't think you need to worry about the gender imbalance yet. After the first round, I had 5 girls and only 1 boy and when the last second generation child was born, I had at 3 or 4 boys too much.
The clothes I use are in fact from here . You find them in the comments. (big plus of those clothes: female ones have preg morphs, so with an appropriate hack: no strange modern clothes ^-^)

@DitzyEkko: I would be happy if I finally could find the time and motivation (got distracted; this time I started building again) to finish the first era and move on to the romans. :< And I'm already rather decided to make each era only last 2 generations, because at least for the neanderthals it seems like a good length (possible that I change my mind later on, though =P).

A Cheer on Caesar Cameron

THANK YOU!!! Before I started building I was looking for stuff like this but I didn't find this set! I was trying to figure out how other people had those awesome wall arches, lol. I wish I would've found that before I finished the founders! Oh well, I might play around with one of the wealthier (ha, they're all poor) lots and if I can't, my first 2nd generationer can have a cool stone age shack and loincloths, lol.

Welcome to the challenge Sam! Your start with the extra families seems like an interesting twist. I can't wait to read more. ~VP

Thanks!
It makes for more variety now, but later on it might be an issue, lol. The good news is, since the father is already dead in the Forrester family, I know there won't be more than two boys to deal with in the next generation. The Sims definitely try to die much more frequently in the Neanderthal age, lol. I almost lost another one, but the pleading with the grim reaper worked.

So... has anyone ever had just one neighborhood disappear? :\ My Neanderthal hood is GONE.
I downloaded a piece of faulty CC and couldn't get into the game, removed the CC, now game works but my challenge neighborhood seems to have gone the way of the dinosaurs....

And the odd thing is, my neighborhood files are in the folder....

eta: Fixed the custom stuff, but... sadly, my neighborhood still won't show up. Looks like I won't be doing this challenge right now after all.

It's completely gone? That sucks. But at least you aren't TOO far into this. It'd be easy enough to start over now. But in the interests of not losing everything, none of your other neighborhoods are in any way changed? Something you might be able to try: take out the neighborhood folder for your ToT neighborhood (N00x, mine's N005), and boot up your game and make the neighborhood again, but don't do anything in it (except load it up and possibly attach any subhoods) and close the game. It should spawn with the same neighborhood number. Now take the subfolders from inside your N00x folder that you pulled out (Characters, Lots, Storytelling, etc) and replace them in the N00x folder that's in your sims 2 folder, and let them overwrite the ones there, but don't just overwrite the whole N00x folder or any of the files in that folder that aren't in subfolders. If the neighborhood spawned with a different number you'll need to rename the files inside the folders to match that number. I suspect that the file that holds the neighborhood information is somehow corrupted. This should get you a new neighborhood, and put all your existing sims, lots, photos, etc. into this new neighborhood.

Of course I could be completely wrong and have never tried this, but it makes sense in my head. IF you try it and it doesn't work you can try making a thread over in the help section, and someone there may know what to do ~VP

That's a great idea!
I'm going to have to wait, because I think I picked up a virus or something... over the course of about an hour yesterday, every bit of the remaining space on my computer evaporated along with my neighborhood and now a pop-up keeps telling me I have low disk space, my bookmarks disappeared, I can't even use the back button on my browser. This is so weird. I've never had this happen before, I was so confused about it not showing up.
I might need to get a new laptop... this one is a whole 15 months old, so...

My last tot completely disappeared :/ Couldn't find any way to get it back

samd440, sorry to hear that. Do you have a backup? If not start making them now. if something happens you can switch out your hood to the backed up one. Also run the hood checker, no sim loaded and the bat box regularly to help prevent problems. I've kept corrupted hoods limping along for quite a long time using those 3 items.

Happy New Year to all the ToTers !! I am so happy to see so many of you are still continuing on with this challenge. I have been playing ( slowly mind you lol ) but havent been updating my blog regularly unfortunately tho I do keep the family tree updated with the goings on. All I can say is thank god for the data base I use because I would never know who is who. Been awhile since I was at the beginning of the round so is going to be very interesting today when I get back there. There are babies that I completely forgot about - naughty godmother I am lol. Anyway all the best in 2014 to you and Happy Simming ! :D

What's a hood checker?
I hadn't backed it up, but all of the files are still there, that's the weird thing. Just the neighborhood is gone. I've never seen that happen before, lol. I'm going to try recreating the hood and then moving all the files back in... so hopefully that will work.

all right, found the hood checker... It's been a few days since i've backed up and I've been playing my regular neighborhood, so I'll have to wait until I have time to back it up again before I run it, since the directions say to back up first.

This is the Hood Checker. It's by Mootilda, and will check if there are corruptions or potential corruptions in your hood. And in some cases, attempt to fix them. ~VP

Edit: Ack! you found it as I was linking! If you haven't played the neighborhood you're checking since you backed it up, you're okay. And if you haven't done anything you'd hate to lose, you're okay too. Backing up is just a fail safe just in case the Hood Checker does something to make things worse/unplayable when you tell it to try to fix things. In that case, you'd restore the backup and try fixing things manually in SimPE ~VP

And Another Edit 'cause double posts are bad: I've been playing this second attempt for how long now? Months at minimum. So why have I just now noticed that when I was setting up the neighborhood, I spelled Troy and Abigale's last name as "Kaminksi" instead of "Kaminski". I only noticed it b/c my familyfunds cheat was acting up and not granting money like it should. So I fired up SimPE and fixed things. As well as the money issue. But still that long with that spelling issue. I'd have lived happily with it had I never noticed it, but as soon as I knew it was there, I couldn't play until it was fixed. I'm just weird that way. ~VP

Well, I tried moving the files out and back over, but when I made the new neighborhood it became neighborhood 7, and I decided not to waste my time renumbering, since that would likely take almost as long as just starting over, lol. Plus I had more custom stuff this time around and was able to make the houses nicer, so... I remade the first 3 families and renamed a couple of them (I thought I created a Smith family the first time around, but it looks like I overlooked that) and I'm going to 6 instead of 7 this time, just because it's less to keep up with as the generations go on, lol.


ETA: All right, 5 of my 6 families are done! Woohoo! I feel like this part takes so long!

http://sims2storytime.files.wordpre...azine.jpg?w=487
:D

Soooo... has anyone ever had a baby sim pop out with a completely different skin color than its parents? One of my TOT families had a baby girl, mom is skin 3, dad is skin 2, and the baby came out with what looks like a custom skin, but if not it's definitely a 1... The baby is super pale. This is not typically my experience....

http://sims2storytime.files.wordpre...ack-2.jpg?w=323

It's probably a genetic skin. http://modthesims.info/wiki.php?tit...cized_Skintones Once the baby turns toddler it's easy enough to change to Maxis skin/default once they become a toddler.

Thanks! I had no idea that's how it worked, lol. My sims usually always have either mom's skin or dad's, lol. I must have downloaded a rogue custom at some point.

Hey everybody ^-^

I've finally continued playing (the first time since november/beginning of december >_>). And my father and I switched laptops, so I have now a better graphics card or rather a graphics card that is actually compatible with sims 2. And that's why I have a question for you:
As I don't want to take in game photos anymore (so that everyone else can profit from my better graphics, too ), I need a screenshot program. I cannot use screen print as I have a mac with a windows partition and no screen print key. And most programms I found until now are not working when I play in fullscreen mode. =/ Any suggestions?

I think you might have to play in windowed mode....
I have no idea about programs though

I actually think I have that same skin tone and it does pop up at random times, even with darker skinned sims.

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to check in as it's been... a long time for me. (I got stuck playing Into the Future, and haven't played my regular TOT in awhile).

I'd like to pick it up again soon, but the T S3 files just have the potential to be enormous, and after your sims go somewhere (vacation, college if you have those EPs), the files head steadily towards being unable to save themselves. So you know... I'm a bit terrified of what's to come if I ever do get out of the Roman era. (Currently in Round 2 of it)
I did think I might want to start again sometime with no EPs other than seasons- but I don't want to have to wait through neanderthal again!

FRAPS works just fine for me. You can choose which hotkey to use to take screenshots, so using it in fullscreen mode should be fine.

Glad I'm not the only one! Their second child was a boy and he had a regular skin 3, but they just had another daughter and she had the mystery skin again lol

It ended up being a good thing that I made 6 families because my one family had a disastrous round, lost all their kids abd then the wife died! So I remarried him and now I only have 5 families lol

That's what I tried to do some time ago, but I couldn't find where I can choose the hotkey? >_<

I missed this thread! I have fun reading your ideas and your progress. I read a few of the updates. <3

I need to update my blog, but I actually made it to Roman times back in November and then stopped playing halfway that first Roman round. I don't even remember why... Maybe because I didn't know what to do with all my sims. My hood is full of incest (cousins marrying cousins). I wasn't careful with the marriages. *sigh* I'm thinking of starting over. I'm not sure yet. I might play the current one again (after installing realistic sickness and trying to get rid of some of the sims) and then I'll decide.

And welcome to the new players.

Open Fraps, click on the Movies or Screenshot words on the top and then you can change the default setting. I kept F10 for screenshots

Aren't they going to have enough reasons to die off?

My hood is that way too, I had to inject a bunch of 'captured slave' sims into my Roman era a while back. But it's so much work getting the stupid ones to marry each other- I should almost let them not all get married so I can play at a manageable level... Almost 100 sims at last count, except when I played today two elder Bupkis' died (okay, I killed them >_>;

I may have to rethink the whole rounds- I play One week of each family in the neighborhood as a round because they all age the same time in TS3 and I can't isolate the gameplay. But they can't have enough life events in that week- I'd rather do the 'next generation baby' idea, but then the other families would all age up too- and I wouldn't get to play everyone.

Does anyone have any ideas...? :/

You just reminded me that I saw one of my Sims sneeze today... >B}

Downloaded FRAPS again and it works like a charm. I don't now what I've done last time, because it is, well, foolproof. XD

I'm now nearly through round 9, which means I'm going to update my blog soon. ^_^



I do have TS3 and play it from time to time, but I'm not that much into it. Would you mind explaining me how you play the challenge exactly? Do you simply turn off 'hood progression and keep changing the active household? But then it wouldn't matter how long you play your rounds, no? I have the feeling I miss something there. :p

So wouldn't it be better for you to play one day rounds? Then you get to see each family more often. But then you will lose a lot of time by the game loading...

I am being overrun with kids. I cannot wait for my simple flu to become an epidemic.

I just had one slave family deliver 3 sets of twins in a row!!! Bringing them up to 13 children!!!

How does that happen?! Just so glad that I don't have T&Q.

http://ditzyekko.blogspot.com/2014/...and-family.html

I also can't believe that I am still in the 1st generation of ROMAN. All the other families seem to be breezing through but my Imperial family is taking their sweet time aging.

Long Live Emperor Cameron & Empress Deja (NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

@DitzyEkko: I've been stuck in 1st generation of Neanderthals for about 2 years lol. Maybe I should get back to playing my ToT hood instead of other maxis neighbourhoods...

Lol the first generation is deceptively easy to breeze through since it's a limited number (though I've neglected my other hoods) but I'm worried about how long my second gen will take.... This is basically the only time I'm thankful for limits on how many family members can be in one household lol. I wouldn't be able to control myself.

ETA: didn't someone say they made a home for teens in the neighborhood and that's how they had more kids in the houses instead of a mod?

I don't know about that extra home for teens, but I do have the larger households mod, so my families are quit big. Plus I tend to godmod a lot so just playing through one day takes about forever..

Personally the only way I manage playing with large families and T&Q is to be absolutely brutal when it comes to killing off sims.

Although it's easier to get through the first gen quickly I tend to lose interest in the early rounds because all the families are at the same/similar stage. I like to have some variety in my game so I prefer playing through the second generation than the first. Looks like my second generation is only going to have 8 households (if that) so it will be more interesting with families at different stages but not much longer when it comes to play time.

I'm the one who made a separate lot for teens although I have the larger households mod as well (meaning lots of babies in later generations even if grandparents and aunts and uncles are still living at home). Honestly my motivations were more about adding more risk to the lives of my teens (there hasn't been a season without a murder on that lot) and having a new system of picking marriages. Taking the teens out of the home lot works with my play-style since I prefer to have 2-3 sims caring for the babies and send the other adults and teens fishing so they don't get underfoot. Also in my houses they have two double beds and a couch so having 8+ child and up sims on a lot doesn't go very well. If you're worried about population or don't kill many sims, even with no larger household mod I'd suggest against it at least until the second generation when aunts, uncles and grandparents will be taking up space on the lot.

Problem is, to kill sims, they have to fight first, but my sims never fight (I godmod too much). But I did read somewhere in this thread that when toddlers grow up unhappy, they tend to fight more often.

Luckily I won't have the problem of too many households in gen 2 either, because I have a lot more girls than boys (only 7/8 boys I think).

I agree that gen 2 will probably be more fun to play because of the differences. I now have 1 family of father and 3 children (the mother died) and that family is a lot more fun to play because of the differences. And a lot easier too with only 4 sims to take care for.

I think an extra household for teens is a brilliant idea! That way households won't be too crowded and it will make the pairing much easier as you can see how the teens react to eachother. Hmm maybe I will go back to my ToT hood for a while to try that.

Sims with low aspiration will attack and often kill their siblings yes. But what about natural causes of death?
Sure fights is the biggest killer in my game but my sims have died from a lot of other causes.
Sickness (with realistic sickness) and starvation kill sims, as does heatstroke if you leave it unchecked. Another big killer is to let fires burn themselves out or just to wait an hour before telling a sim to extinguish.

With fights the main thing I've noticed helps is letting them happen, I used to panic every time sims started arguing and send the aggressor home (I still resort to this to save the only son of a few families) or lock them up and now a lot more fights happen. If you do end up using a lot for teens I'm sure you'll get more fights. Some sims just don't get along and on one season a girl with low aspiration went on a rampage killing two competitors before being killed.

My favorite household to play in the first gen was where the mother died too. They had triplets but two died in fights in their first day as children and the father also took in his lover's three orphans (all but one of them died as children or teens).

See, I haven't had a lot of issues with fighting yet. I'm in I think round 4 or 5 so maybe in time but right now I've only had one death due to fighting, my bigger issue has actually been the social worker coming to take them away because the kids overheat. Before my 1st ToT neighborhood vanished, I had one did from overheating and one family taken by social worker. This time I also had kids taken away and then a very newly pregnant sim starved to death, so I let the guy fight with and kill his mistress's husband, so he married her and then she was able to call and readopt his kids that were taken away.

Then I panicked last night about my teen girls not being able to ever get married because I only have one boy, so I created an orphaned teen boy who lives on his own, and that house is extraordinarily easy to play, so that one is a nice break from all the kids lol.

So now I have all of my sims, and now that I finally have a few aged to teens, I might stop babysitting them so carefully to try to keep them alive.

I don't have any sickness mods or anything. I wasn't sure how they worked. A lot of my sims have flus though, I was thinking about that the other day. It annoys me when they're sick but it's not like they could go to the drug store in the Neanderthal age, so... But since they're only supposed to intentionally die from fights (and I don't have the mods) I just ignored it lol. I need to look into that mod. Can it be turned on and turned off or is the mod alway on once you download it?

I ended up putting in a hack to stop the social worker from taking kids because she always takes all the children and then the child aged ones always wander onto the lot to play with their great nephews or something. Before I had that hack I pretty much lost all the children to the social worker. There are plenty of ways to thin the sim population.

My solution to sims not having enough prospective marriage partners is a competition of some kind not necessarily (although preferably) to the death,

Trying not to babysit sims so much is a good place to start. For me this challenge is all about mixing up my play-style, every attempt turns out slightly different.

The realistic sickness mod is always on once you download it but I never have as much of a problem with my modern hoods because they just make soup. I ended up taking mine out since most of my families only have one son who I have to keep alive. I may reintroduce it down the track as a plague of sorts.

The family who lost a wife in the first round now has 5 babies (quads and a single) plus twin toddlers, that's going to be fun to play through. I'm now kicking myself for not moving the son and his wife into a new lot.

Oh really? Thanks to ACR the wife of the father is pregnant again as is the wife of the son. This house is going to be torture to play through next round. This is why I need to kill a lot of sims.

So, because I bragged about no fighting, two of my kids just gt into a fight! I've met killed off a kid before, will a social worker take my other kids if one dies? :/

Kill it with fire and you'll be fine As long as you keep it's social and hunger up she won't take any other kids.

Looks like my hood's had it All the graves vanished from my graveyard. I'm following all the things to prevent corruption but it still gets me.

Thanks!

I didn't even know graves could disappear!

Neither did I... But turns out it's possible. Oh well the sooner this hood implodes, the sooner I can restart in the roman era.

That still sucks, it's so much work lol. I was annoyed when I had to start my hood over and I had only finished I think two rounds in the first generation lol. I'm considering only doing two generations of Neanderthal just in case something like that happens so I can at least get a little further.

Ended up not having to kill off the loser of the fight, as the social worker came and took all the kids away. :/

Aw that's no good Sounds like you're losing a lot of kids to her. I couldn't imagine how hard it would be to keep kids without the social worker hack.

On the bright side my graves are back :D

Yay!!! Hopefully that means your neighborhood won't implode lol. I can't even imagine starting over again.

Lol yeah, it's the second family now to lose their kids in this neighborhood this time around. Luckily that family had a teen and the mom is pregnant again because there's no way I can get them their kids back. :/

Yeah hopefully . But knowing my luck it'll implode sooner or later. If it does I've already decided to restart in the roman era, I've started from the very beginning too many times.
If you wanted to you could summon them with simblender and move them in, they won't lose their memories or family tree or anything.

Hmm, I don't see them anywhere on the menu in my blender .... Can you propose for children to move in? I didn't realize you could do that.

In related news, I wish my kids weren't all identical lol. The two eldest daughters have the same hair so they're realllllly identical lol

http://sims2storytime.files.wordpre.../02/smith-1.png

Family->Move in [name]

I hate it when that happens. :/ I really like your blog btw your sims seem so interesting

Thank you!

Me too! I've never experienced this before this neighborhood. Literally every daughter looks the same lol. It's so weird.

I found the baby!!! I never knew you could use the blender to do that! I'm so excited lol! I gave them back their baby but they still lost the two that fought.... I'm so annoyed at those kids, I really liked the boy lol

This is probably a silly question but have you been re-rolling the pacifier every-time you start up the game, not doing that leads to clone siblings.

Glad to hear you found the baby Well on the bright side at least you have less sims.

You mean in the create a Sim page? I never knew you had to do that!

oooh, I read about that once, but totally forgot about it hehe.
That does explain the similarities between all of my sims...
Hmm I don't even remember how to roll the pacifier.. I will have to look that up

Edit: @samd440 I looked it up and one way to roll the pacifier is indeed go to Create A Sim and click the randomize button. You only have to roll the pacifier if you've loaded the game.

I had no idea you had to do that ! lol, thanks for the info! I'll have to go do that before the last babies are born...

The other way is before you exit a lot is to go to the bat box and click randomeize. The game pauses and deletes whatever it used on the pregnancy before so the next one doesn't draw of the same identical genetic blueprint.

Oh my gosh. I laughed out loud when I read this. This is one of the things I just love about Sims. Just when you think you have seen everything one of your Sims will behave in a way you never saw before. I find it amazing what computer programmers can do. Some of the most fun I have is when I just let the Sims do their own thing. They make me laugh a lot.

Ditzy, when I get bored with an age, I just shorten the number of generations. It seems that after Neanderthal Age, it gets too long to take between 30-40 family lots through all those generations. I think everyone has made some changes to the rules regarding the number of generations.

I find installing a shorter lifespan helps keeping the generations down as well (if not using inteen for teen pregnancy makes the generations go quicker as well.) Personally I'm only playing 10 generations.

Well hood progression is off (if that's the option 'don't move sims in or out or let them get married' thing), so I suppress opportunities and then jump to a new family each week.
But this far I've still been playing with the first baby of a new generation being the start of a new era- because in rounds it's too easy to not have anyone age up, etc. Although the idea to have shorter lifespans is good... I think I already shortened them though? I have to check.

And nobody gets into a fight, ever...

It would be better, but along with the loading there's the issue of every family getting random garbage in their inventory that I have to delete when I play them. (They get cars, sometimes books worth 1,000 simoleans, and now with Island Paradise installed, they've started to get boats worth 20,000...)

I've concluded that it's not even worth adjusting their incomes aside from at the beginning of an era because they all end up with the same garbage eventually, so my poor people are just ...less rich once I've sold it all.

Plus all the family names are hard to remember and I've changed the wrong family's funds before in trying to compensate.
For example, the Cove family has the following additional surnames now;
Covea, Covre, Coval, Cova.
The rest are;
Saulson= Saulsoria, Saulsonesca
Bupkiss= Bupkissa
Fahadeen= Fahadeena
Edifice= Edifica, McEdifice (in case you were curious)

Well, I've been playing for a few days, the third generation of neanderthals are toddlers, so a few more rotations, and I should be ready to change my hood to Romans. With ACR, inteen, triplets and quads, and larger families, I'm quite up to my ears with sims at the moment. So, I added a rule for myself that at the end of a woman's 4th pregnancy she has a 25% chance of dying in childbirth. The fifth pregnancy increases these odds to 50%, and the sixth to 75%. I don't go higher than 75%. I figure I'll probably keep this rule in throughout the challenge.

ETA: I might have to adjust that rule a touch though, or my teen mothers might not make it out of adolescence. Perhaps the fourth pregnancy after you become an adult? Oh well, something to ponder.

Wow that seems quick compared to some of us who've been stuck in the same era for months (if not years) congrats on your fast progress. I have all those hacks too but since I let (and often encourage) sims fight and put in realistic sickness for a round every now and then my death rate is around 50% so I'm finding the numbers of sims pretty manageable. And most of my families average above 8 kids.

I just had a sim (Alyssa Aelius) with a phantom pregnancy. She delivered twins from a real pregnancy then immediately started going through the pregnancy stages again. I used the ACR adjuster to scan her for a pregnancy (none found). I was terrified of what would happen when she tried to deliver. Would she try to have the same twins again and again and again? Would the game just crash? Luckily, she died of the flu after her 1st baby bump. In that round her sister (Talitha) and niece (Arista) also died of the flu. I'm having another FLU epidemic and I'm LOVING it. The 7 Aelius sisters are down to two (Tullia & Daphne).

The Porphyrius family is killing each other off. Eucio killed Timo. Then Claudia killed Eucio.

And my slave family that reached an astonishing 13 children together (I don't have T&Q) have finally reached elderhood. That hasn't stopped dad from spreading his seed, but it has slowed the growth. Luckily dad (Melvis Manlius) has gorgeous eyes since he is the product of an ACR interaction that I was too distracted to stop and has genes from a maxis family. Melvis' mother is a teenage daughter of Victor & Elisabeth Aspir from Bluewater Village. So Melvis' children are very easily dissernable and have added a little flavor to this drap/incestual world.

Well, being unemployed does mean I have a bit more time to play. I have thought about having a simulated plague run through the hood, but I'm used to playing a lot of sims, and I really want to have a good pop base when I start the Romans.