you can also try a screenshot program if you really want nice pics. (I had to get one b/c the mods didn't like my blurry pics taken with the in game camera for uploads). I use Fraps. Its saves the pics in any directory you want and you can set it to use any F# key you want (mine uses F8 since I knew there was no game command on this one) And its free, unless you want some of its additional features ~VP

teehhee thats going to be my husband's motto from now on ! Thanks JJD ! Great tip about Fraps VP. I might check out what thats all about.

Day 8 M - P TOT
 

Epicureans Day 8
Well the problem with the photos is that I have two problems...old computer (so I run on soso settings ....and the illness "Fundsarelow" Hopefully a cure will come


A death in the family. RIP Loammi Epicurean the pleasure loving, wannabee artist, mother of three (somewhat negligent) and estranged wife of Hosea. Then again Lo-ammi means "not mine" maybe she figured that out.

The illness - the heat and the food exhaustion got to her, and lead me to one of the most challenging days of play in my memory - trying to keep Hosea alive. He had to do it all - fish - no food - gather in the tomatoes before they died on the vine, all while in huge aspiration failure and with red in almost every category. He made it, barely. Now the trick will be keeping his activities to a minimum. Fish and plant at night - lay out bottles - sorry kiddies - you're in for a rough life. I don't see the throne of Testotime Land in this family future - but you never know.



Oh oh..Loammi going down...


The child keeps pops from begging with the Reaper..oops.



The smell of death - diapers and spoiled bass fill the air.


Doule Day 8
Another child was born - and another son -females seem to be a rare item thus far - so family growth may be rather limited. A fairly good day. Silver rating on gardening will offer a lot of variety in planting - which should help. After the drama next door a quiet day was needed. A new baby is on the way.



Ahh a new baby...



Okay...you watch him, time to eat some rotten fish.

Quick rundown on the rest .....
Cain - no drama as there are no photos - I try to take em at least to remember...

Bailey - almost a death - lots of red #'s and heatstroke. Almost the second P clan wiped out...almost.

Anderson's a new baby another boy.



And I can woohoo anytime...... that you want.

10/11 babies are male....my cousin who has son fixation (she has three daughters and would like to balance the herd) needs to maybe eat some really spoiled bass... that's my conclusion.

Hell - they're all mine....but I don't want to hear any more whining so I'll shut up.

Like i said before, Fraps is free to use and your pics will look exactly like what you see on screen. You can crop them in any graphics editing program, even paint. ~VP

Day 9
 

Day 9 - No pics sorry tis late

Epicurean
The task is staying alive - and the remants of this family are not out of the woods yet. By the time the two toddlers and the infant are taken care of - and what little food is consumed the whole process seems to start over again with little time left to fish - which is out other than for some rancid pieces atop the roof (in the trees) so it can't be cleaned up. Luckily the twins move up to child - which will allow them to hopefully be a bit more independent and actually help with fishing.


Duole Family


Family is doing moderately well without too much in drama. Having only two youngsters makes it easier. Nothing much to report other than a day of taking care of infant/toddler - tending the gardens and fishing.


The Cain Family
Struggling a bit with the twins and the youngster - but managing to keep their heads above the water. Aspiration failure is possible as the two knowledge sims stuck in Paleozoic eras are basically screwed. Wife is constantly in red/orange with the pregnancy.

Bailey
Wife is out of the danger zone and twins - and yes a female infant was born. Female children are prize possessions as only two are in existence. The natural allies of this clan are the Epicureans and since they each have a daughter to give out these two clans have a decent chance of having pairs.

Anderson
Family is doing well - having two children with two adults makes it easier - a cakewalk compared to the Epicureans. Amy is far along in her pregnancy and though a bit orange at times - seems to be okay.

It is so much harder than it looks isnt it? Do you have a building so they can at least get out of the heat?

Allrighty, my first Gen 3 kids are being born and I realised I haven't ever introduced my families to you. Shame on me. My screenshots are pretty meh since I usually use the in-game camera, so I better don't include any.

I named my five starter families after the five taoist elements of fire, water, wood, metal and earth. The first names of the first two generations come from animals (or a plant in one case) they might have come across in central Europe. Mostly. For the third generation I'm using names of Greek and Roman gods, though.

Okay, here we go.

Family 1: Fire.
The starters are Amphibian (m) and Seagull (f). Right at the start of the challenge I messed this one up and forgot to set them to "married" in CAS. Unfortunately their chemistry is horrible, so this couple spent quite some time trying not to hate each others guts. They have far less children than the other starters, but managed to get quite rich. Also Seagull was turned into a plantsim at the beginning and had a plant baby. Both are back to human by now.
This family started as relatively dark skinned with brown and black hair.

Family 2: River.
With the starters Otter (m) and Fly (f). The lightest skin tone, I guess, and blonde and red hair. They have about six or seven children in Gen 2, mostly girls. This family was absolutely crazy most of the time, with lots of aspiration failures by Otter, the romance sim. Maybe it'll get better in Gen 2. The oldest son, Fox, married the Fire family's former plant baby.

Family 3: Rock.
The starting couple are Wolf (m) and Goat (f). Both are light skinned and have brown and black hair, respectively. At least one of them has pointy ears that already made it to the third generation.
This family has only one daughter, but four sons in generation 2. No other family has more sons by now, so if every son gets his own household and wife, they could accumulate quite some money until the end of the stone age stage.

Family 4: Gold.
One of my personal favorite familys (well, until just now, when they are starting to get crazy...), but not the most efficient money makers in the hood. I like them, because they are so damn nice. Really easy to make friends with.
The family founders are Carp (m) and Bee (f), with a dark skin tone and black and brown hair.
The second reason I particularly like this family is that there is always something more or less unexpected going on in Generation 2: Out of the seven children, one died during childhood. Little Bumblebee was murdered by her older brother Stag when I wasn't paying attention for a second and didn't delete the "attack" action in time.
Also, the eldest son, Hedgehog, is extremely popular with the neighborhood girls. Neither he nor I do really understand why, but oh well. He was supposed to marry Lizard Rock who he had three bolts for. However, I do have InTeen installed (as well as ACR)... So, accidentally his no-chemistry childhood friend Mouse River got pregnant during a sneak-out. A lot of drama took place when both of them had to break up with their respective perfect matches and got married a few hours before the child was born. Luckily, despite that start they have quite a peaceful marriage now. Meanwhile the girl Hedgehog was originally supposed to marry took his younger brother Stag instead. Remember? The one who killed his sister? Yeah, right.
Until now there are six Gen 3 kids in the Gold clan, all of them are boys. And there are far too many small children in the main family now for my taste.

Finally, Family 5: Wood.
Salamander (m) is also one of the sims I like most. He is social, without being pushy and has a quite distinctive face. His wife Caterpillar, on the other hand, is another romance sim who broke down at nearly every child birth. Poor thing. In this family both founders have medium skin tones and blonde and red hair.
This family adopted a dog recently.


Until now, only one of my ToT sims has died - that one girl who lost a fight with her brother. Also, no social worker appearances. And strangely, for the time being, the toddler stage is one of the easiest in stone age. oO At least they can take care of their hygiene themselves and are not constantly yelling at me, like those damn children.
Yeah, I'm totally in love with this darling little bucket, created by Michelle 111. It is awesome.

I've downloaded that bucket so now I need to add it to my game. I'm always on the lookout for things like this that make toddlers easier to handle!

Great update Yuki ! It sounds like you have your hands full with that Gold family lol I havent downloaded ACR or the teen thing but everytime I read one of your updates who have it it makes me want to get it ! Of course my way makes my sims much easier to handle - some of my teens are on their own lots with their appointed mates but no hanky panky until they actually age to adult - and is keeping the population down. :lovestruc the bucket !! Thanks for the link

I'm way behind on my updates, but I have few new ones on my weebly. The link is below and you can find it under the "Fun Stuff" tab.

I know I'm still far away from the Roman Stage (about 5 more seasons to go), but I can't help but think ahead. ^^;
And then this one general rule keeps bugging me:



It seems like it's only possible to move up between social classes. Where are the options to be "demoted"?

IMHO it'd be good to maintain a more or less pyramidal society structure throughout the ages, like for the Roman Stage: Emperor's family < Patricians < Plebians < Slaves.
But unless the upper classes really have significantly lower birth rates and/ or higher death rates than the lower classes, they would soon outnumber the lower classes, wouldn't they? (Anyone who already has an established Roman society: Please correct me if you feel that my theories are running away with me. ).

So, I really think there should be (an) option(s) to move down in society. My first idea was to change the above rule into:
"Everytime someone marries out of their social class, they are to take on the male's class." (In a patriarchal society, of course.)
While this would maybe balance things out better and seems to me a little more historically correct (but I could be wrong here, I should do my research ^^; ), it is now quite unfair towards men: With that rule in place only women would be able to change social classes.

So in addition to that I began to think about a more detailed rule set (for the Roman Stage):

First, I'd like to have an additional meta-class: the Senate.
There should be a definite number of Senate members, like 10 or so. The Emperor is automatically the head of the Senate. Other potential members are the Emperor's male adult and elder relatives, the adult or elder heads of patrician households and their adult (or elder) male heirs. All members have to have a fitting career, like politics, law enforcement, military... Also, with the exception of the Emperor, no one has to be a Senator. It's more or less only an option.

The Senate functions as a central institution: If the Emperor dies without a heir, the new Emperor is chosen by the Senate (= the head of the richest Senator family could become the new Emperor.) So that would be a chance for a Patrician family to move up. At the same time the former Emperor's family would now be demoted to Patrician, so here's a chance for them to move down. Maybe, depending on their relationship with the new Emperor and overall circumstances, they could also be killed.

A Plebian family could move up to be a Patrician family, if they manage to grab a Senator's post. That'd be possible only if the Senate isn't full (e.g. less than 10 Senators). The male Plebian in question should be at least as rich as the "poorest" Patrician and be best friends with the majority of the Senators to become a Senator himself and make his family a Patrician family in the process.

Patrician families also have to meet these conditions to become Senators, by the way: They also have to be friends with the majority of the Senate. So, if a Patrician household cannot provide a Senator for two generations (as in: until the second generation head becomes an elder) and there is at least one other Patrician or Plebian household with more funds around, this household will be demoted to Plebian. Meaning, only the richest Patrician family could get away with not participating in the Senate for a longer time period.

I have to admit I can't quite think of a plausible reason for a Plebian to fall into slavery, though, so let's skip that one for now and take a more roundabout way, while I'm at it.

Illegitimate children are to be one class lower than the parent who raises them. If orphaned or abandonned by both parents, it'll be at least two classes down. So, if for example the Emperial Princess has an illegitimate child with the local tavern owner (who's a Plebian, of course) and her family is generous enough to let her keep the kid, it could grow up to be a Patrician. In every other case that kid would become a slave.


I know this rule set is far from perfect and might conflict with more original rules than intended. So, Roman Stage players, how do you do these class changes? Does anyone already have a functional system that keeps a relatively stable pyramidal structure?

@YukiShine: The rule about the Senate sounds interesting. I think I might actually do that, once I get to the Roman Era (still 2 rounds to go :S)


It used to be that when someone marries, they take the social class of the man, even if it's lower, so I will do that.

That was my first thought, too, but that way men have no chance to change their class in their lifetime, no matter what they do.
Life just isn't fair, huh? :P

I haven't yet decided what to do, but there's still plenty of stone age left...

They used to be able to sell themselves into slavery to get out of debt.

Oh, that's tough, but does seem logical. Just how are we to translate this into a rule for sims - I mean, they don't usually go bankrupt.
Maybe we could still work from there. Like, if a family business is doing absolutely awful, or a farmer family miscalculated, ran out of edibles and normally would starve to death, we could save them (with cheats, if necessary), but make them slaves in exchange.
The chance of something like that actually happening might be rather low, but then again, sims aren't supposed to constantly change their social status, right?

UGH trying to match up the kids with mates is MUCH to hard ! Im ending up with far too many skin 1 couples. Can anyone give me a good explaination of why a skin 1 female would end up wth a skin 4 male according to history? I did want to play it as skin 1's would be the emperor family and higher ranking citizens but at this rate there will be double that class then the lower classes which wont work.

Finally, I've gotten my first gen 3 teenager! I had at one time decided to flip things around and use the darker skinned families as the emperor but a quick check of finances tells me that it's the light skinned families with all the money! I've added Pooklet's Kids in Technicolor skins to my game so I have quite a variety of skin colors just as we do in the RW.

Anna220, maybe she rebelled against her father's dictates and married a slave just to spite him???

I see the Roman Empire as quite multicultural, actually. Could be wrong, of course, but hey - the Empire was pretty much everything around the Mediterranean Sea, including North Africa. I don't see any major problems with dark skinned sims having a high social status during the Neanderthalan and Roman Eras.

Congrats Sandy !! You must be so excited. Of course your days of sims lazing around are sadly at an end now lol Time to get out that rules sheet and see who can really do what now. Im thinking it going to be so hard to have sims work and look after home life etc after so long just living off the land. Ive got Pooklets skins as well. Ive had 2 white kids born and they are like a ghost LOL Should be really interesting to follow along thru the ages and see what happens. Thanks both of you for weighing in on my dilemma. I just have to remember its a game and I can really do anything I want and its all ok

Great updates Lizz. I dont think you have to worry about your game being boring ! OMG @ all the intrigue

Wait, you have a murder mod?

Where did you find it?? I want it badly (population control)!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~



jjdcoach, have you tried "rolling the pacifier"? It might help diversify your game's genetics/ genders.

http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php...stborn_Syndrome

I don't think there is a murder mod per say, it's just that according to the rules, if someone loses a fight, you have to kill them. I believe most are spawning the Tombstone to do so.

Sandy is exactly right. Sorry, no murder mod. ^^
Doesn't MATY have something to reduce your population randomly by a certain percentage? I thought I read something over there.

No murder mod? How disappointing. XD

Luckily, none of my sims have had fights yet, so I guess I don't have to worry about that.... for now....

Sims 2 Downloads for TOT
 

I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but I've started compiling lists of downloads that can be used in this challenge for people just getting started or who can't find certain stuff. You can find all the links I'm sharing on my Weebly (link below). The Sims 2 tab is under the "Fun Stuff" tab on the left hand side of the home page.
Searching for what you want takes time, but when we all share our finds (as you all have done for me many times) it takes less time and frustration!

Great idea !

Fabulous idea! These are some of the things I've been looking for as I start to get ready for the Roman stage.

Awesome. :D

I'd also like to highly recommend Parsimonious in general.
Also, Michelle 111 (MTS2) has some nice toddler stuff, like the skill bucket I mentioned some time ago.
The Cave Comfort Collection goes really well with the stone age theme. I know there's also the Simstone Project, but I didn't try that one out. (No, wait, actually I did download a fridge from that project, but I don't use it, because there are no leftover options.)
-Maylin-'s Haystack gets used in some of my households, too.

Actually I'm still looking for clothes for the Roman Stage.

Squinge's Pregnant Sims Wear Any Outfit is extremely useful if you're going to take pictures.

http://www.insimenator.org/index.php/topic,91730.0.html

Btw, I find the SimStone's stuff to be incredibly good for the Neanderthal period; it has a variety of "animal pelt" clothing for most ages as well as furniture.

I just wish I could like that cartooney style... Other than that, sure, great set.

A Question For InTeenimator Users:

Does anyone have an opinion on the automated miscarriages (the ones that automatically happen when your sim is low in needs)?

I'm somewhat tempted to remove my "No Miscarriage" flavor patch, but I'm also scared that it'll be freakin' hard to bring a pregnancy to term.

@moonlight_frog: I had the "No Miscarriage" flavor patch at first, but after a while I removed it because in real life it wasn't easy to get a baby in that time, and otherwise you'll just have way to many kids.
I only had one miscarriage so far and I don't think it's too hard to bring a pregnancy to term.

I've removed the flavor patch from the beginning, because I figured my sims could have too many children too easily otherwise. Later I also installed ACR and a slightly modified aging system with a longer adult period and shorter elder period, so it's even more important to me to have a few miscarriages now and then. As sad or frustrating as it sometimes is, but it balances things out a little.
I also notice that I'm getting better at handling pregnant sims thanks to this challenge... Actually even my Generation 2 stone age sims do not try for babies as often as possible. I try to limit the number of children already to about six per family, or otherwise my population would go out of hand too fast. Until now there were no "bear attacks" (social worker) on children, so the survival rate is quite high.

Ah, so maybe I should consider removing the patch; I'll do that when my Generation 2's become teens so that my neighborhood won't become overcrowded.

Right now though, the oldest are only at the children stage (I really haven't found sufficient playing time, so I'm moving at a snail's pace).

Also, how old are your teens when you start allowing them to pair off romantically (how many days before turning into adults)?

In my Generation 2 that varied a lot. One of my starter families had a plant baby that was naturally growing up much faster than the other Gen 2 kids. I still wanted to marry her off to someone from her own generation, so I married her to the eldest Gen 2 boy as soon as he became a teenager.
Now, to avoid having another huge age gap between their children and the other Gen 3 children, I also started pairing the other Gen 2 kids asap. However, they didn't all marry during their first days as teens. Some had a harder time finding (or keeping) someone, so the couple forming process could really extend over most of their teenager days.

If it hadn't been for the plant sim, however, I might have waited until about 7 days before adulthood before marrying the kids off.

OK, I know most of you probably won't remember who I am, but VT is back and this time I am actually going to get back into this challenge. (lost my main hood, tried to do an uberhood but decided I'd never get it the way I wanted it without some major CC-fu, impressive modding skills and years of hard work - and I can't create CC for anything... and now I'm back here! Yay!)

I'd tell you all what I'm planning but I don't quite know myself at the moment. I'm way too frazzled from three months without being able to play my biggest stress reliever.

- VT

Aw, that sucks. How did you lose your main neighborhood? Corruption?

~~~~~

Directed towards YukiShine:

So far, I haven't gotten any plant sims yet, so I dunno if I'll rush the romancing. I probably will though...

Nothing to do with corruption - I've been rebuilding that hood after every glitch for four and a half years. It's just that it eventually reached the point where the culture was so well-developed that it wouldn't fit inside the game parameters any more, even with mods. I plan to write books about them in the future.

- VT

At the end of the last round I paired up the teenagers and moved them out. This is the first round I am playing them on their own lots. I dont have any hacks tho so they have to wait until they are adults before I will actually marry them off and have kids.

Welcome back VT

Ah, so it's a matter of culture.

I never really think about my sims having a distinct culture; mostly, I use the rules of this challenge as a guideline and tweak them to suit my mods.

VT, are you thinking of rebuilding your challenge, or are you going to move on to other interests?

@Anna: I wish I had the patience to wait for them to turn into adults, but ever since I first started using inTeen, I got hooked and could never really find the patience to wait for them to grow up ever again. :P

I'm not quitting TS2, if that's what you're asking. I'm staying right here. I won't be rebuilding my former hood, because - as I already said - it won't fit within the limitations of the game any more, and it wasn't a challenge anyway. The ToT hood is on my project list, though.

- VT

Moonlight I keep thinking I NEED to get ACR and Iteen and Insem but I just never get around to it. I go to the sites, read what it does and then get scared off when Im not sure what version I should get

Anna: as a longtime user of those mods, I recommend ACR v2, the OBJ version of the Insimenator (it's safest, AFAIK) and whatever version of Inteen corresponds to your latest EP. That last one is pretty much a necessity if you're going to install Inteen at all. ACR v2 is just better and easier to customise to different types of hood (IMO) than ACR v1. But it's really up to you.

- VT (whose name you may well be seeing on next month's New Creators list - can't resist dropping hints!)

Thanks VT I will keep that in mind the next time I find myself sim shopping :-)

That sounds like what I did. Gen 2 teens got paired up and moved into their own house. That made it easier for them to get acquainted and fall in love. For gen 3, I decided that when the kids started bringing home friends from school, I'd look at upping the friendship levels. That way when they become teens I can start some romances brewing.

BTW, I'm reading through the InTeen stuff to see if it will work for my play style.

I will wait for your cliff notes version so let me know what you think of it

I'm officially bumping this up to the top of my project list. Well, an adaptation of it, one that isn't "Earth history" and will not base class rankings on skintone - I want to a) keep that sort of thing out of my game and b) go loopy geneticising my thousands of downloaded alien skins now I know how to do it.

(Thousands? OK, I lied. More like 250. Still... no, I won't be using ALL of them in this hood...)

I think I'll set it on the homeworld of a very primitive, very genetically diverse alien race, and at some point there will be humans arriving (most likely they will crash their spaceship, so it doesn't get too high-tech too fast). There will also be plenty of abductions even before the humans arrive, mostly because I want to actually use my first creation. (It's a multi-PT mod. And it has EIGHT aliens! Surprise!)

Hoodless for three months. You have no idea how much I'm looking forward to getting this up and running.

- VT

Stinky gen 1
 

My gen 1 is very stinky with no tub and everyone is dark red heat stroked and very unhappy. My first two lots had wife die and kids were all taken by social worker for being too hot. I am adapting this challenge and adding a tub to each family's lot. Will update this post to let you know if that helps. I figure since you can't swim in pond tub is legal.

I have all sims 2 expansion packs but I am not using any custom content or cheats other than familyFunds to set money. This challenge may be impossible without cheating. Even the tub doesn't help. Lost everyone on next two lots!!!!!

Drink lots of water. It may take more than 1 glass but it will reduce the temperatures. Did you build a small room for the kids to sleep in? Add a toybox there to keep them inside as much as possible. I also added a tub to the lots. I lost a fair number of kids in gen 2 and one entire family, but I haven't lost anyone in gen 3 yet. So it does help.

My first Gen 3 kids are teenagers by now and I've played without tubs or showers and without social worker appearances the whole time. It's possible. I only make an exeption when dogs need bathing, but afterwards the tub is sold again.
Teens, adults and elders will spongebath at the sink when they feel too dirty, toddlers get hygiene with Michelle 111's skill building bucket and children... well... have to stay dirty for a few days. I usually make them garden, befriend other kids or just "store" them in a pool for a few hours to get them out of my way. No toy box. Actually, no toys at all for children. Now that I think about it, I start to feel a little sorry for them. lol.

Waterballoon fights are also quite effective against heat. And a small hut ("cave" ^^ ) is really important, too. And yes, lots of water drinking... ^^

Try try again
 

Thanks for the tips. I hadn't even made a house before so this time I made small huts with a bathroom and one bed to have pregnant wife sleep near food. Otherwise two tents outside. I will see today if anyone survives.

Hi cespencer7. Great to see you join us ! I added a shower since the beginning and also built a small house for each family. Not sure I would have gotten very far either without those 2 things. I dont use cheats or hacks either but I have added custom content for decor. As Sandy mentioned drinking water is by far the best way I have found to reduce the red bar. Yuki you are a star !! I put the sink in the backpack after each use because they kept heading there to do the dishes and I wanted the plates to be composed instead. That helps greatly at the start of each lot to get the farming producing better quality foods.

Do you have a mod for this? Whenever my sims can't clean their plates in the sink, they head for the normal bin. How do you get them to put the plates into the compost bin?
For extra compost I recycle newspapers (of course) and I also have the seasons set to summer-summer-summer-fall. That way they get a few leaf heaps once a year.

I bought the cheap trash can and put that on the lot. When they clean dishes they should put it in it and you can compost from there. If they should head to the main garbage at the street stop them, They should drop the items which will result in a heap of smelly trash which can them be composted as well. Also diapers are put in the trash and then composted as well. After the first round or so I always have more then enough compost and never have to worry.

Excited! I have been stalking this thread for a week. I finally got through reading a good portion and realize it is current! I started my challenge 2 days ago. I want to thank all of you for the tips. With these I hope I won't be losing as many sims in the first couple of generations. So I am basically just beginning. I am going in cycles of seasons (so I don't get bored quick). I have tweaked the rules to suit my play like many of you. I will add pictures of my families later today! *eeeekfangirlsqueal*

lol welcome mynni64 !! Yes this is definitely still active tho we tend to cycle like the seasons who is playing at any given time Cant wait to see how it goes for you and let us know if you have any questions or comments ! Have fun

The Test Of Time Challenge
 

This sounds really interesting! I'll think I'll try it.

Need to edit the rules
 

After losing all my kids AGAIN I decided to read the entire T.O.T. thread. I think I was following the set up rules in the first few posts too closely and I wasn't providing cribs or changing tables, toys or anything else for the babies. I wasn't giving them anything but bottles and a bath in the sink. They were left on the floor all day. Needless to say they were always crying and eventually the social worker would come and take them all away. Not having any baby gear made it impossible to get past Gen. 1, especially with everyone having twins.

If you have pets and AL, throw a dog bed in the corner. The toddler will sleep on that when they are tired. Also, keep a pet bowl filled and clean as well. Toddler will eat the kibble. There is a bucket mentioned somewhere in the last page or two you might want to get. A toddler playing in that will get cleaner, happier and earn cleaning skill points as well.

Does a hack exist for being pregnant in your default clothes and not turning into maternity?

Introducing founding families of Simeria
 

I finally finished my first rotation! There are four founding families in ancient Simeria. They are Gratia, Asnight, Xes, and Elur. Here is whats going on as of first rotation.

Ahtnamas and Belac Gratia (whitest skin)
This is the first family I played for this challenge. Needless to say there were heat exhausted much of the time. Their firstborn is a daughter, Annahs. Ahtnamas is pregnant with baby 2. There isn't a lot going on with this family just yet, other then the bugging I had while trying to grow up the baby. I was mostly so concentrated on just keeping them alive!

Anirtak and Namahs Asnight (black skin)
This is a really easy going family. Despite scorching summer days, no one had heat exhaustion! They are both great fishers and fast learners (knowledge sims). Their firstborn is a son, Rennug. Anirtak is on her pregnancy two as well.

Ardnosac and Notfilc Xes (purple skin)
Notfilc is an excellent fisherman (horrible farmer) and a bit before his time! He discovered grilled cheese and painting. And they are the first family to have a sink. Unfortunately, the two had trouble conceiving. Which makes me sad because this is my favorite family, they are gorgeous and need to pass those genes on! One VERY hot day Ardnosac went hiking and came back exhausted for the heat. After Notfilc doused her with water, I sent her inside to bed promptly. She woke up only to have another heatstroke. Even though she was inside their cave her temperature kept rising back up. I had her drink water and sleep most of the day To no avail she passed in the evening. If anyone can give me a clue to why her temperature wouldn't stay down. I am completely bummed about losing my favorite sim on first rotation! Not to mention that messed up the original story line. Notfilc is beside himself. They were mad for each other and now he has nothing left of her. WAHHH

Llib and Rehtaeh Elur (purple and green skin)
The Elur family is doing very well for themselves. They have the largest cave in Simeria thanks to Llib's all night fishing. They begin the parenthood journey with twin girls, Kira and Arik. They are interesting parents..... I have never had sim parents to lecture one day old babies The twins are keeping them very busy and the crops are suffering. There is another baby (or two) on the way soon.

*shew* Now onto second rotation. Pray my simmies don't lose many more.

Oh dear, what a start...
I'd recommend Pescado's Warmth Fixes (on MATY). It makes sponanous combustion more unlikely, but most importantly (to me ) the indoor temperature is no longer influenced by the outside temp. Meaning, your sims are pretty much "safe" when inside a building.
Without such fixes sims easily overheat while sleeping. I often had them wake up exhausted and then collapse with heatstrokes.

Those skintones look really great. That's going to be interesting, I suppose.

Awsome founders mynni! Sorry to hear about your loss :-( But sometimes letting the game play as the game wants can be a very interesting thing. If you are like me I am far too heavy handed with my sims so its nice to let them roam somewhat free. The toddlers I give the building block set ( if you dont want to download anything). My thought process is its blocks of wood ! Of course they would have blocks of wood in caveman days lol As for the sleeping/heat exhausion thing have them relax on the bed until they are the green and THEN put them to sleep. Otherwise the heat from the blankets will put their temps thru the roof !

Not enough teens for gen 2 modify
 

I had fun this weekend setting up my founding five clans. I was doing weekly rotations from Monday to Sunday. By the end of week two four of the five husbands had died by heatstroke or fire. While I had four sets of twins before their deaths I still don't have a good base for future genetic mixing so I am creating a new skin 1 clan to boost things.

I also added a few things like drums, ax throwing and art easels to give them a way to be happy. I had randomly assigned aspirations and zodiac signs so some struggled to be happy with only fishing and jumping on furniture for fun.

Thats a rough start cespencer :-( Dont forget that tending the farm will increase your fun levels !

Bummer! I had a founder die from heat exhaustion first rotation too. After selling some fish and veggies to make the 'cave' a little bigger we are getting exhausted a lot less. Some lessons learned. It seems to be the hottest from 1-7p so I try to do most of my outside work in the a.m. Hope next rotation goes better for you!

Ancient Simeria Neanderthal Rotation 2
 

Got rotation 2 finished this evening!

Gratia Family (white skin)
Annahs their daughter has become a child. They welcomes a second daughter Alyahs. That is all. This is the most boring family.....ever...

Asnight Family (black skin)
The Asnight family are great friends with the Xes family. It was funny to me when I noticed Namahs had rolled the want to turn Ardnosac Xes into a zombie. Sorry Namahs (I call him Shaman cause he acts like one) it's not going to happen. The Asnight family is very fit to their name. They are up ALL night fishing and tending. It seems their schedule fell into place that way. Anirtak caught the grill on fire and really blackened her catfish. They had a second son, Xam and the heir son Runneg has become a child. We are expecting the third child soon.

Xes Family (purple skin)
Last rotation I lost half of this founding family. Upon hearing of the death of their oldest and most beautiful daughter the Lufituaeb Clan sent their youngest daughter to Notfilc. The father was apologetic at sending a weak wife. While Ahtibat may not be the most beautiful she would make a strong wife even at the age of 17. She had all the qualities of her father, including his elven ears. They were to be joined immediately. Despite Notfilc feeling of contempt, Ahtibat urged him that they must, or her father would be outraged. He couldn't let the girl be hurt. They were married the day after she came. She was banished to the cave. He was responsible for this child and would not have her death on his conscience. Notfilc knew he couldn't love another the way he did his precious Ardnosac. Ahtibat is kind and eager to please and so she slowly is healing his heart. At the request of Ahtibat there were many nights of 'love making' to produce an heir. This would be a testament to her father. The first born son shall be named after him. And one late night twins were born. A son named Renrut and a daughter named Chelle. But, Notfilc would not wait till death to see his beautiful Ardnosac. She frightened him many times over the course of great grilled cheese painting!

Elur Family (green and purple skin)
Where to start.....Rehtaeh thinks she is entitled. She is a horrible housewife and hates being pregnant. I think she resents her twin daughters as well. The twins Arik and Kira are now children. There is a third daughter that is a toddler, Ekoorb. I have never in my life seen hygeiene go down so fast in my life and these girls gripe all day about it. So Llib had to build the towns first indoor washtub. Otherwise I'd have a lawn full of exhausted princesses. The repoman came and took their toy box because I forgot to pay the bills Llib, who was red from heat exhaustion, tried to play peekaboo with Arik her screams could be heard in all neighboring lots. So far I am having a great time with these girls, but they are HIGH MAINTENANCE

Now one last question. What is the rule for genie lamps? I've got one. Thought maybe I ought to save it for another time period. Any thoughts?

Genie lamp
 

I am all for saving gifts until your people would become smart enough to know how to use them. Great storytelling and love the names!

Meet my clans
 

I love meeting all of your clans and thought that I should take some time to introduce you to mine. I am writing my story as if archeologists were discovering artifacts and forming stories based on what they have found. Since I am still in Generation 1, my initial notes will just tell you where they live. I will showcase one family clan each night. When I figure out how to insert a photo, I will edit the post so you can see my clan. I am also working on a website to house all my notes and some photos. https://sites.google.com/site/asimstestoftime/

.................................................................................................................
Tonight I will tell you about my first clan, the Scalyns.
The earliest known prehistoric tribe discovered by archeologists was the Scalyn clan (family). Their hut was found in an area near the modern day border of France and Belgium. These people were fair-skinned, blue eyed, and blonde. Prone to sunburn and heat stroke, many of their infant children were snatched by the wild women of socialworkia while their parents lay unconscious in the garden. At the end of the second season and right before the birth of his twin sons, the founding father Jacques died in a terrible lightning storm. Despite the challenges caused by the excessive heat the founding mother, Francois, did raise her daughter, Alicia and the two younger twin boys, Alfred and Alphonse, into adulthood. The survival of her two sons ensured that the genetics of this lovely tribe continued into the future bloodlines of many famous people.

cespencer7: I just took a peek at your website, and i really like the style of commentary you're using. It's sad though that you've lost so many of your founding males (does your game have something against them? i hope not or your future generations may suffer if all the males are targeted by the game itself, to die) Also lol @ socialworkia.

What an amazing idea! I am reading your website now. Nice writing and a super creative idea of view point. Love it!

Test of Time Challenge - Meet my Engis Clan
 

The next clan discovered by archeologists was the Engis clan (family). Their small hut was situated by a lovely pond in the border area between what is now modern day Belgium and Germany. Fair-skinned, red-headed, with lovely green eyes, this clan was also prone to the dangers of heat and sunstroke. Pre-disposed to the birth of twins, this race was destined to dominate most of Europe; however, this was not to be, due to the early death of the founding father Henrick. Archeologists now question the intelligence of this race given that almost immediately after the clan’s establishment; the founder ran straight into a cooking fire and died.

Since this clan had only the two girl twins, Ada and Adele, their surname was lost to all future generations; however, their genetics did contribute to the bloodlines of future generations. Archeologists are not sure if that was a good thing.

Thank you fellow challengers
 

Thanks for the positive feedback. I love the Sims and this challenge. I have had so much fun researching about Neanderthals and where they lived so I could create realistic Sims. I also didn't want to cheat too much to survive, so I thought that each generation to come could "learn" more and thereby get more of life's essentials. I figure the first generation were from the Stone Age, the second from the Bronze (Copper) Age and the third can be from the Iron Age. This will help to set them up for their eventual assimilation or slavery with Rome.

I am not sure who to thank for this fun challenge, but if you know, please tell them that with a few modifications to the original neanderthal post, this has been fun!

mynni64 love your update. For the first time EVER in my game I finally saw the genie and got the lamp. Like really? It couldnt have happened to any other family I was playing? It had to be one of the ToTers??? Im not using it but I could easily see it being added to the storyline of gods they worshipped etc.

cespencer7 you are doing a bang up job ! The idea of having a google map to show the location of the huts is pure genuis ! And telling the story from the future is quite novel as well. I look forward to seeing what you both come up with in the future ! Its cool how each of us has a different way to tell our stories. Really keeps things interesting ! :lovestruc

It has been fun visiting your websites. I love your photos! I need to learn to take better photos. I will use the other forums to learn more. And to find some cc for clothing.

First tip about taking pics is to set your resolution to high and the image to large on the ingame settings. That will make a world of difference. Also get in close to your subjects so you see the action. A wide shot is good for overview but sometimes you need to focus where the sim is. And lastly practice practice practice ! Let me know if you need any other and I will try my best.

Thanks for the help to a newbie
 

Thanks everyone for your tips and hints on how to do things better. I love how much this game stretches the creative side of my brain. In my everyday work life it is a lot of non-creative work, so this is such a nice change of pace. Addicting though, isn't it?

cespencer7 I added your link to my blog. Hope that was ok

No wonder my pictures are so mediocre. XP

Blog the link okay by me
 

Anna - I have no problem with you adding my website link in your blog. I am honored. The google site is one I made just for TOT so it doesn't go into my family or work gmail. Thank you for all your tips and hints. It has made the experience more fun. :google:

Moonlight I cant believe you are doing 2 challenges at the same time ! That would be the end of me lol This one alone is hard enough. I have found this time around tho I do not seem to be having as much trouble completing a family as I did a few months ago. Not sure what I am doing differently but Im glad ! I too was having the blog update issues. It just never seemed like I was in the mood. Not sure if it will help you any but this is what I do - I have a folder titled story shots. After each round I go through and copy and paste all the photos Ive taken of that particular family. Then I pair it down to the ones I want to use being quite brutal ( i try to have no more than 12 per post and sometimes its much less and try to use different shots than previous stories to keep in interesting ). My goal is to only take pics of important details that tell a story tho I tend to always include shots of the sim when they age just so I remember what they look like. At this point I am months and months between playing each family so I need something to jog my memory lol I download all the photos I am going to use to the blog in a draft post and write up a very quick description for what I want to happen. It might be days later that I will actually go back and polish off the story. Once that is done then I can post it. So far I am finding this is helping me so much with getting my posts out more regularly. Now maybe people look at my blog and think it is really boring but it works for me and so far I am happy with it.

cespencer7 the sims community is the most helpful place I know ! I thank and remember each and everyone of the players who helped me when I started playing so I try to pay it forward. This game is nothing if you cant share it with fellow simmers

Yeah, maybe I should limit my picture amount next time... I spend less time on the stories and too much time on the picture-taking; that's probably what bogs me down. It would probably be easier for my readers (if any), too. I wish I could update faster.

Like you, I also cut and paste my pictures into their own little folders, which are divided by each family and each round. I also keep a physical log of my simming exploits in a journal (just bullet points); that way, I can remember what happened last time I played.

About doing 2 challenges at once:

I decided to attempt 2 challenges at the same time so that I can switch on and off; that way, I probably won't get bored for too long. It'll probably take me 10 million RL years, but it's certainly going to be interesting.

Instead of doing more challenges at once, 'cause there are a lot of challenges I'd like to attempt, I've decided to combine the TOT challenge with other challenges, like The Royal Kingdom Challenge, VPC, Apoclypse and other small challenges. This way I won't get bored so easily with the game.

floor1304, how did you export your in-game family tree!? It would save me a heck of a lot of trouble. :D

It makes sense to combine this challenge, I guess, especially since there are so many other challenges like this one.

Wait, I have another question: Do founders count as Generation 1 or Generation 0? floor1304, you seem to be making your founders Generation 0; I thought that Founders were Generation 1, though...

Im thinking eleventy billion years is more like it lol You will probably have more fun if you arent thinking about the photos so much as well. I counted founders as Gen 1 but there are others here who did them as Gen 0.

My founders are generation 1, but none of the children are adults yet, so it still counts as generation 1 (right?)

When you're in the game, just go to the family tree, then use ctrl prtsc (control printscreen). Then go to paint, paste the printscreen you've just made. You have to do this twice, otherwise, on of the familymembers will have a larger icon. And tadaa, there's your family tree.

Ooooo, I like that thought! I haven't updated my blog is quite a while but maybe I can do this!

Ditto. Thank you!!!

EDIT: It didn't work for me. When I tried to use Ctrl-PrintScreen, it copied my desktop instead. I read that Full Window games have that problem, so how can you make the Sims 2 Windowed?

I tried it and I do not play in windowed mode and it worked for me. Try just doing prtscn because that worked for me as well when I tried it on this page.

moonlight_frog, to play in windowed mode, follow these instructions: http://modthesims.info/wiki.php?tit...p:Windowed_Mode

how do we know who wins a fight?
 

I can't seem to find a way to play in window mode with Apartment Life as my last EP. I downloaded from origins so there is no properties option to add the -w.

Anyway, I have a challenge question. While I am still in the early era of neanderthal, I was curious how you know if someone has been in a fight, other than if you have the event scene pop up to show you? And in a big active house with 8 people and party going on and neighbors dropping by, how do you figure out who won? I know from the university EP that the loser would leave if they were visitors, but what about if it's a family member? Just curious since I think in the roman era we are supposed to kill someone if they lose a fight.

The people in the fight will get "won/lost a fight against X" memories. As long as you can find one, you should be able to track down the other ~VP

Fight Win or Lose Thanks
 

VP:
Thanks for helping. I can't wait to get out of these Neanderthal huts. It's a lot of work to watch them all the time so they don't burn the place down or die of heatstroke.

Printscreen still isn't working for me in-game; instead of taking a shot of my game, it takes a pic of my desktop or any windows that I have out.

Working in windowed mode gets Printscreen working on my laptop, however it slows down to a craw to do it!

Fraps should work for in-game screenshots. It's freeware. You just have to remember to open it before starting the game.

I decided to try and not be so bossy with my sims, but in this neanderthal age if I don't tell them what to do I think they are going to die. I am now up to about 8 homes, so that means 8 neighborhood rotations. It takes forever to get all 8 homes through a single rotation. But it is so much fun. Somehow each household ends up with its own personality. There are the total neat freaks who clean everything. Then there is the group that just loves to fish. Another group wants to play catch (I have to watch that group or they all get heatstroke and then yell at each other while they wait their turn to get a drink). One group is just the most miserable group. In one day alone they had someone throwing up cause they were pregnant, the twins were screaming, then some stray dog kicked over the trash and everyone got the flu, then the grandmother died, and the repo man showed up cause they hadn't paid the bills. It's weird to admit this, but this crazy group with a full house of 8 is actually the one I like the most. Isn't it funny how you can actually get really attached to a group of Sims? I worry though, cause they are such a dysfunctional group that they will most likely burn the house down next.

This challange sounds really great. I'm going to try this since I am bored with my standard family
One of the rules in the Roman times is "The Emperor must have at least two Slaves or servants working for them." What is the way to do that? Do the slaves or servants live on the same lot as the emperor?

TychoH
Great question about where the slaves live. I assumed that they lived on another lot and you use the familyFunds to transfer money from the slave family to the Emperor. Maybe Anna and some of the others who have played in the Roman era can tell us. I am still struggling to keep my Neanderthals alive.