I don't believe this. I cautiously loaded the Pets 2 collection on my laptop today. Then I opened up my neighborhood and the Davis family. Everything was going along just fine until Moma Davis had her baby, or should I say BABIES? Another set of TWINS, these are 2 girls. So far I've got 4 girls and 2 boys in just 4 families.

@ Sandy ! You poor poor thing !

lol VT I havent loaded any up there yet. I keep forgetting but I will see what I can do just for you :D

the challenge is really fun and well...challenging, but my sims keep turning plantsim after 1 spray on a tree! (trees are evil) and in 1 family it won't stop raining and their children never cool off! grrrrr...somehow I managed to keep the social worker at bay in that family -_-. Twins forever! mwahahahah! (that's all I get) And a daughter killed her brother in the corner, and they were just playing tag!

I'm back ^^ I started playing again this challenge (I saw Hercule on TV and now I really want to play my ancient simmies ^^ ).
Most of my first generation sims are now elders (I think all of them have at least 6 children), while their children are teenagers and have some kids too ^^
I took some photos of some of them.

One of the Afia twins, Anisa (unfortunately, she'll die as a 13 days old teenager).


Her sister, Aliyah.


Their older brother, Dayo.


His wife, Imanu Ime, Adripin and Zerdali's oldest daughter (she's one of my albinous simmies >.> ).


Also, I made some discoveries (I can't believe that I've been playing Sims 2 for 5 years or more and I discover those things now >.>): if a PlantSim (born PlantSim) becomes a human, he'll have different skin color, hair color (his parents had Skin 1 and blond hair, and he has Skin 2 [I think] and black hair >.> ).He'll also keep his elf ears ^^
Oh and ... I have a new dilemma.If the maternal grandmother has Skin 4 and brown hair, the maternal grandfather has Skin 1 and brown hair, the paternal grandmother and grandfather have Skin 1 and blond hair, the father has Skin 1 and blond hair and the mother has white skin (I mean white ... I'm talking about Imanu), how is it possible for the child to have black hair? O.O It breaks all the rules >.> (and I know about recessive genes >.> ).

Oh and ... because more white skinned sims are born in my game, I had a great idea ^^ I will create a new social class in the Ancient times ^^ The Gods ^^

Lady Scarlet, technically plantbabies only have one Sim parent. The spouse of your spawning plantsim is NOT counted as the second parent, an NPC called the 'ideal plantsim' is. This is because otherwise, with only one parent, all plantbabies would look the same. I think of it as like the pollination technician who is the second parent of the alien babies, only the ideal plantsim doesn't show up on the family tree.

Hope this helps clear things up for you.

- VT

Thanks a lot ^^ I never heard about that Ideal PlantSim before, but now all the things seem more clear to me (at least about one of my problems).
But I still don't understand why some of my sims have that white skin and why that kid had black hair >.>

The black hair must have come from the ideal plantsim, because plantsims do retain their 'human' genetics and pass them on to their spawned offspring. I should know, I have several plantsim appearance mods in my game - a multiple ideal plantsim mod and default overlay by Almighty Hat and a no leafy hair mod from here at MTS, so I can actually see the original skin and hair colours. I'll post the links here for anyone interested, as ToT seems to create a lot of plantsims and they may as well look pretty.
Default Overlay
Multi-Ideal Mod (scroll down a bit to see it!)
No Leafy Hair

As for the white skin, are you using any geneticised custom skins? That's the only explanation I can think of - I know at least two other players on this challenge are using them.

- VT

Well, when I said about the black hair, I wasn't talking about my plantsims ^^" I understood what you were trying to explaing me about them.I was talking about a normal boy who was born from normal parents.
As about the white skin ... from what I know, I don't have any geneticised custom skins ... Well, now it doesn't bother me at all, because they will be perfect as Gods in the next stage of my game ^^

P.S. Thanks about the links that you posted.I think I will download some new plantsims for my game, to make my population a little more diverse ^^

OK, then the black hair has me stumped too.

- VT

Gotta ask this question, do we know who is in what stage of the Timeline that's posting here? I know this challenge is a couple of years old, do we have anyone posting from the later stages? Or are we all newcomers who are still dealing with Neanderthals?

Well, I can't response for the other, but I'm playing with my second generation in the Neanderthal period, while my sims from generation one are still alive.
From what I know and I've been reading here, most of us, who are still playing, we are dealing with the first stage or with the second one (lucky users >.> ).

Not all of us are newcomers - but I think most of us are either in the first stage or just starting the second. I'm sort of 'between hoods' myself since I promoted my old Test of Time mashup to PINCH status (Permanent Inclusion Non-Challenge Hoods, the ones I keep around, rebuild if I lose them to glitches and generally love to pieces. VT likes her acronyms.)

Actually, I think I might just give up on the whole 'challenge hood' thing. You won't be losing me though. Since I have serious problems sticking to things (which comes from my over-planning) and the only two PINCHes I have both started out as challenges without my usual overly detailed ideas and then took on a life of their own, I've decided that instead of going into massive detail with hoods before I even start them and then getting bored before I get past the loading screen, I'm going to start every new hood I create with similar conditions to Star's ToTM and let it develop naturally from there.

So I'll still be around, sharing my progress with whatever new ideas I come up with. I'll just be playing an unofficial mashup of the mashed-up rules... or something... yeah.

- VT

Okay, so we are all mostly in the same stage. I was hoping that someone could give me some ideas for houses for the next timeframe, but it doesn't seem that folks are there yet.

Well, it will take you a lot of time to reach the second stage (believe me >.> I've been playing this challenge for over two months and I'm still at my second generation in first stage >.> ; well, it might me so because my simmies had lots of kids ^^" ).
But don't worry ^^ We will post more as we advance ^.~

I have a question...I'm getting ready to move up to Roman times, but is the eldest male in the richest skin 1 family emperor? or the eldest male in the main house of that family? Cuz I had ANOTHER catastrophic fire and my main Fu house has only 1 male (a toddler who will probably be a child when the switch is made) but he has two adult unmarried Fu uncles living nearby

What do I do?

P.S. Little Emperor Mosl Fu's oldest surviving sisters are child-age twins so they aren't really fit to rule either...Ugh, fire!

Interesting quesiton. I took another look at the rules and it really doesn't cover that situation. There have been numerous examples of child rulers throughout history, however.

Now that I'm thinking of toddlers, I've been told that if you buy a pet bed, that a toddler will sleep on it. If I do that, will it count against the number of beds the family can own?

There are; and if the empire had already been established I'd say: "Make the firstborn male toddler emperor and let the evil regencies begin!" But for the establishment of an empire, you really need that strong initial leader.

It's not my business since I'm not doing the challenge anyway, though.

I say make the toddler emperor, but until he's old enough to rule (teen or so) one of his uncles can temporarily hold the position. That's how I'd do it anyway. But then I didn't make the challenge, nor am I playing it by all the proper rules.

Maybe Uncle Esamu or Uncle Traic will steal the throne from Emperor Mosl! I have time to decide...I have quite a few lots to cycle through still

Hi there friends,

' waving' It has been a while since I checked in. There are so many new faces, Hi and welcome.

I am currently playing Neanderthal, Gen 2, day 10 and 11. I am sure glad I split up my clan into 2 groups. 14 couples right now in each clan. The 2 styles in each hood keeps me interested and wanting to play.

I am having loads of fun with my Sea Clan finding all the shells in the sand. It is day 11 in this round. So far each couple have child #2, with Haleste having twin girls. This makes 15 children in gen 3 for the Sha-Ka'ani clan. The tree houses are now expanded to include a large bedroom for the children and the couples are busy landscaping their property with swimming pools and plants. Their decor and furnishings are still simple and sparse. The clan will not have to fish or grow produce anymore since they have a stockpile already. They will concentrate on their social skills to determine who will be the cheiftain of the clan.

The Sand clan are busy digging their way to find a fortune. Their semi- underground huts are working out great to beat the heat. It is day 10 and each couple are waiting or having child # 2. There is a total of 12 children so far in gen 3 in Sha-Ka'ari. The clan are busy expanding their kitchen huts to include a dinning area. Some couples are ready to build a swimming pool and landscape their lots. I am still keeping their furnishings simple and sparse. This clan will have to grow their produce to eat and survive. No fishing ponds will be found in the desert. They will learn how to make pottery to sell in the local bazaar - figurativly speaking. I know - no shops. The children will keep busy building up their bug collection.

This is my progress so far. Keep on Simmin' and see you all later Be sure to check out my weebly page for my progress. Debestfriend4u.weebly.com

Hugs, Debs

On page 2 of this topic I posted that 90% of my toddlers is taken away. It pissed me off more then a little bit and it was bad for the story progression, so I decided to make it a part of the story;

I changed the looks of the social worker so that she would look like a woman from another tribe and made her tribe "steal" the baby's of mine, because of an inborn inability to have babies at the Sowo-tribe (Sowo=social worker). There are two options to get the children back. The first one is to bribe back your baby (the costs per child are $5.000 which are deleted through family funds and can only be paid during the childhood (when turned into a teen, they are too valuable)). The second is for the child to escape himself (or herself); the day the child should turn into a teen, I roll a dice. If I roll 6, the child escapes. Because they should age in the time that they're away, I count the days and add them when they come back. They gained days, but not skills, so they're just as skilled as when they were taken away (which is usually zero).

I know I'm using cheats, which is supposed to be forbidden, but it was no fun anymore after about 30 children were taken away and only 4 reaching adulthood. Two of the families would have died without offspring, which would cause the challenge to fail after only one generation.

I don't have any problems with the occasional cheat to keep the game interesting. I gathered up a few hacked items to make mine more interesting.

If the challenge is no fun, you are ipso facto playing it wrong. The rules are there to facilitate that; they are not a moral imperative. Personally, I think the rival child-stealing clan is a brilliant adaptation to game circumstances.

@DitzyEkko - I'm curious as to how you are playing since you have reached Roman Era so quickly. O_< As far as your question about which male to make Emperor - the richest family are the Emperor family, therefore the eldest male in that family is the Emperor. If you have, for example, say Mum, Dad, and a male toddler as the richest family, then the Dad is the Emperor and the toddler is his heir therefore becomes the Emperor when the Dad dies.

I've played as - my original five starting familes are Gen1, their kids are Gen2, and then their grandkids are Gen3 and it's Gen3 that starts the Roman Era. If that make sense - it's the 2ND lot of kids that are the Roman Era, not the first.

Heres a link to my site - http://tempustemporis.weebly.com

A virus ate my execution files and I haven't been game to try opening the sims2 since it did that for fear they will be DEAD, but ya know~ >_> stuff happens. Before that I was in my last round, 2 families away from the Roman Era, and I'm playing with ST's original rules because they appeal to me the most. ^_^ I wonder if Anna has come back from her traitorous other game (said by the total hypocrite still drooling over TS3 LoL)

taliah~

Virus problems, Taliah? Don't I know how much that sucks. I hope your game is OK. Mine's still kind of nowhere at the moment - I lost most of my CC and have to re-download everything, and boy, is it hard to find anything that suits my tastes. Even harder to find enough of it to build a hood on, since most of what's available is modern or historical. I'm trying to create stuff myself, but not having much luck with it. And the hardest thing of all? Keeping away from the modern stuff when I happen to have a secret love of funny T-shirts. (yes, they're funny, but when will I ever use them?)

OK, complaint over. Time to go trawling through the download pages again.

- VT

@Talia
I'm playing by the rules posted here pretty much. I think I went so quickly be size I lost three if my starting couples very early on which cut down on the number of couples to be played later on ( which is now making pairing up pretty difficult). Also just before Roman stage, I lost a lot more to fire (my sims' first enemy in this game). So probably so fast cuz I suck. Also I crack out on the sims when my baby visits grandma. I also have a problem of living in speed 3 (which is probably why fires get out of hand so quickly) but I can't help it.
Also I did make the toddler emperor, although he was a child when the switch to Roman happened.

VT your pics are up finally ! I only posted a few of them but I hope you like them. Taliah you might have lost all your sims??!!! What am I going to do? You always had the bestest sims that I was always trying to keep up with. It looks like I will have more time to get back to my residents of Tesime. At the end of the month I am quitting the other game I play because its just taking up waaaaaaaay too much time. darkwingeddoll I :lovestruc your Sowo tribe idea ! That is fabUlous ! This is what the sims is all about - working within and around what your own game throws at you. Excellent job.

Crises over - I braved opening my Tempus neighbourhood and they all LIVE hoorah!....and then the bear visited for a snack on 4 of my girls >_>...ok, murphy, the feeling is mutual pal!

@VT - I totally understand, thankfully, after last year's virus attack that really did eat everything, when I redownloaded all my CC I saved it to a flash drive. The only thing I got slack on was backing up the game itself since the beginning of the year (should probably do that now then huh)

@DitzyEkko - not so fab that you lost families, but that's still impressive! well done on making it so far through already, and good luck with your child Emperor ^__^ I don't think the match-up pain can be avoided - I have 13 families and it doesn't make it any easier. Just remember - you can add a new family/cas sim per generation ^_^.

@Anna - you ARE still keeping an eye on things aren't you! LoL quick reply. Apart from the bear attack all sims are accounted for (in one piece too). Thanks for the compliment ^_^ I hope to see more of your sims too! Since I'm playing again I should have an update...soon *tongue in cheek* I thought I only had 2 families left but that was being overly eager, I'm only four families in...um =_= I think that makes 9 (obviously counts real well) >_> moving on...

taliah~

The bear ate 4 of your kids??? I'm a bit confused, what EP brings in bears?

I'm still plugging along with my neighborhood. Thankfully there have been no more sets of twins! I'm up to 10 kids, but only 3 of them are boys.

"The bear ate 4 of your kids??? I'm a bit confused, what EP brings in bears?"

oh that made me really LOL To keep things consistant with the time frame we are playing in, instead of saying the social worker came ( I mean really there were no social workers in caveman time ! ) Taliah called her a bear instead which sounds much more realistic. teehee nope Im never far away. That is great news Taliah !!! I look forward to your update.

Okay, i must have missed seeing where she said that.

Well rats. I've completely lost the Alpha family. I couldn't get and keep the twins cooled down so there they went. Then both parents dropped from heatstroke and passed out for 2 days. Despite everything I could do, first Alice then Andrew died as well. So I'm down to just 4 families.

Oh noes !! Do you have a shelter built Sandy? You really cannot get anywhere without one. If you have them drink 2 glasses of water when they get in the red and then send them to the shelter you should be able to reduce the heat strokes.

Yes, all the beds, crib, potty chair and stall are in a small building. I had all 4 of them in distress at the same time so I couldn't get them all to drink. Then the blessed sink broke and I couldn't get it fixed. I'm working overtime in the other families to prevent this from happening again!

ugh Ive had that happen as well. Just make sure to have a chair or bed inside and when the heat bar goes to red have the sim go sit/relax inside until it goes green again. It will save your sims :-)

That's the most frustrating thing about the sim summer, how easy it is to get heat stroke. I like to watch my sims just prancing around doing their merry thing, but nooo have to shove them all inside every other hour to keep them from keeling over - not so bad with the adults, annoying if you don't want to wipeout your population >_> Funny thing about it though, when I lost my 4 girls the other day it was from ONE kid having heat stroke for all of two mins and BOOM - out they went, yet today I was playing a family and 3 kids had heat stroke, took me ages to get them under control....no bear =_= I guess she was still snacking on the last four *grumble grumble* what?! I didn't REALLY want her to come and eat these bratty kids...maybe...*liar* On to more exciting news...

I finally sent one of my sims out to explore the new Roman Era buildings I've created so that you all can have a sneak peek - if you want! - The buildings are not in their final location and I'm still working on the community clothing store, other than that all personal houses will have to wait until I move a family in. The Colosseum, the Roman Baths, and the Workers Baths can be viewed here http://tempustemporis.weebly.com/collections.html under Roman Era - Buildings.

Yesterday I spent about four hours =_=...oh, I just killed me saying that *face flop to desk* ahem, sorting out partners - it's that whole "everyone is related so good luck finding a spouse for your men that the game will let you MARRY them to!" ever had that before? No? >_> okay just me... AND families - I am so not having 27+ families per round =_= no, just no. (at least not YET). I can't even explain how I did it because it will take forever BUT a few surprises are in store for which families are staying...*shock horror* ohhhh yeeeah and....beware! it's a spoiler! *whispers* who I thought was going to be Emperor is not going to be Emperor I'll "try" *cough* and explain as much as I can when I update...soon...

How's everyone else going? ^__^ Good? Apart from poor Sandy who seems to be suffering population wipeout so early on...keep going Sandy! you can do it!

taliah~

Has anyone chosen to move out their teens to make room in the house for more kids? I'm giving that idea so thought since I'm getting ready for my first teenager. I'm not using cheats, but I am using some hacked items and some mods.

I'm doing that ^^ And most of my families had at least 6 children (or more, without counting the misscariages).Well, because I'm not a very patient person, I also marry the teens when they have 7 or less days to age.

I am moving out the teens that I have mates for but I dont use any hacks or mods so they wont be able to marry until they turn adults. This will help cut down on the amount of decendants I have to deal with. Dont forget you have to leave the heir on the parents lot.

Taliah your buildings are excellent ! I hope you will have clean versions of them saved so they can be downloaded Im going to hold off on building any yet since Im still pretty far out from starting the next era.

Forgot to say what Ive been doing lately. I just finished off the Stonegates last night and have their pics ready to work on my blog update. There are only 2 original families left to play before I start in on the new teenagers lots. That should be exciting. I had moved out 2 sisters on one lot while I was trying to sort everyone out and the intended mate for the oldest girl dropped by. What does he do? Follows the younger sister and gets the pink hearts over his head while doing the "hot" finger sign Bloody sims and their free will !! Since I dont really play sims scandalously this might actually be an interesting story line to go with

Hi friends,

I am glad to see all of your progress. I love the SoWo tribe storyline. I used the women stealing from other tribes in my begining scenario. Hi Taliah, I am glad you are pulled back into the light from the dark side (sim3 and viruses.) The bear attack was quite cleaver as well. Such a cleaver group we all have become here. I dont know why I have not lost any Sims from heat stroak, the dreaded Sowo tribe and bears, or fires. Maybe I am not playing this challenge right? But alas, I keep plugging along and having fun with the dreaded cowplant in my Sand clan eating the townies; wonderful creation, that cowplant. Star and I came up with a thinning out plan for our next phase with the Roman/Egyptian era. It will be a blast. But that will be in the future. I decided to just have the max of family members on each lot and not move the kids out this time. Although my clan are still not married yet. I will try to have the men go astray the last few rounds to shake them up a bit in genetics. I want to fights to break out in my hood to start again. It has been to quiet and peaceful these past few rounds. 'wink'

I am currently playing Neanderthal era, Gen 2 couples, day 12 with both my Clans growing by leaps and bounds. I have 15 gen 3 in the Sea Clan and I have 16, gen 3 in the Sand Clan. All my women are expecting round # 3 now. I had a set of twins in both the Sand and Sea Clan this round. The first group in gen 3 are now child age and going to school. (wistfully wishing there was a "No school" cheat here) I would home school them in survival skills instead, or wish they had the summer days off. The sea clan are learning architecture (building sand castles) and fire dancing while the Sand clan are learning pottery and gold jewlery making. This will set up my future era storylines.

Well, keep on Simming and hope to check back with you later.
Hugs, Debs

Hey everyone, I'm still here. I just haven't been feeling too good lately and between that and having very little CC... well. This week is going to be dedicated to learning to recolour and mesh so I can make things myself. Just not today, I was up into the early hours and I need some shut-eye now.

Anna, thanks for the pictures. They really have some incredible views over there! That's an interesting potential storyline you have there. This is why I don't pre-plan who's going to marry who, by the way.

Debs - not playing right? Maybe you're just a more careful Simmer. As for the school thing, there are hacks that can keep kids at home, but if you don't trust hacks (and I can understand that, because I didn't not too long ago) you can always do what I used to do and pretend it represents something else, like they're out gathering food or learning the ancient lore of the tribe from the elders or sneaking off to play by that creepy cave their parents always say not to go near... I might go back to using that myself for one of my hoods. As for the homework, you can just sledgehammer it anyway and it counts as done, so don't worry about fitting that into your storyline.

Great to be back. But now it's time to go night-night (even though it's 8:25am over here).

- VT

VT, I see you're a night owl too. I work midnights so I'm always up all night long. As to playing, I haven't done much of that. I downloaded a unofficial expansion pack that I really love having, but it has a minor drawback of upping the toddler skilling by 10 times. And I really don't want that for this challenge (or the other one I'm playing either) So I'm waiting for the creator of the pack to get back to me with the mini fix he said he'd make for me. Until then, VP doesn't get to play her challenges

LoL @ your naughty sims Anna, they're breaking out! Sims rarely are the monogomous type aren't they; one minute they swear undying love and the next it's "ooh look at him/her!" *whoosh!* gone... >_> moving on then. On the up side, I do have a few sims that are so besotted with each other it's like they're the only two sims in the world, awww

On to more exciting news - somehow (playing every spare minute she gets) I've managed to near the end of the Neanderthal Era - hoorah! I just have one family left to play (yes really this time!) and then it's lights out for the Ooga-boogas and wrangling them into some Roman Class (mission impossible I'm sure). What I'm doing now is updating each family and then I'll be writing up a summary of what happened each round; it's going to drive me insane I'm sure, but I'll be thankful for it later on; like I'm glad I built all those buildings already - except the Roman Emperor's Palace =_= the biggest most difficult one and I have yet to build it (makes them live in a shack)

taliah~

*big wave to Debs and VT*

Hi everybody! Ok, I really like this idea. I haven't played the sims 2 in a good 3 years or so due to an insufficient computer, but have got it up and running and noticed all of these wonderful challenges. I am going to adapt upon it a bit, I don't want to make myself follow rules. Before when I was in school and played I would always play the same family, so it may be a challenge switching them often, but that's the point I guess, lol. So I am going to use the basic concept and start my own but I have a few questions for those of you who are in the Roman era/ end of Neanderthalls. I'm really picky about naming sims, yet I want them to match the time period. I'm concerned with how the names adapt to the next era? I don't want to name my sims very Caveman-ish and then that name stick when they're in the Roman period... I guess I could pick decent last names and just make the first name match their time period though. Does anyone else feel like I do, and do you think once I get close to the Roman period and start giving them Roman-ish first names during the last gen of the Neanderthalls it will make sense... Sorry if I'm confusing

You can always start by giving them "caveman" last names at the beginning and when you reach each new era change the last names with something (in-game cheat, Sim Blender, SimPE) so that they match. I don't have this particular issue b/c like VT, I've gone and made my sims non humans. Just realized I'm going to have to give the eras appropriate names when i get back to playing and start posting since Neanderthal, Roman, etc don't exactly work for my crash landed aliens... Eh, I'll do that later. Just got the fix i needed to be able to play so I'm off to do that. ~VP

cksmith, this object is my best friend when it comes to naming. One thing you could do with last names is gradually evolve them with each generation, so that over time the names will become closer to the 'flavour' of the next era. (I'm a name geek myself, but I have trouble coming up with them, so I've never actually done that myself - might work for you though)

What I do with the neighbourhood formerly known as VT's Test of Time Mashup Hood is this: since in the mashed-up version it can be hard to keep track of which Sims are the parents of which children, I give the kids the names of both parents as a last name. My five kids so far are Dragon Vortex-Wildfire, Cheetah Kelly-Snake, Stone Banshee-Scorpion, Pegasus Mist-Zip and Arrow Spark-Claw. Word names are very common in my mutant apocalypse. Of all my founders, only Kelly kept her 'human' name. She hasn't said why yet.

- VT

Welcome CKsmith ! I hope you have fun with us here as you navigate the Test of Time challenge. Your question is a valid one and I would think boolprop would solve your issue nicely. Please note I have only used boolprop once so I cannot be held responsible for any errors this causes in your game. This is what I found:


I have named my sims normal human names and plan on having them go thru the eras. Personally I think this will be so very interesting to track. Finding clothes and hairstyles to match the next era is going to be enough of a challenge for me lol and of course the fact that we will have jobs again. Ive gotten so used to doing nothing but fishing and farming for months that Im not sure how to juggle it all again

You've hit the nail on the head Anna! I didn't even think about all the new stuff they would do, I just merrily went along transforming them all into Roman sims into their new Roman world and it is SO much fun *uber excited* I've played two families already and oh my goodness @__@ trying to watch 8 sims do stuff that is suddenly so "interesting" after a year of watching them do practically "nothing"...I can't keep up! I should have my website updated over the course of today since there was just so much drama going on already; I suspect it will level out *hopefully* after the first round... =/ otherwise this era is going to take a looong time ^__^

As for the naming theme - I've done what I felt most comfortable with, and it may not be historically accurate, or even just plain weird depending on what part of the world you come from *is from OZ* but my Neanderthals I went really old school with and did mostly Ancient German, though saying that with a lot of the names it's just unusual/original spelling of modern latinized names. With my Gen3 kids I tried to keep the names fairly neutral, but just think - I have older relatives born 3/4 century ago to 1/2 century ago with what I would consider "old fashioned" names, so it's not too hard a stretch to have Neanderthal Era names overlap in Roman Era times for one generation. As for my Roman Era names, when in Rome...I'm going Italian yay ^__^

taliah~

Im not completely understanding... how do you get the ancient decor and such? is it custom? and people were talking about having a heat need? where on earth is that?

OMG Taliah !!! You are onto the Roman era already??!!! Shouldnt there have been lightning bolts from the sky, the world skip a day or something equally monumental happen? I cant WAIT to see what you come up with. Now that you all have mentioned names I guess I am going to have to consider this as well. Maybe my concession can be more suitable first names and the standard surnames. Of course dont forget we get to add new sim(s) along the way and they can have the more modern names to integrate along.

Octavia we will build our own decor to match the era we are in as well as download custom stuff that might suit. The heat stroke came with Seasons - you can freeze in the cold or overheat in the warmth. If you dont have that EP I higly recommend it.

I've been playing TOT :D
 

Hey guys,
I'm Lizz and I posted in the Sims2.com BBS, but just in case no one reads that very often I thought I'd start communicating here. I've been playing my TOT neighborhood since March. I'm just entering the Roman Era and am playing a classic version of the challenge, with a few different twists. For example, during the Roman Era I created a few of the Roman/Greek Gods for fun. For the most part they won't have any effect on the neighborhood, except for being friends/enemies with the sims and fathering just a few children.
Also, I created an Egyptian part to my city. My families include the Shezan's (Skin 3, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Arab looking type people), The Froders (skin 1), the Pushkins (skin 1 & 2), and two African families named the Doli's and Raisa's. I've created 2 CAS's just entering the neighborhood named Helen Cerilinae and Ghalib Junaid. My other new sims for this period ended up coming from NPC's but I only choose one's with appropriate names with the right looks. The only last name that was gained from those are the Charvat's.
I love Sims 2, but this challenge renewed my passion for it! Im loving it and if I ever start anther challenge like this, I'd do it with another planet theme like some of you are doing.

Yes, the ancient(Roman) decor is Custom Content (CC). If you browse through the downloads here, you'll come across quite a bit. As for the heat need, do you have Seasons? In the summertime, if your sim stays outside too long, they get overheated and need to drink water from sink. If you don't do that, they will have a heatstroke and pass out. Then another sim will need to "dowse" them to wake them back up.

BTW, welcome to all the newcomers playing this challenge!

Welcome Lizz ! Im glad you posted here because its been awhile since Ive been over to the BBS. The last time it did seem it was back to moving quickly again. Too bad it took so long tho and we moved over here. ST really created a great challenge and Im sure she would be delighted to see how many of us still are playing it ! Do you have a blog or website where you show your progress? Even the BBS would work for uploading stories or pics *hint,hint* lol

LoL Anna, there WERE lightning bolts from the sky didn't you see?! And we're expecting a thunderstorm tomorrow - what next. I can hardly believe it still myself, yet somehow here I am in the Roman Era. I played all day Sunday but had to work all day Monday and it took me all afternoon to update today because so much happened, and now I'm off to bed looking forward to the morning when I can finally start playing again! (addicted much?!). I think last I checked you still had a gen to get through right? Keep going! It's well worth it!

Good to see the challenge just keeps increasing in popularity too.

taliah~

I just spent the morning going thru your new update Taliah ! I love what you have done so far with the buildings. I think you are going to have an over abundance of babehs again if you let them do as they please LOL You have given me lots to look forward to.

ahh ok and yes i have seasons, but i wasn't aware of the heat stroke. Thanks

Ok, another quick question, does anyone have any neanderthall pregnancy outfits? I found all sorts of other stuff, including other clothes, so my sim woman is quite out of place in her t-shirt while the dad wears his caveman clothes. I've searched and searched with no luck...

This Download is what I use for my hoods. I don't know if it'll work for you but it's the closest I could find here.

- VT

Help me stay strong here, folks. I'm getting so frustrated with all the little brats (babies and toddlers!) that I'm starting to consider aging them all to children! I am used to having nannies to care for them at this stage and it's hard doing without them!

Oh thats a cute outfit VT ! I just used undies for my sims when they were pregnant which I thought worked well since they are in the tropics and dying of heat lol Nooooo Sandy !! Keep at it. It wont take long for them to grow up. The best part of this challenge is playing differently then I usually do so I am experiencing new things.

Really? Most of us find nannies frustrating and useless.

First trick to managing lots of toddlers: leave toys and pet mats/toddler rugs scattered around. In a Neanderthal setting the pet dishes also make gobs of sense! If you have an activity table that fits acceptably with your "prehistoric" theme, they can also take care of their own fun and social needs. And make sure they have a nice cool interior to retreat to so they don't get heat stroke! Then all you have to do is stay alert for when they need to be potty-trained. Since your cavemen aren't going to jobs and leaving them alone, that fixes the social worker. With babies, feeding them and changing diapers is all you really need to worry about. If you feed the baby as soon as he's born and put him into the crib, he'll eventually cry for a diaper change; change the diaper, feed him, and put him back to bed. It's suboptimal, but all their basic survival needs will be met.

Second trick: It takes a village. Children can play peek-a-boo and teach the nursery rhyme. Teens can do everything adults can do. The toddlers may want to interact primarily with their parents, but they'll soon become devoted to older siblings, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and visitors who interact with them. This is how it's done in real hunter-gatherer tribes, too - the adults go about their business, the kids run around, and when the kids need something they can't do for themselves, or discipline is required, the closest adult deals with it.

Third trick: If you don't have support adults and teens, invite some! Visitors are great when you have small children. I don't recommend influencing them to cook (this only ever has two results in my game: Instant Meals, or a complaint that there isn't enough fish to make the dish the visitor picked), but they can and will cheerfully repair things, clean up, and interact with whoever you think is getting neglected. Toddlers can even ask for attention and food from them, and influence them to play with other toddlers! In a pinch, you can run out to greet a random walk-by, but established friends and relations work best. If you use Social Groups and ask people on an outing, "Just for Fun" to take place entirely on your lot, they'll hang around gabbing with each other, eating the meal you set out, and doing what you influenced them to do even while the person who invited them is asleep!

One of the benefits of this challenge is learning to do things in different ways, so embrace it and experiment.

Edit: Silly me, you can't invite people without the phone! Better stay alert for Walk-bys, then. Is ACR installed? When people drop by for Booty calls see if you can divert them to childcare. It's only fair.

I've got that stupid rabbit sitting in the room for the toddler to play with, so that's taken care of. Will they really eat from the pet dish?? I don't have AL so will toddler still nap on pet mat? I'm still holding on but it's getting hard in some households.

AFAIK napping on pet mats came with Pets, not AL; someone else may know better. Put one down and see! And yep, they'll eat kibble! Shovel it down, grinning from ear to ear, and killing their hygiene score, but the Family sims around them are going to obsessively bathe them anyway and a kid who's too clean is a kid who's not living right.

Peni ! What great tips. I find the babies are no trouble at all. Leave them in the crib like you say and they are fine. Toddlers can sit and play with a toy for hours on end and only get interrupted when they need food, potty training, changing or sleep. You dont even need to teach them to talk and walk if you dont want too. Practice makes perfect Sandy lol You can do it !

Ah, my skin 1 father just became a plantsim!! Have you guys ever had this happen? Now I have to decide whether to leave him like that or buy a phone real quick and call the garden club... As you can tell, this hasn't ever happened to me before, I was never into gardening when I used to play.

Oh and thanks for the link to the Castaway Maternity, she fits in much better now

The opinion of the person watching from the peanut gallery is that this is an opportunity not to be missed. Plantsims would be a huge boon to their families - able to work tirelessly producing food without consuming any, immune to heatstroke (am I right about that? I haven't had a plantsim yet), and aren't they functionally immortal? I'd make him a shaman, his family gaining status, everybody hanging on his wisdom as he gets older and older. You could even structure the start of civilization around his story - either he's the future emperor, and the social classes are built around the relationship of different families to his, or somebody resents and rebels against his dominance and sets up a rival faction that overcomes his Old Religion commie-hippy way of life and sets up the Empire. All kinds of story threads could lead out from developments here.

Even though I know they didn't have phones back then, I use them anyway b/c they still wrote letters and sent messages by word of mouth to their relatives. When one of mine turned into the plant sim, I called the Matchmaker (from NL) or Garden Club for the potion and then replaced the money into the family's simoleons using the kaching cheat, or the familyfunds one.

I don't know anything about them either, other than tidbits I've read here and there. Can he still father normal children? None of my sims have even had children yet, he does have his girlfriend pregnant though... If he can still father regular children, then I guess I might leave him like this, as I did notice he only needs Sunlight, Water and Love, that would be easier to handle. If he can only have plant kids I'll have to buy the potion though

cksmith, he can still have kids the normal way, don't worry

and peni, i love your idea for what to do with him and your tips on the babies. i already use most of them for my normal games, but then hearing them squall at me from cribs for hours b/c the adults NEED a little sleep and constantly watching their hunger bar gets annoying. so they sleep on blankets on the floor and eat from the automatic pet bowl i DLed from somewhere. Although i never thought of inviting people over for childcare... might have to start doing that. ~VP

Wow, so much activity lately! I can barely keep up!

cksmith, you're welcome. I do try to help out the other players here as much as I can.

Peni, you are one brilliant sideline observer. Plantsims aren't actually immortal, but I love the idea you've come up with. Reminds me a bit of my Nuidya tribe, the four-and-a-quarter year old hood I named my account after. All supernatural species are revered by the Nuidya (which is mainly why the only one in the hood at the moment, alien boy Zareb, is frontrunner for the position of Shaman Viru's apprentice - Viru's daughters are using that as an excuse to take every opportunity to fight for the attentions of Zareb's older brother). While they don't have any divisions of class, race, gender or anything like that, they do acknowledge that different people have different talents, and so it would make perfect sense for a plantsim (if I had any there) to take on the role of shaman or herbalist or something similar.

I'm in the process of rebuilding the hood (again) and I have briefly kicked around the idea of adapting either the original or mashed-up challenge to it, but then I remembered that the Nuidya don't have or like cities, technology or any form of social status except the Kenja, or chief of the tribe, and I don't particularly want to change that as it's part of what makes the hood what it is - so as soon as classes came into play I would have a major problem on my hands. I'd love to be able to share what's going on there with my ToT friends without going off topic, but I have no idea how it would work once it got past the Neanderthal age...

- VT

ETA: I've just thought of something. MATY has practically everything from the old Castaway Stories game extracted, and I have the lot of it in my own game (used for the aforementioned Nuidya, BTW). It suddenly came to me - maybe while reading Sandy's post about the rabbit - that some of it might be useful as less anachronistic replacements for some of the game objects during the Neanderthal age. Just thought I'd post this little nugget of information in case anyone found it useful. I'm here to help!

I dont bother with spraying the trees so I never turned anyone into a plantsim. Ive also never played one before ! hmmm maybe that means I should turn one into a plantsim ! One of those old men who dont have a mate might have a new story line now lol I do use the ladybug houses to cut down on the bugs for my plants because lets face it ladybugs have been around a lot longer than chemicals in a container lol In the rules it does state you can buy the potion to turn them back to human but since we are all doing our own take on this challenge it is really up to you what you would like to do.

Peni I think you should join the players and get off the sidelines You would have an amazing civilization for sure !

Hmmm I may have to use the ladybug houses so it won't happen to any other sims. The father that became the plant sims was already going to be my ruling family. I've only two families at the moment. The skin 1 (now plantsim) male and female, and the skin 4 male and female. Neither are married but have the same name as their "boyfriend" as I made them together in CAS. I figured I'd introduce the concept of marriage in a few generations. I am going to introduce more CAS sims later, I plan on making it seem like they've left their previous tribe for this one. I don't want to play more than two right now since it has been so long since I played, I've forgotten quite a lot actually lol. I looked at some of you alls websites last night and got a lot of good ideas. I wonder is it hard to set up a blog site like that and is it free? If it is easy and free I may look into it, that is if anyone would be interested in following mine anyways....

Peni appreciates the compliment but is way too involved in Drama Acres to commit to this at this time, thank you! I have to occasionally write something somebody might be persuaded to pay me for, do housework, and play with my tabletop RPG group, you know.

Setting up a blog is in fact easy and free - just look at how many people do it! Take your time and look at a number of different platforms. Google, Weebly, LiveJournal, WordPress, probably a dozen others are all about equally easy to use overall. It's just a matter of which one you find most intuitive, which looks best to you (not all are optimized for all browsers; Google won't let people on some versions of Explorer see the picture in my blog header, for example), and which is most accessible to you and those you wish to communicate with. The easiest way to start is to follow the links on blogs you like to the host platform, and seeing what they have to offer.

And I think I speak for everybody here when I say that, anybody who wants to post blogs about their sims games also wants to read blogs about other people's sims games. At minimum, I suspect anybody who hangs out in this thread would at least go give it a look. But if you want people to keep coming back, you need to keep giving them new stuff to look at. Better a lot of little posts once a week than one ginormous post at irregular intervals.

lol Peni I will keep at you. Either way its good to have you here to chat with ! You are an honourary member of the ToT'ers You are a writer ! Make no wonder you come up with such great ideas. Whats Drama Acres about?

CK I use blogger.com and it seems really easy to use tho I do love the layout of the Weebly sites as well because it has different tabs for other pages. Ive yet to sort that type of thing out with my blog. Sign up with one and play around with it. We will come and look for sure. Ive been slack with updates but hopefully that will change now.

Outerwear!
 

I've been finding some appropriate outerwear for my sims, but none for Teen males and very little for other males and elders. Where have you all found period appropriate outerwear?

Im still in summer mode for all 4 seasons so I havent had to worry about outerwear yet. Sorry I couldnt be more help.

lizz2034, I don't know what era you're in, but this site is helpful for the later ones (not that I'm anywhere near those yet)

http://www.all-about-style.com/themes.html

Then, there's

http://www.parsimonious.org/fashion...131639693.shtml

You might end up having to add everyday clothes to outerwear in bodyshop.

Oh I cant wait to get to these fabulous styles of dress ! Great links tigerygurl.

OMG, this challenge sounds so cool. I´m definitely going to try this! (when I've finished reading all about it, and I think that will take a while...)

Try just reading the general information and the stuff on the Neanderthal stage. Once you get going and are close to moving on, then read the Roman stage rules.

oh well
 

Unfortunately, I went to those sites before I asked in here. And they don't have much if any outdoor wear for most historical stages, and they definitely don't have any for teen males. I just downloaded the wardrobe wrangler last night and I've never really used bodyshop before, but I'm excited to learn. That's one area of sim playing that I haven't touched on yet.

I agree with Sandyjs. You can read what other stages there are, but don't read the details of each stage just yet. I skimmed over the Roman Stage before I started the Neanderthal era just to know what types of things I was getting into, but don't worry about the rest.
I'm glad you're joining us! This challenge is so much fun, no matter how you play it!

Adopting kids
 

The thing that annoys me is that they only remain on the family tree until their adopted by someone else, then they're added to their new family's tree as if they are related to them. I found this out with the very first child i lost to social services. I had my other african family adopt her so it wasn't a big deal, but it was annoying because she eventually married her own brother (from her original family) and i knew they were related even though the game didn't recognize them as such.

Lizz2034, sorry there weren't any male teen historical outwear If you do try Bodyshop, good luck!


Lizz2034, I've only had two sims taken by the social worker, and that they're still on the family tree annoys me too. So, I decided to pretend that the family wasn't sure what happened to their children, and that's why they think they're still alive (they're hoping their kids are well and will come back to them (though we all know they won't)). Pretending has helped me a lot in this challenge. :D

I decided to make a lil' website for my challenge! ('cause I copy the cool kids). Here's the link if you're interested, it's unfinished and lacking pics (so you can ignore that) http://testoftimetigerystyle.weebly.com/

Thanks for the advice guys, I'm just going to start it right now!

Edit: I've started the challenge and it's so much fun! The first child of the second generation is born! I've posted the photo's on my site, like everyone here does. This is the link: http://lifesachallenge.weebly.com/

So I lost all of my progress I went to install free time and some stuff packs I didn't have and ended up having to reinstall all of the expansions and stuff packs. Oh well, I'm hoping to restart tonite or tomorrow as I'll be off work. I did get a weebly site started but will have to restart my simmies before I have anything to add lol. Can't wait, I've decided to change some things I had started too, and will use ladybugs so I don't have any more plant sims. Does anyone know how many plots the lady bugs cover?

What a bummer! I'm finally nearing the end of round 4 with gen 2 teenagers so I'll be updating my weebly site soon with those updates.

Whoa, What?! The ladybugs actually have a purpose?

Yes! The ladybugs are there to eat the bad bugs so you don't have to spray. This is why I have a bunch of dedicated gardeners and no plantsims, apparently. They don't seem too effective against tree bugs, but I've found that there's a limited window for tending and spraying trees, and if you miss that window for spraying, the tree is likely to get itself healthy again pretty soon. At least, when there's a ladybug house around. I've had ladybug houses and compost heaps from day one (I'm an organic gardener IRL, too, insofar as I garden at all), so I've been sitting here wondering why y'all didn't automatically put them in.

The "no fertilizing" rule is bogus by historical analogy, btw. Virgin soil is the very best, and compost (well, manure/the slopheap; same thing) was the first fertilizer. Well; maybe crop rotation was.

Yes! It covers one plot. I use them all the time.

I am just here to answer easy questions others ignore.

One plot? Surely not. I've never had a bug problem for more than an hour and I only have multiple ladybug houses when the garden is split up with trees and garden on opposite sides of the lot. I've got some sizable gardens, too. But I have no idea how much coverage they're supposed to supply; I always figured I'd buy a second one when the garden started getting buggy. The Hawkinses have, let's see, six or seven plots with a scarecrow and the ladybug house in the middle; probably the farthest plot the ladybugs have to cover is three spaces away.

I've started getting teenagers now on my lots which is making some of them quite crowded. I picked up AL on the first and thought perhaps I'd use some Hobbit holes as apartments for the extras teens. Do you folks think those would fit in with the Neanderthal theme? I do want to increase the number of families I'm playing for Gen 2 but I still want to keep them under control Any thoughts or suggestions?

teens on their own lots
 

Any way to play with teens is game, I say, because teens back then were adults and able to procreate. I sometimes kept them in the family if I had room, or needed the extra help for the toddlers. I've only recently started moving teens out and into lots with their love interests, or with their other teen siblings. About inheriting money....I'm not a stickler about it unless the sim is male or if there is only a couple that I know I will marry off on the lot. If there are sims from more than one family who won't necessarily marry eachother or are not siblings, than I just let them live off of what money they can produce with a modest home until I reset each of their simoleans with a cheat when the time comes to move them out onto their own lots.

I've seen somebody's ToT challenge blog with them using apartments made up like caves, so at least you wouldn't be the only one doing it. Extended families have tended to live in compounds in lots of cultures, and in hunter-gatherer bands the nuclear family isn't the important unit, the tribe, clan, or other extended family group is, so apartments with a big central common area would be appropriate for almost every stage of this challenge. You'd just have to account for the landlord, and would be well-advised to make only four-unit buildings, as otherwise you'll have random neighbors infesting your community space and, sometimes, your apartments.

Re: Ladybug houses. It appears to cover two spaces, in a perpendicular line. Last night I happened to be playing the only house in which the ladybug house isn't in the middle, and noticed that one, and only, plot wanted spraying - the one that was two spaces away diagonally. If you arrange your plots as a square torus with the ladybug house in the center you get a lot of bang for your buck out of that house.

Im back!! Yay! I've been on holiday for ages but now I can finally continue with the challenge! It's great to see so many more people have joined this challenge while I've been gone

SilentFootprints

Welcome to the challenge Floor1304! I think you will have a lot of fun here. Are you a Clan of the Cave Bear fan by any chance??! Congrats on the website tigergurl. I will be sure to keep my eye on it for your updates CK UGH Im sorry to hear of your loss. Can we say at least you were only at the beginning or does that not help any lol

Re the tree spraying - I dont bother to spray the trees at all. I just leave them be until they are ready to harvest and then I get one of the gold talent badge in gardening sims to "talk to" the tree to have it thriving before I harvest for the most profit. Same goes with the plants as well actually. I just make sure to tend and water when needed. I generally make a garden 3 or 4 wide and then 5 or 6 long and I use one ladybug station on each end. That seems to do the trick.

Sandy the way I dealt with teens was - I matched up the teenagers into mates and moved them out to their own lots alone ( this will help the speed of the round since there will only be 2 sims per lot - I wont know what to do with so few sims ! LOL ). At the beginning of the next rotation I will add and play their lots last. Since I dont have any hacks they will spend the time getting to know each other and wait until adulthood before they can have kids. This will help keep my population down as well ( I hope ! ) If someone turns into a teen while Im playing the lot I leave them there until I finish the whole round and look at setting up matches again for mates. Dont forget you need to have your heir stay on the family lot so dont move everyone out. The new family will get the same house as the males parents had and they get the same amount of money as what the parents have per the rules. Since I havent actually started to play any of the new lots yet I havent dealt with the money. You can alter the challenge to suit you so if you want to use hobbit holes and it suits the rest of your 'hood then go right ahead.

Welcome back Silentfootprints! Did you go somewhere nice for your holiday?

Cant log on to server
 

I haven't been able to okay because I keep getting the error message, 'cannot log on to server'. Is anyone else playing via a digital download? What do I do? Ive been locked out for a while and am not finding help on EA's website.

But in gameplay, I have thoroughly enjoyed such things as stairs, showers, easels, pianos, lights...Roman era rocks! Also loving the clothes!

Please help with log in issue. I'm jonesing for my simmies

Yes I am! How did you know? I'm currently reading the first book (in Dutch, so I don't know if the names are the same in English.)

I haven't been able to play the sims for a while, because my computer sort of crashed, but luckily I had made a back-up of my sims game the day before. I've reïnstalled the sims on my new laptop, so there will be a new update on my site (lifesachallenge.weebly.com) soon.

teehee as if there was any question with your sims names ! I was scanning thru them and didnt notice, then I saw Mog-ur and thought hmm that sounds familiar and then I saw Creb and I said heeeeeeeey wait a minute ! Loved the series. Ive read them all. It did tend to get a little long at the end of it ( the series not the first book ! that was excellent !). She actually has another out now - the land of the painted caves. I have added it to my librays digital downloads so I can read it on my ereader. I am constantly amazed that Jean was able to come up with such a vivid well thought out world. I have full intents of going back to the beginning and reading them again. Smart girl to backup !! I think I will do that now too - just in case :-)

Old to Sims; New to Challenges
 

Hi! I just started this challenge today and it seems really fun! I've never gone more than five generations of Sims, but I really want to try this time. So just wanted to stop in and say Hi!