The Test of Time Challenge
 

First time poster, long time lurker. I am so excited to see so much activity in this forum for sims 2!

This is a long challenge which calls for a ton of rules to guide us along. I am not the creator of this challenge - SwallowTail87 is - but I am one of the simmers who is enjoying her creation ! There are currently 5 of us brave souls ( lol ) at various stages so far and we are sharing our experiences on our various blogs/websites. There was a bunch of talk on a thread in the BBS if you would like to check it out and it might help with any questions you have and that we have worked thru so far. Without further ado may I present The Test of Time Challenge (eek I hope I didnt forget any of it )

Challenge Basics:
Can your Sims stand to live through history? Or will they crumble, as so many have before them?
Stages: Neanderthal, Roman, Dark Ages, Medieval & Renaissance, Exploration and Colonization, Victorian, and Modern.

Objective:
To make it from the age of the Neanderthals to the modern world.

General Rules:
1) There are to be only bloodlines going from your original families. However, only during the Roman stage, you may add one single, adult CAS Sim as needed to the mix. These Sims may be of any class, however choose wisely.
2) Anytime anyone gets into a fight, the loser must be killed by your method of choice. (If the stage is after the Neanderthals, then you are to place their grave in a community graveyard. This is the only way you are allowed to purposely kill Sims in this challenge.)
3) Neighborhood rotations!
4) The women are to take the mens’ last name.
5) No cheats aside from move_objects on (For decorating houses and un-glitching things) and familyfunds.
6) Every time you woohoo, you have to try for baby.
7) Every time someone marries out of their social class, they are to take on the higher of the two classes.
8) After the Neanderthal Stage, seasons are set to summer, fall, winter, spring.
9) After the Neanderthal Stage, all objects are allowed for the most part aside from electronics and specified restrictions per social class and during the Dark Age. However, things such as the Telescope weren’t used until the Renaissance, so use common sense on what to use and what not to.
10) Salary caps mean that Sims in a specific class may not earn more than that salary. If they are accidentally promoted or earn more than that amount for any reason, then they must quit their job.
11) Women may not take jobs, however, they may earn money around the house by painting, farming, assisting a home business, etc.

Neanderthal Stage (3 generations):
Basic: Welcome to the prehistoric times, Simmies! In the today's world we make think that we have all the knowledge, but can modern Sims last in this ancient world? Like all challenges, you must start with humble beginnings. Humble indeed!

1) Start with five couples, each with an adult male and female. Create two couples with Skin 4, two with Skin 1, and one mixed with one adult having Skin 1 or 2 and the other with Skin 3 or 4. Each couple is to move into a small lot, placed next to each other and near water.
2) The couples are to interact only with each other. They may not even greet townies or NPCs.
3) The couples are to try for babies as frequently as possible. As soon as one baby is born, then try for another.
4) They cannot get jobs, or visit any community lots of any sort. They are to make their living by farming, and survive by farming (including orchards) and fishing as the only food source. You cannot do anything else to earn money, including digging for treasure.
5) Their funds, upon moving in, should be set to $3,000.
6) Seasons are set to summer year-round.
7) Objects allowed:
One small shack
5 beds (Hammocks, tents, or the lowest cost single or double bed. Double beds and tents count as 2 beds.)
1 cheap loveseat
1 cheap stove
1 cheap counter
1 cheap phone
Cheapest table and three cheap chairs
Farming plots or fruit trees (You can buy more as you get more money)
A pond
One sink
One toilet stall or the cheapest toilet
One cheap dresser
One fridge (To serve only meals that the family grew/caught such as ‘Bass with Squash’ and to get baby bottles.)
8) Once the kids grow up, they are to each buy the same size lot as their parents and have their funds set to $3,000, with the exception of the oldest two, who may live on their parents’ farm. (They both don’t have to, but one must.)
9) As soon as you have gone through 3 generations, and the oldest Gen. 3 child turns into an adult, move on to the next step.
10) Ranks are developed based on which family has the most money. To find out which has the highest rank, take any families with the same last name who have skins 1 or 2, and add them together. Example: Melissa and Jon Smith have skin 1, and their son Mike also has skin 1 and his wife Jane has skin 2. Because Jane took Mike’s last name, her last name is also Smith, and therefore you add the total amount of money between Melissa and John’s family with Mike and Jane’s money. You do the same thing for each family. Whichever family has the most money are the Emperors, the next are the Patricians, the next are the Plebeians, and last are the Slaves. There should be more Slaves than Plebeians, more Plebeians than Patricians, and only 1 Emperor’s family. However, only people with Skin 1 and 2 can be Emperor, unless in later generations darker skin tones marry up ranks.

Roman (4 generations):
Basics: Now that humanization has progressed from the stages of early life, those who are smart enough to earn money have distinguished themselves as the most important in society. The great Roman Empire rises under the rule of only the richest, upper-class elite, and in comes the first period of great learning.

Emperor’s family:
1) The total amount of money calculated in step 10 of the Neanderthals is the amount of money the Emperor can begin building his Palace with (along with a bonus of $35,000). The Emperor’s family must start out with a large lot. Each additional spare child of the Emperor must be sent away upon marriage with a $5,000 gift. If relatives who are best friends with the Emperor are low in money and the Emperor has extra to spare, then you may subtract funds from the Palace and add them to the relative’s house.
2) Can marry Patricians only, or other blood relatives. They are the top of the top. They can take any job they want (Aside from the Emperor. He must be in Politics or Military), hire a maid, and just about buy anything but electronics and hot tubs. (Use your common sense, though. Ask yourself if Romans would find have certain furniture.)
3) The Emperor is the eldest male in the family. The eldest male of your richest family from the Neanderthal Age is the starting Emperor. If he has no male descendants (unlikely) then as soon as he dies, then the next oldest daughter without Skin 4 takes the throne, and her husband becomes Emperor.
4) The Emperor must have at least two Slaves or servants working for them.
6) Emperor’s family may stop having kids after giving birth to two boys. Keep in mind, though, they could get accidently murdered if another Sim assaults them on free-will.
7) Teens must go to school. The heir may take a job in politics; however no other teenage jobs are allowed for anyone.

Patrician Families:
1) Start with a large lot, and give each Patrician family a bonus of $20,000. Patricians may take any job, aside from the heir, who must take a “respectable career” (Example: Doctor, Politics, etc). If you are planning on having a Patrician male marry a descendant of the Emperor, then they must have a job in Politics. If a daughter is planning on marrying a descendant of the Emperor, then she must have a $3,000 gift in her inventory. If a daughter is planning on marrying the Emperor, then she must have creativity and charisma maximized, and a gift of $5,000 in her inventory. Salary cap: $1000
2) Can marry Patricians, Emperor’s Family, and non-heirs can marry Plebeians.
3) May have a slave or servant.
4) May stop having kids after four kids are born.
5) Must send their teens to school. The heir also cannot take a teenage job.
6) May own community businesses, as long as they aren’t too extravagant. Also may own farms, however a small farm requires 1 Slaves, a medium one 2 Slaves, and a large one requires 3 Slaves.

Plebian Families:
1) May take jobs in anything but a “respectable career”, or that a modern person would have to attend college for. Salary cap: $400.
2) May own community businesses, as long as they aren’t too extravagant. Also may own farms.
3) May marry Patricians, Plebians, or Slaves.
4) Girls must have a $1,000 gift in their inventory if marrying a Patrician. No gift is required for slaves.
5) May stop having kids after 6 are born.
6) May choose to send teens to school. If they are not sent to school, they are required to work at home or as a live-in-servant for Patricians and the Emperor’s family.

Slaves:
1) May take jobs working for Patricians, Plebians, or the Emperor’s family. They are not to be paid.
2) As soon as a slave is married, they are required to move away from their master’s house and into their own house (small lot)
3) Slave women must take jobs working for any of the other classes until they are married.
4) Slave men may take jobs working for other classes, or a job in Criminal. Salary cap: $400.
5) May never stop having kids.
6) Slaves houses may not have a bathtub, and can never have anything above the cost of $1,000. If they do, and a member of the Emperor’s family walks past the house, the adult male Slave is accused of stealing and is killed at the Coliseum within 3 days of the accusation. If the adult male is already dead, then his wife is killed, then the decreasing order from oldest to youngest.

Community Services
1) Roman Coliseum: Anytime a slave is caught having romantic interactions by their master, or is caught with an object that costs over $1,000, they are subject to the death of your choice at the Coliseum. The coliseum should be a large community lot. Once every seven days, a slave must be randomly chosen to be killed in the Coliseum. You can select them randomly by putting all the names of slaves into a draw, adding a name for each slave born, and removing one once it has been drawn.
2) Bathhouse: A community bathing lot should be complete with a pool, hot tub, sink, and bathtub. You may also include a toilet.
3) There is to be one clothing store. 4) A variety of other small restaurants and shops may be available.

Dark ages (3 generations):
Basics: The Empire has fallen, and the Black Death and Vikings sweep across the land. Those who were once rich isolate themselves into individual manors, and cling to Feudalism for support and protection. The Emperors dissolve into monarchs, the Patricians into Lords, the Plebeians into Vassals and Vikings, and the Slaves into Serfs. Whenever someone falls sick, there is no other option than to kill them. The more children for protection, the better. There is no limit to the number of children you can have. Old customs are forgotten, and any NON-HEIR can marry anyone from any class. Heirs are restricted to marrying people of their own class. Villages are abandoned, and therefore community lots are destroyed.

Monarchs:
1) Live in a medium lot clustered around the houses of 2-4 lords and 4-6 vassals.
2) May take any job except Law Enforcement, Politics, and Military. $600 salary cap.
3) If any object above $3,000 is purchased and a Viking walks past the lot, the entire family is to be killed, and the Viking’s family comes into possession of the object.
4) Teenagers must go to school.
5) One of bookcases (cheapest) is allowed.
6) No recreational objects are allowed, aside from the bookcase. This rule applies to any musical instruments, telescopes, chess tables, etc.

Lords:
1) Live in a 3x3 lot.
2) May take any job except Law Enforcement, Politics, and Military, and Intelligence. $400 salary cap.
3) If any object above $3,000 is purchased and a Viking walks past the lot, the entire family is to be killed, and the Viking’s family comes into possession of the object.
4) Teenagers cannot go to school.
5) No recreational objects are allowed.
6) Must give a gift of $1,000 to their Monarch every 7 days.

Vassals:
1) Live in any lot smaller than 3x3.
2) Must make their only income from farming.
3) At least 2 Serfs are required to work as farmers.
4) Must give a gift of $200 to their Lord every 7 days.
5) Teenagers cannot go to school.
6) No recreational objects are allowed.

Serfs:
1) Must have a 50/50 relationship with their Vassal before marrying anyone.
2) Only upon marriage may Serfs leave their Vassal’s land.
3) Teenage Serfs must be sent to work for a Vassal. These Serfs may not attend school and must work as a full-time farmer.
4) If a Viking walks past a house with no Vassal and only Serfs, the family is to be killed.
5) Serfs may not get a job, but earn money by any other means necessary.

Vikings:
1) Parents may never befriend their children.
2) If a woman befriends another male Viking, they are forced to reproduce. If they are caught cheating, then the husband must fight the other Viking. If the husband wins, then the wife and other Viking are to be killed. If the other Viking also had a wife, then the Husband must marry her. If the Viking wins the fight, then the husband is killed and this Viking must continue to reproduce with her until she is an elder. If the Viking is unmarried, then he is required to marry her. However, if the woman befriends another Viking and is caught cheating once again, then the cycle starts all over again. Please note that this section has little historical reference, but is merely dramatized for plot twists.
3) Anytime someone walks past a Viking’s lot, then they are killed and the Viking wins money. If it is a Monarch killed, he is awarded $1,000 If it is a lord, $700. If it is a Vassal, $200. Serfs are killed anyways, but no money is gained. If another Viking walks past, then he/she is not killed.
4) Vikings may take jobs in the Criminal Career only, salary cap $500
5) No recreational objects are allowed.
6) Teenagers cannot go to school.
7) Women must marry.

Medieval & Renaissance (4 Generations):
Basics: With the fall of Vikings and the Black Death, governments emerge once again. Community lots develop, and old customs and learning once again emerge. Lords blend into Nobles, Vassals and Vikings blend into Merchants and Knights, and Serfs blend into Peasants. Learning resumes and sickness no longer claims millions of lives. For some young men, university life finally awaits.

Monarchs:
1) Must live in a large lot.
2) Must have at least one servant, and one Knight.
3) May stop having kids after one son; however keep in mind that if that son is killed, and the family is unable to reproduce another, then the entire family is demoted into Nobles.
4) May take any job; however heirs must take a job in either Politics or Military.
5) Male teens must go to school. Once they are at least 7 days from adulthood, they may be sent to universities.
6) Teenage women must be shipped away to Finishing School as soon as they turn teenager.
7) Can marry Monarchs and Nobles.
8) No teenagers may take jobs.
9) If a monarch is attacked, and a Knight has higher body skill than the attacker, then the attacker is killed. If the Knight has less, then the Monarch and Knight are killed. 10) Monarchs must start with a 0/0 relationship with their Knight. Once per week, their relationship increases by 10/10, unless the Knight undertakes a quest (See Knight rules).
10) Heirs cannot marry women with skin 3 or 4.

Nobles:
1) Must live in a large lot.
2) Must have either a servant or Knight.
3) If a noble is attacked, if a Knight has higher body than the attacker, then the attacker is killed.
4) Teenage women must be shipped away to Finishing School as soon as they turn teenager.
5) Heirs must marry Monarchs and Nobles, however non-heirs can marry Merchants or Knights also. They can fall in love with and reproduce with a Peasant; however if they are caught by anyone with a relationship lower than 50/50 then consequences occur. If they are male, then they are demoted to Peasant and can marry their lover. However, if it is a female, then she and her children are punished and isolated in her parent’s house. No visitors may visit her, however once her children turn adult, if they have maxed charisma, creativity, or logic, then they may leave. If they have maxed body skills and are at a relationship less than 10/10 with the woman’s parents, then they free the whole family and kill the parents. If they have maxed body and are at a relationship greater than or above 10/10, then they find a way to escape and their whole family is freed. Please note that this section has little historical reference, but is merely dramatized for plot twists.
6) Teenage non-heirs may take jobs.
7) Heirs can be females! However, only one out of every 5 Noble families can have a female heir.
8) May stop reproducing after two children are born. 9) Male Teens must go to school. Once they are at least 7 days from adulthood, they may be sent to universities.
10) If a Noble is marrying a Monarch, then they must have a job in Politics or Military, and have logic or charisma maxed. If a female is marrying a monarch, she must also have a gift of $3,000 in her inventory.
11) Males may take any job; however the only job females may take is a Madame at the Finishing School.
12) Salary cap: $900

Merchants:
1) Must own a home business, and have no other job.
2) Teenage women may be shipped away to Finishing School as soon as they turn teenager.
3) Teenagers can take jobs.
4) Male Teens must go to school. Once they are at least 5 days from adulthood, they may be sent to universities.
5) May marry only Knights, Nobles, Merchants, and Peasants.
6) If marrying a noble, the Merchant must have either logic, creativity or charisma maxed. If a female is marrying a noble, she must have a gift of $1,000 in her inventory.
7) If a male Merchant has maxed body, then they may become a Knight.
8) Must have at least two children.
9) Salary cap: $600

Knights:
1) May take jobs as Guards for the jail, working for Nobles and Monarchs, or work in the Military or Law Enforcement. Salary cap: $600
2) Males only!
3) Live in medium lot.
4) The first-born male child is born a Knight; however women are born Merchants (if the Knight works in a career track or as a Guard) or Nobles (if the Knight works for a Noble or Monarch). Other born males may choose to be a merchant or knight.
5) Can marry Merchants, Peasants, Nobles, or Princesses (Monarch daughters). However, if the Princess is caught doing romantic interactions and the Knight’s relationship is less than 50/25 with the King, then the Knight is to be demoted to Merchant level. If a Knight winds up accidently getting a Princess pregnant before marriage, then the Knight is sent to jail and the Princess’s baby is sent away. If she visits the knight and becomes pregnant again, then the Knight is killed and the Princess is thrown out of the house along with her child.
6) OPTIONAL: Knights may take on quests to rescue princesses, fight a monster, etc. You can choose these quests. These quests will raise your relationship (You pick the amount varying on quest difficulty) with the King every time one is completed.

Peasants:
1) May take jobs as Servants or an “un-respectable” career. Salary cap: $400
2) Male teenagers may go to school.
3) Teenagers cannot go to Finishing School or Universities.
4) Can marry Peasants, Knights, Merchants. They may fall in love and reproduce with Nobles; however, this carries consequences (See the Nobles rules) 6) If they possess an object worth over $2,000 and a Merchant, Noble, Knight, or Monarch with a relationship less than 50/50 walks by, then they are accused of stealing, and the eldest male is sent to prison.
7) Unlimited number of kids.

Community:
1) Jail: Stony prison that contains the living quarters for prisoners. People who also have negative daily and lifetime relationships with the king are sentenced here. People may visit the jail from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Breakfast is oatmeal (cereal) served at 7:00 a.m. and dinner is spaghetti served at 7:00 p.m. Prisoners may carry out romantic interactions with visitors if it is their wife or the girl they are courting; however if a guard walks past, then the prisoner misses the next meal. Jail cells are to have see-through windows, or a fence that stretches to the ceiling to replicate bars. There are to be two guards.
2) A variety of other community lots are acceptable.
3) One university. The family must pay $10,000 per son who attends.
4) One Finishing School containing a variety of things directed towards launching women into society. Must have two Madames (class Noble) as workers. The family must pay $5,000 per daughter who attends.

cont...

tot 2
 

Exploration and Colonization (3 generations):
Basics: Finally, people are starting to get out there and see the world! Many families, including yours, have decided to be one of the many American Colonists, and see life across the Atlantic for yourself. Monarchs and Patricians morph into the Upper Class, Merchants and Knights morph into the middle class, and Peasants morph into the Lower Class. Any skin 3 families must morph into Native Americans, and Skin 4 into slaves.

Upper Class:
1) Large lot.
2) Marry only Upper or Middle class.
3) Male teenagers are to attend school. They may go on to attend universities.
4) Non-heirs may take teenage jobs.
5) Female teens are to stay at home and help around the house.
6) Must hire 1 Servant.
7) Males can take any job. Females remain unemployed. If they are plantation owners, then they are to hire at least 4 farmhands (Indians, the Lower Class, or Slaves).
8) Women and men may have affairs; however if the women is caught in an affair, the husband and other man fight. If the other man wins, then the Husband is killed and the Woman lives alone unless someone chooses to marry her. If the husband wins, the other man is killed.
9) May stop having kids after 1 child is born.
10) If they are farmers, then they are to live on a plantation.

Middle Class:
1) Medium lot.
2) Can own businesses or farms.
3) May have one servant.
4) Males can take any job. Females remain unemployed. If they are farm owners, then they are to hire at least 3 farmhands (Indians, Slaves, or the Lower Class). Salary cap: $700
5) Women and men may have affairs; however if the women is caught in an affair, the husband and other man fight. If the other man wins, then the Husband is killed and the Woman lives alone unless someone chooses to marry her. If the husband wins, the other man is killed.
6) Marry only Upper, Middle, or Lower class.
7) Male teenagers are to attend school.
8) Teens may take teenage jobs. 9) Female teens are to stay at home and help around the house.
10) May stop having kids after 2 children are born.
11) If they are farmers, then they are to have a small plantation.

Lower Class:
1) Small lot.
2) Males may work as Farmhands or any career that, in modern times, does not require a college degree. Salary cap: $400
3) Females may work as servants.
4) Teens may not attend school.
5) Male teens may get jobs; female teens must help around the house.
6) Marry only Slaves, Indians, Middle Class, or Lower Class.
7) Women and men may have affairs; however if the women is caught in an affair, the husband and other man fight. If the other man wins, then the Husband is killed and the Woman lives alone unless someone chooses to marry her. If the husband wins, the other man is killed.
8) May stop having kids after 5 are born.

Native Americans:
1) Must live in a large, wooded lot.
2) Sleep in tents, hammocks, or teepees (small, octagonal rooms).
3) Must have at least two kids.
4) No teens may attend school.
5) Houses should be clumped around other Native Americans, forming Tribes.
6) Get jobs as Farmers, Servants, or Farmhands.
7) They are killed or forced to sell their land and relocate if other families live too close to their tribe.
8) Marry only other Native Americans and the Lower Class.
9) Starting bonus of $10,000 is family-funded ONLY to purchase Native-themed furniture and landscaping.

Slaves:
1) Must live in a small lot.
2) Can work as Farmhands, Farmers, or Servants.
3) Must marry only slaves and lower class.
4) Killed if they get into a negative relationship with anyone with skin 1 or 2 in the Upper, Middle, or Lower Class.
5) Killed if they have an object worth over $1,000 and someone in the Upper Class walks by.
6) If a slave is working as a farmhand and gets caught performing romantic interactions without their Master’s permission, they are killed. If they woohoo with and become pregnant by their master, the baby is put into slavery. If a male and female both have over 5 body skill and work as farmhands, their master forces them to reproduce, and the baby is born into slavery.
7) Unlimited Kids!
8) If they are a servant, as soon as they marry, they must move out.

Community:
1) One University. They must pay $20,000 per child due to the only universities being overseas.
2) A variety of other shops.



cont..

Victorian (3 generations):
Basics: People have definitely settled down quite a bit since the original colonies had formed, and now the era points towards highly-groomed women and intelligent gentlemen. Say hello to bustle skirts and operas, in comes the Victorian Era! Native Americans slowly either are forced to move or face the wrath of the government. Yours have luckily chosen to stay behind; however half your Native American Families have been killed. The other half slowly blend into the Lower Class, until it is common to see a Native face in the cities. All slaves have been freed, so it has also become common to see a dark face in the cities. However, that doesn’t mean society treats former-slaves very well. People with Skin 1 and 2 can only marry People with Skin 1 and 2, unless if they have over 7 nice points or have mixed parents. It’s about time a stable government has finally locked down on their Police Force, so now you don’t have to worry about any more murderous fights. However, now anyone who fights someone a class above them is thrown in jail, even if they lose. Congrats, you’re almost done!

Upper Class:
1) Large lot.
2) Marry only Upper or Middle class.
3) Male teenagers are to attend school. They may go on to attend universities.
4) Non-heirs may take teenage jobs.
5) Female teens are to stay at home and help around the house or attend Finishing Schools.
6) Must hire 1 Servant.
7) Males can take any “respectable” job. If they are Plantation Owners, then they are to hire at least 3 Farmhands (Lower Class). Females remain unemployed or work as Madames at Finishing Schools
8) Women and men may have affairs; however if the women is caught in an affair, the woman is shunned by society (demoted to Middle Class), she and her husband are to be divorced, and she is sent to live with her parents or the man she was having an affair with.
9) May stop having kids after 1 child.
10) Parties must be thrown once every two weeks.

Middle Class:
1) Medium lot.
2) Can own businesses or farms.
3) May have one servant.
4) Males can take any job, including a Jail Guard or Farmhand. If they are Plantation Owners, then they are to hire at least 3 Farmhands (Lower Class). Females remain unemployed or work as Madames at Finishing Schools. Salary cap: $700
5) Marry only Upper, Middle, or Lower Class.
6) Teens may take teenage jobs.
7) Female teens are to stay at home and help around the house or go to Finishing Schools.
8) May stop having kids after 2 children.
9) Women and men may have affairs; however if the women is caught in an affair, the woman is shunned by society (demoted to Lower Class), she and her husband are to be divorced, and she is sent to live with her parents or the man she was having an affair with.
11) Parties must be thrown once every two weeks.

Lower Class:
1) Small lot.
2) Males may work as Farmhands or an “un-respectable” career. Salary cap: $300.
3) Females may work as servants.
4) Teens may not attend school.
5) Male teens may get jobs; female teens must help around the house.
6) Marry only Middle Class or Lower Class.
7) Women and men may have affairs; however if the women is caught in an affair, they are to be divorced, and she is sent to live with her parents or the man she was having an affair with. 8) Unlimited Kids!

Community:
1) Jail: Stony prison that contains the living quarters for prisoners. People who are convicted of assault live here. People may visit the jail from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Breakfast is cereal (Oatmeal) served at 7:00 a.m. and dinner is spaghetti served at 7:00 p.m. Prisoners may woohoo with visitors if it is their wife or the girl they are courting; however if a guard walks past, then the prisoner misses the whole next day without food. Jail cells are to have see-through windows, or a fence that stretches to the ceiling, to symbolize bars. There are to be two guards.
2) A variety of other community lots are acceptable.
3) One university. The family must pay $15,000 per child who attends.
4) One Finishing School containing a variety of things directed towards launching women into society. Must have two Madames as workers. The family must pay $10,000 per child who attends.

As soon as your 20 generations are done and the first child is born... Congrats! You’ve reached the Modern Age!

Official Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/SimsAToT?ref=br_tf

To everyone who doesn't know me: Hi, I'm VT. I've been playing the alternative version of this challenge created by Starsaphire, one of our other players, for a while now - just not as a historical challenge. Mine is set in a post-apocalyptic future where half the human race mutated, and the other half died out. My challenge story follows ten of the surviving 'muters' and their attempts to survive and build a new world - and catch lots of fish. It can be found here: My Website

To everyone who does know me: Hi everyone, VT is here! I haven't had much time to play my ToTM lately but I'm hoping to make some progress today. Maybe after I can try to make my website a bit prettier.

I hope to see at least some new players on this thread. This is a great challenge in both its versions and all of us here are enjoying it so far.

- VT

Hi VT ! Glad to see you found your way here. I am looking forward to your next update. I just finished playing the Gallant's so Im hoping to have their story up soon. For anyone wanting to follow along my blog is http://www.simslifeandtimes.blogspot.com/

Great challenge, anna220. Thank you for posting it here. Although I can't start something this intense until my prosperity neighborhood implodes, I'm adding The Test of Time to my list of things I want to do in TS2. So I have some questions.

* Global:
If a Sim is assaulted on a community lot and loses, do you kill them the next time you are on their residential lot? Is the rule the same if both the Sims fighting on a community lot are non-controllable? (I ask because I rarely deliberately kill Sims. I assume they can't die on a community lot.)

What do you mean by "Neighborhood rotations"? -- Must play every lot X number of days, in order? (I usually sync my games down the day, so Sims marrying into different lots don't fall out of sync with their true birthday. Is that acceptable?)

* From the Neanderthal section:
You say couples should try for baby as frequently as possible, but I assume these Sims have stuff to do (farming and fishing). Is there a guideline on how many times per day a couple should Try for Baby? Once a day? Once a day unless they're exhausted from labor? Every waking minute until the female is pregnant, then everyone works?

8)Once the kids grow up, they are to each buy the same size lot as their parents and have their funds set to their entire family's funds - What does "have their funds set to their entire family's funds" mean? They get to start with as much money as their parents/original household had when they left it? They're to be set to §3000 as their parents were at the start of the challenge? Any money the new household is left with must be subtracted from the original household (so if you want the original household to retain all of its money, the new household's funds should be set to §0)?

* From the Roman section:
When the upper-class families stop Trying for Baby, can they WooHoo (i.e., use birth control)?

* From the Dark Ages
The more children for protection, the better. There is no limit to the number of children you can have. - return to the Neanderthal rule of must try for baby whenever that option is available?

I'm going to be honest: I'm uncomfortable with the racism inherent in the original rules. I am NOT calling anna220 or SwallowTail87 racist and I am NOT trying to stir up drama. I recognize this challenge is pursuing certain Eurocentric historical norms with both its race and gender-based rules, but real-world racial bias is not something I like to reflect in my game, so I deflect that bias onto fantasy skintones. Which is one reason I am attracted to VT's alternative version. (Another reason is that I think a post-apocalyptic world would require less cc to reflect each generation. I fail at period games.) Is there a link available to Starsaphire's alternative version, or is it just an ad-hoc setting change from historic to post-apocalyptic?

Hi Mangaroo thanks for your interest ! Wow you are a brave soul to read all those rules lol I dont think I have done more than skim them myself. Whenever I start to read ahead I get scared of what I got myself into and stop. Saying that, there is a lot to this challenge that is a work in progress. Taliah is the farthest along and she is almost ready to start the Roman era. We all have seemed to play this a little differently. I was going to download all sorts of caveman items and then decided to have my sims go with a beach theme instead so I could take advantage of what is in the game already. Many are not interested in playing the game the way history tells us it really happened so please feel free to put your spin on it. Even in the rules ST mentioned you could rank people according to wealth instead of colour so I do not think there was any offense meant when she created it. Now lets try to answer your questions. Please note that this is only my take on things and we tend to talk things out to see what general opinion is. I did not help her create this awesome challenge - but I think she did a fabulous job !!

- Taliah has become our resident Dr Evil lol I do believe the way she handles the fights is move the loser to a lot and then deal with them there. She just had a whole lot die from flies lol while we might have a problem with killing sims... she seems ok with it. I havent had anyone fight yet strangly enough. Maybe I need to lighten up on the god complex and let my sims a little more free will ;-)

- rotations : I play each lot in the same order 5 days or when the season changes to the next one. I started my sims off on their own lots but VT and some others had everyone together to start and then moved them out as the families grew.

- Taliah has the unlimited sims thingy so she didnt mind having tons of babies ( which was probably a good thing give her penchant for death :-P ). I dont play with hacks so Im stuck with 8 sims per lot. That meant I gave the female a break between babies. I figured even in caveman days she got a day off from woohoo lol so I give them 24 hrs after birth and then start again and will only try for baby again 24 hrs later.

- Moving out : I just had my first teens move out ! So I used the same lot as the parents of the man ( I saved them in the simbin as empty lots ) and then will give them the same money as the parents had the last time I played their lot. I use the sims2DB to keep track of my families which helps with remembering who is next, what I have planned and how much money each lot has. Once you get going its months between lot plays so unless you keep track you wont remember who everyone is let alone what you have planned lol

- Later on there is a limit to the amount of kids ( which believe me I am going to be so thankful for to try to reduce the population ) so yes I would say you can woohoo only

- Dark ages : yes that sure sounds like a baby boom is going to happen again!

For anyone who chooses to play along with us we welcome any and all feedback/questions. It has been so much fun so far. Since I posted this challenge here Ive been peeking at some of the others listed and I am definitely going crazy wanting to do them all at once ! But I must force myself to stick with this one as long as I can or until the game implodes :-D

PS - if you want to look at the others blogs/websites I have the links to them on my blog.

Resident Dr Evil reporting for duty! *re-attaches halo with extra strong superglue* Now everyone will think I have a vindictive streak a mile wide against my poor helpless little simmies at the mercy of their tyrannical god-hand LoL

I have always believed this challenge in particular is just a starting point for the individual's creative talent - see what you want to see, play how you want to play. I was attracted to this challenge because I love all things historical and I wondered if it was even possible to play a Neanderthal era with sims that rely on modern day appliances - at first it was very difficult, but nearing the end of the era I find it so refreshing to "do without" everything( that they can) that I'm really sad to leave them now ;_; So saying, the original rules have been tweaked by everyone to a certain degree, as I'm pretty certain SwallowTail hadn't played it yet when she wrote it and even she doesn't follow them exactly. Personally I have been trying to follow the rules as closely as I can and only tweaking things that just make it too difficult (or near impossible) to play - such as not having anywhere for them to live - they don't do much in endless sun without shelter except suffer from heat stroke a lot and die thereby ending the challenge before it can barely begin >_> And originally there was no toilet in the rules - no toilet?! Have you ever played without a toilet? They won't do anything because they're desperate to use it, and then they won't do anything because they stink too much! Sims - gotta love em.

Enough babbling! On to the questions~

Community lot fighting - technically you're not supposed to have a community lot in the Neanderthal Era, but if you do I would say the rules still apply, so using the imagination the sim would be dead if they lost that fight or so badly wounded they wouldn't last long. Of course, maybe the sim they were in a fight with wasn't that strong either and just got lucky? (says me who had a man beaten in a fight with his wife and is now six feet under). If you wish to kill off fight-losing sims then as soon as you get to their home lot I would say they have to go. Admittedly, I didn't think I would ever kill a sim off, and some in the first generation got lucky, but when you have 15 families to play through and nearly 80 sims - you might be quite happy to see a few "disappear"! Also - the Roman Era consists of a "Slave" sim being killed "every 7 days" in the Colosseum - so if killing off your sims make you squeamish perhaps that rule should be *cough* glossed over? ^_^ I'm just glad it's the Roman Era soon and pools are allowed, I tell ya, the fly population in Tempus is getting out of control.

I'm with Anna on this one - my neighbourhood rotations are seasonal - I play a family for all five days of one season and then move on the morning of the first day of the next season.

Woohoo/trying for babies - in the first gen, as soon as the baby was born I would stick the parents in a bed and try at least 3 times, if nothing happened then they got a day off and went out into the garden to bake; with the population explosion though I only tried once a day, and only more than that if I really wanted that couple to keep having kids, and sometimes not at all for that round, just to keep the families different and interesting.

Oh the funds question - I remember the confusion so clearly now @_@ The very first sim couples - the founders - start with $3000, depending on how industrious you are with growing and selling crops depends on how much you have when it's time to start the next Generation. So for example - the Smith family started with $3000, they have accumulated $10,000 when their second born son decides he wants to start his own lot, therefore that son gets to move out and start on a new lot with $10,000. It is basically whatever family funds the parents have "currently" at the time the kid wants to move out.

Really, if anyone playing this is a stickler for rules then just follow the rules as best you can, but if something makes you uncomfortable, or you think a rule is ridiculous or just don't like it, then change it; it's completely open for interpretation. The main thing is that you enjoy what you are playing ^_^

If anyone would like a peek at how my challenge played out (and you have a lot of time to waste) then you are more than welcome to visit my little website - http://tempustemporis.weebly.com/

taliah~

@Mangaroo: Yes, I'm not keen on the skin-1 dominance thing either, which is one reason I'm playing the alternative version of the challenge. It can be found here although only the first two generations' rules have been completed. Hopefully the creator will show up again soon. I'm sure Anna and Taliah miss her too.

- VT

Hey Taliah ! Glad to see you followed the trail of breadcrumbs. I think this is some of the best advice:

Thanks Anna ^_^ This is a good forum yeah? I can't believe I've not been here before; it works really well for me *famous last words eek* It's a bit sad though that all that conversation/good advice over the last year is on the other one >_> ah well, onwards and upwards!

I know ! There were so many great ideas floating around. Im sure we will get back in the swing of things here in no time. Especially when we make the era transformation lol

Hey, are you guys still here?! :P

I know I haven't been particularly active myself lately, but I have to get a website for my main 'hood up before it turns four years old on Saturday... building, building, building. So I haven't been playing my ToTM much - but I just wanted to let you know that next week I will definitely get back to playing it. I just haven't had time lately.

Any updates from your games?

- VT

Yup still here ! I updated on the weekend and have been playing the next family when I can get the time. Its amazing how much easier a lot is when its not maxed or close to being maxed out with sims lol

Hey all! I'm always here~ ^_^ I'm not playing at the moment, the evil sims 3 sucked me in over the last week sooooo... *traitor!* ahem...plus I've been getting extra hours at work which I can't really snub since I need the money, ya know, that stuff other than simoleans that actually allows me to indulge my love for sims (and books) *chews nails off* I'll get back to the aToT, I always do. I saw your update Anna and am so excited for you to begin your next gen - just one more round yay! *cheer squad in full swing*

taliah~

Just had to share this with you - I got back to my ToTM today, and since Banshee and Zip were the only two muters who weren't expecting when I left off, I told them to go try for a baby. Maybe it was something to do with installing ACR between the last time I played it and now (as if there wasn't enough drama over there!) but the second I clicked 'try for baby' I heard the pregnancy music and Zip hadn't even put down his fishing pole! Just to check I wasn't hearing things, I tried again and there was no try for baby option there... They didn't even woohoo - Zip just stopped next to the hammock to play red hands with Vortex, and Banshee whipped a pillow and book out of thin air and started flicking through the pages as if nothing had, er, not happened... or something... well, they're mutants, maybe they can get pregnant through telepathy. Oh, the strangeness of Sims.

- VT (hoping her game isn't glitched to Mars now!)

Edit: Stupid auto link thingy. I mean Zip the mutant blue furry thing from my ToTM, not a zip file.

I haven't been into the game to check this yet, but perhaps in ACR you can click on "try for baby" with someone and they get pregnant without having to woohoo - but then that might just be the tombstone one I'm thinking about >_> I'm intrigued though! Either way it fits your game doesn't it? ^_^ with mutants you never know when they're going to breed next~

It doesn't usually work like that, at least not in my other 'hoods that I've tested it in. Then again, those were created after I installed the mod, not before. When I went into each apartment it looked just like it does when you install a new EP, with everyone standing doing nothing and the bedcovers stuck in 'I'm covering a Sim position' when the Sims had popped out of their beds to stand there like idiots... maybe it's a new-mod-in-old-hood thing. Anyway, I'm sure I can work it into the plot somehow, and this is VT's game, stranger things have happened in it.

Hey all.. I heard that there was some activity going on over here involving AToT, and was glad to see that it was true.
I will try to answer any questions about the challege, but seeing as I am almost completely inactive on here (my old account got deleted because I logged on once), then chances are I might miss a few.

Glad to see that everyone's game is coming along great. I am still stuck in Neanderthal stage.. but then again, I am on one of my "no-sims sprees", in which I get bored of my game and dont play for months. I think last time I played for over an hour was in November. I'm going to try and put in some hours today.

Good luck everyone!

~ST~

Hi ST! Glad to see you found us! Don't worry about your boredom - I spent the best part of last year (August-April) hardly playing at all. Beat that. Which is why I'm dreading the annual two weeks in France with my family even more than usual this year. That was the point that everything ground to a halt, and it's only just starting to pick up. Oh well, three months to make some progress with my Sims...

- VT

Hi ST ! The bread crumbs worked I hope you get back into your game. Ive been away from it for the past couple of weeks due to another game taking up all my time but yesterday I got back to it. Only 2 sims days left on the current lot before I can update again.

This is a cool Challenge!!I'm going to attempt it

Welcome Felix_Lovette. Good luck and if you have any questions let us know or just want to give an update we would love to see it !

I remember this! I tired attempting a long, long, long time ago... But I never recorded it. But after reading the rules again, and some your guys blogs on it, I think I have a great idea for this using Enayla's skins. I just need to find some fantasy clothes....

Welcome Darkroselyn ! I hope you find everything you are looking for. Just this weekend I was on a hunt for elder kimonos. I was so surprised how easy it was to find them right here in this very site. lol I like when I do not have to go far to locate things. I am really interested in seeing what you do with your version.

So am I - my own playstyle is 'alternative science-fantasy' and I don't allow human-looking Sims or Earth-like settings in my game (with the exception of my Nuidya Tribe, who were around before I was so picky and are all part lizard alien anyway) so I can't wait to hear what you come up with.

Good luck with your version of the challenge, from the Simmer who has over 100 custom skins and an eye colour for nearly every day of the year and still has very few that could pass for human genetics.
- VT

Well I am noticing there is a lack of fantasy clothes on this site. Or at least the kind of one's I want. So I figure I'll have to make most of them on my own... But I'm not going to try to make the hair on my own. I guess I'm just going to have to shift through thousands of downloads for that.

PS. I was wondering if any of you guys knew some good blender tutorials for the sims 2? Or should I try lurking elsewhere?

Thank you

ugh I dont envy you going on a hair expedition ! Tho it is so much fun and I tend to go totally overboard downloading when I do lol Im not sure what blender tuts are so Im probably not the best person to ask haha

I found my hair....I think. Now all I have to do is make the clothes.... This going to take forever XD. But with the ideas I have in mind, the wait is definitely going to be worth it. In the meantime though, I should probably set up the website...

EDIT: I now have a website... You can check it out if you like, but nothing much is on there yet, I don't even have a proper name for it

http://lizabelly.weebly.com/

Congrats on the website ! Now get to work making your clothes so you can start the challenge lol

Guess what, everyone? Debs is still active! She posted on the old thread yesterday, so I've given her a link to the new one. Hopefully we'll see her and Star joining us again soon.

- VT

You Whoo! (cupping mouth with my hands) Where are you? (cupping eyes with hands) Oh there you all are. I thought you all had given up on TS2 thread. Well; hi there everyone. I am pleased to see you still continuing ATOT and that I can tag along with you.

I am still playing the neanderthal era first generation and now transistioning into the next section of Neanderthals. I am playing this challenge with the mash-up that Starsaphire has developed. I still have my cave clan living in their apartment caves. The teens are still going to school, fishing, learning how to garden, and dance. I have created a Witch Doctor and Gypsy Woman to live among the caves for storyline purposes only.

So far Generation 1 are passing away and leaving their young teens alone to fend for themselves. The oldest teens have moved out of the fold and in search for a better place to survive the harsh droubt and famine that has befallen their cave area. Since the first 2 born of each family are girls (go figure) they are waiting for the rest of the group to catch up in age to start their next generation mfamilies.


I am now finished with my Easter Weekend family Baby Shower and my kitty Coco is now stable and feeling better. I now can play ATOT full steam ahead.
Now all we need is Starsaphire to come back from her many daily activities to join us again. (I might give her a jingle and see what she is up too).

I hope to follow you here now. See ya soon.
Debs

Uuu ^^ I've read this challenge a week or two ago, but I usually play only Sims 3 Challenges, so I didn't even think to try it.
But it is just too interesting and complete and ... interesting ^^ So I had to get back to my old Sims 2 and see if I can play for more than two or three generations.

I created the families last evening, but I've only played with four of them(for a week with each).I'll post some photos of them later (I had to recreate one of the families, because I forgot to make them spouses ^^" ), but I'll give the names now ^^ (I had to write them on a piece of paper, because they are too complicated XD )

Silas and Nasrin Afia, with Skin 1.Their first born, Adaeze.
Enkidu and Olinda Chidi, with Skin 1.Their first born, Esi.
Gunju and Neka Desta, with Skin 4.Their first born, Arawn.
Adripin and Zerdali Ime, with Skin 1(Adripin) and 4(Zerdali).Their first born, Nahele, with Skin 4.
Emem and Eniola Kgosi, with Skin 4.

Well, it's hard, because I was used to Sims 3 and now all the things are a lot more complicated, but I really like this challenge and I wanna get faster to the Dark Ages and Victorian times ^^

Debs, welcome to our new home. Good to have you back, I've really missed you - and Star, too. Think you could try contacting her?

Lady Scarlet, much as I hate T'S'3, I also welcome you to our little challenge community. I'm VT, the official Weird One here.

Anyway, I hate to put a downer on things already, but my game has officially exploded on me. However, all is not lost... (OK, my hood is. But apart from that.)

A new ToTM is coming this way - same mutant future, different Sims, and to keep the memory of the old one alive I may have some of the kids from it as my second-gen add-ins. This one will take place in the city that my original ToTM Sims left, at around the same time as that one started. This time I'd like to give it a flavour similar to 'The Tribe' one of my all-time favourite TV shows - which means I may be taking a few liberties with the challenge itself.

Well, off to plan!
- VT

I'm back with some photos ^^ I played more, but I'm still at the first generations ^^ Well, it's quite interesting, so I'll keep playing.

The Afia family.Now they have 3 children: Adaeze, Ama and Dayo.
This is Nasrin.


And her husband, Silas.


The Chidi family has only 1 child, but there will be more soon.
Enkidu


His wife, Olinda.


Desta family has one son, Arawn.
Neka


And Gunju.


Ime family.This is the most amazing family from my game.The husband has Skin 1 and the wife has Skin 4, but their second child is ... more like an Albino-child(her skin is almost as white as the paper).I'll post a picture of her when she'll be a teenager.
Adripin


His wife, Zerdali.


And the last ones, the Kgosis.
Eniola.


And the husband, Emem.


Well, here they are ^^ Hope you like them.

I've started playing Starsapphire's version and have been having a lot of fun. I divided the singles into two apartments, male and female, and let ACR do it's stuff. It's been very interesting - every sim had the highest attraction with someone of the opposite skin colour, which I'm pretty pleased with since I'm really interested in how genetics will turn out (and I'm going to rank families based on wealth, because the alternative is just bad.) I've been trying to think of what I'll do if Starsapphire doesn't update the challenge, but I don't have many ideas yet...

I've been playing completely hands off, only telling sims to eat if they're about to die, and only directing someone to garden if they have a want to gain a skill point. I really love how simple, almost childlike the sims feel due to the lifestyle they have. In terms of romance it's been pretty cool - I have jealousy set to 'if married only,' and I only marry them if they both have a want to. I only have one married pair at the moment, and I only have one other monogamous relationship. I then have two threesomes... it's pretty cool really. Due to this what I'm doing with surnames for children is "mother's surname'father's surname." I quite like the combination - so far I have Shah'lea, Mo'lea, Zeezee'smo, Ka'flo, Mor'rou... and one day there might be a Zeezee'huo, if the poor dude ever manages to beat the woman's other partner to it. I figure the children of the next generation will drop the approstraphe (eg. Shalea) and the one after that will evolve it again somehow.. etc.

If Starsapphire happens to drop by... I'd love to hear even vague thoughts of what you were planning for other stages of the challenge, even if it's just a one sentence concept.

Welcome aboard, Pearlie. Hopefully Star will find us here soon, but try not to worry about challenge updates until generation 3 is about to grow up. Love what you've done with the names, especially with evolving them as time goes on. I might have to try that myself. Being something of a culture geek I try to give each hood I create its own naming system (I say 'try' because names are my weakness) so your idea sounds like a good one to me.

- VT

Well I go on vacation for 10 days and look at all the activity here ! Welcome to Pearlie and Lady Scarlet ! Im so impressed that this has pulled people from S3 to try it as well. It just goes to show what a great idea SwallowTail had originally Deb great to see you again ! I am hoping to get back to my simmies very soon so I can do a new update and look forward to what everyone else is up to as well. Lady Scarlet you have some good looking sims there ! Genetics should be in your favour. Not having to get a job or buy the latest furniture/toys etc really lets you focus on the living off the land part of it which is really fun. I am actually not sure what will happen when I move thru the ages and have to work again lol its going to be much harder to balance it all I think.

Hi there friends,
VT, Anna, and all the new Simmers. I am glad to be able to join you all here.

I am happily updating my weebly website this weekend. I am now at the point in my game where all my Gen 2 Neanderthals ( I call Cavesims) are all adults. All their parents (formerly Gen 1) are all gone. I am now ready to start my new adventure in the Mash-up of splitting them up into 2 clans. I have 7 couples in the Sha-Ka'ani Sea tribe, and 7 couples in the Sha-Ka'ari Sand tribe. I have them all paired up and ready to date and mate. I still do not know if I will have them get married yet, after all there were not any clergy back then yet. So I will be having a great time watching the fights and mating ritual going on. I have added a community lot to each 'hood so they have a chance to meet each other. I know they are not supposed to have contact with outside townies, I feel that I can control them on the community lots by not engaging them in any contact. I also had Corth the android come down from the space ship to take CT-4700 away with him back to Kystran. (she was Challen and Tedras ailen baby) I had fun with her for a time.

I have introduced 2 new charater sims to my clans for story purposes and moved them into the apt caves. Zorah the Old Gypsy Woman and Mumba the Witch Doctor (young male adult). They were supposed to have walk on parts in my story only but I liked Mumba so well, and so did my single female Martame, I decided to add him into the new Sea tribe.

I posted all the new storylines in my weebly webpage yesterday, now I am adding the construction and family album to the new section. You can cruise my site by going to Debestfriend4u.Weebly.com

I am excited to start playing my couples on their new individual lots. My plan for this group will be a contest to see who can build the bigest house, most beautiful landscape, and earn enough funds to become the leader of each tribe. My biggest challenge will be not have all the lots look the same. I like cookie cutter lots to hop between.

Well, I have to get back to my weebly webpage. I am so excited. I will peek at this from time to time this week to catch up on my reading your comments .
Hugs, Debs

OMG Drama with a capital D !!!! Pouring rain, thunder and lightning strikes, trees and people on fire and visits from Grimmy, motives in the red, visits by shrinks AND cockroaches !!!!! And that was just within 10 mins of going into my current lot. I just had to sit back, turn on the camera to capture it all and see where it led me. Wow sometimes Sims sure know how to knock your socks off LMAO Be sure to tune into the next update thats for sure to see what happened.

Im confused. I started this challenge before you Deb and your founders are already dead? Mine are just turning into elders this turn.

Hi all, I've missed you guys tremendously. Anna, thank you for creating this wonderful thread! Rome? Did you just return from Rome????? OMG, I hope you post some pics on your website under "Roman Times to be."

VT, I love your website. What a great beginning....oh wait, your neighborhood exploded? Oh no. I too experienced the magic lullaby at the hammock, but it didn't seem too much of an issue....but when I moved some of my sims to other apartments, their ghosts stayed on until I moved new tenants into their old apartments. No doubt about it, the apartments are a little glitchy. I've slowly matched everyone up in gen one (mostly because I wanted to capture some of the father's last names too) and all the couples are living on their own little lots.....and no more glitches....but no more zillions of fish either. I loved your sims and hope you can keep on playing them. (Still snickering at " Baby Squad Powers Activate").

Talia, you've got the most gorgeous sims ever! Loved seeing Elias (did I get the name right?) popping up EVERYWHERE. He is sooo cute and such a love-bug...how can you be mad at someone stealing the hearts of all the male heirs when it's Elias....think I'll just rename him Awesome. And I see you've already started creating that spooky lot where all sims should beware of things going bump in the night, with flies coming out to claim the lives of all living sims. Seems like the perfect creature breeding ground to me. LOL OMG, you have a black widow, an orphan raised to new heights, and all sorts of wonderfully diverse things going on in your game. I am green wit envy! Congrats on starting the new round!

Debs thanks for the email last week, which let me know that so much was still happening with this game! Call or text me anytime. Congrats on starting on Gen 2. I know, I know, we've been IMing all day, but still wanted to say how excited I am that you are beginning the mashup of gen 2. No worries, we'll get gen 3 up pretty soon.

*Waives energetically at all the new players* I've got some time on my hands for the next couple of weeks. I'm going to devote it to gardening and ToTM playing. Woot!

Just so you know, humans did not evolve from Neanderthals, we just share a common ancestor, like we do with monkeys (but closer).

That thing with the apartments is pretty standard; use Move Objects to get rid of them, or the moved-out sims will get memories of what happens there, and it's usually bad as they can't seem to clean up, go to the bathroom, bathe...

I'm sure they know that about the Neanderthals; somebody just liked the sound of it better than the alternatives. If I ever did this I'd call it "Neolithic," as that's when the agricultural revolution occurred; all hunting/gathering with a little casual horticulture before then. But I'm a prehistory geek.

Star! Welcome back! I'm afraid I couldn't move my Sims out of the apartments because my female Sims were all pregnant, and I'm fairly certain that causes worse glitches. But there will be a new ToTM (using the same basic setting, but different Sims) coming soon, and maybe some of my original Sims and/or their kids will join the new group as Gen 2 add-ins...

I'll try to get as much work done on my website as possible... maybe I'll create a site for each of my hoods, and link to all of them from the base site. Don't know if I can actually do that but I'll try. It might be just the thing I need to get me out of panic mode (there's a Major Event coming up on one of the few non-Sim-related sites I frequent, and the computer geek I am has spent the last month flapping around in a panic over it - pretty dumb, huh?)

- VT

I've moved several pregnant women out of apartments with no glitches apart from the standard "ghosts," which is fixable as described above.

Hi All~

I just realised how long it's been since I posted and thought I'd wave excitedly at you all - I'm still here! I have Neanderthal simmies in the background hurling rocks, mud, and verbal abuse to boot at me because they've been stuck in "almost at Roman Era OMG" limbo for the last month...or so >_> time sure does fly fast huh! ^_^ I have a huge editing project in the other non-sims world (you know, that same world that involves bills and taxes and what not bleh) in between working six days a week - so they've been a little...abandoned? *innocent* If I don't avoid them I get no work done - you know what I mean right? Right?! *in hysterics now from lack of simmies*

I hope you had a wonderful time in Rome - did she say Rome?! (excited anyway) - Anna! I'd like pics too! No pics? Go back and take some then! LoL I'm so envious, I would love to visit Rome, Venice while I'm at it, those islands down the bottom, oh heck let's throw in Greece and the rest of the mediterranean while we're about it! Pfft. Once upon a time... (back to reality now) Looking forward to seeing how your sims entertained you on your first day back; aren't they fantastic? Sims are awesome.

So good to see you again Star! I thought we had lost you but it seems you were just busy. Elias the Awesome has caught himself another fan - it's contagious right?! He's just too lovable! Some sims should be illegal, seriously >_> He was a lot of fun, but I had a very strange - though amusing - Round 11 that has me gnawing off my fingernails now at what to do next - and as I say that I'm thinking too myself "you say that every round and they always surprise you!" totally true.

I can't keep up with all the messages! @_@ Debs you are a pocket rocket at these challenges for sure! I only wish we were doing the same version so I could borrow *cough steal* some ideas for later gens as I'm sure you're going to leap ahead soon enough. It's such a fun challenge isn't it? ^_^

What was that about VT's game imploding? Does that mean no more mutant apocalyptic style sims? ;_; taliah is so sad now; I was really getting into that. Ganbatte, VT! Do your best!

That was all >_> *twiddles thumbs*....I am so not procrastinating in getting back to work - honest! *halo slips*

I hope to get back to my neanderthal simmies soon, and I'm always looking in here to see what's happening - forums are so much fun! Adieu~

taliah~

I've began this challenge yesterday, yet all of my toddlers are abducted by social workers due to overheat T.T
So far I could, out of 5 families with a total of 11 kids, only raise 2 to child and save them by throwing water balloons at them. This challenge is a lot harder then I thought, although it makes it more realistic: back in the Neanderthal-era most kids died in their first 3 years due to bad healthcare.

Not the whole game, Taliah, just the hood. Still got my CC and, like I already said, I'll be using the same basic concept for a new ToTM. I'm also planning on having at least some of my originals make an appearance in gen 2. *must run off to work on new hood now!*

- VT

Hey there friends,

Is that Talilah and Star? Wow, you sure have been away for a while. I quite understand about working 6 and 7 days a week. I used to do that once a long time ago.
Star finally read her emails to see my distress call, Welcome back from real life, We sure have missed you and Taliah.
Anna, did you say Rome? Wow I bet you had a great trip.
VT, did your Hood explode from a photon bomb? out of frustration? I have that happen to me a lot. My hood changes almost daily.
Taliah, I thought you knew, I am a professional Simmer. I have no life sitting here in the middle of this tiny little town in the Nevada Desert all day long with my senior citizen husband who loves to watch the TV all day long. This leaves me the computer to putter around with. I am sure my Sims love me a lot with all the attention I can give them.

I am not that far along, I am only starting gen 2 as adults in the first era. I slowed way down to let Star catch up so she can come up with the next era rules and guidelines.

Well, my Weebly site is up to date, I converted the Sea clan campground into a nice park, now I am off to try to figure out a new idea I had building multi level tree houses for my Sea Clan.
Hugs till next time, Debs

Oh yes, my hood glitched up. I'll miss it, it's one of only three hoods in over four years of playing that's lasted past setup... I really hate the creation process. At least my building skills have progressed past the shoebox house stage. (Hey, you should see what my kid brother did when I tried teaching him to use the build tools so he could do it for me. Bad idea. His houses were boxier than mine, and he used the Freetime basketball court floor pattern on the ceiling. Last time I ever let any of my relatives touch my game. )

- VT

Taliah great to see you again ! Welcome darkwingeddoll ! if you need any help then just give a holla, Someone will know what to do hopefully lol Did you build a building for the sims? I think this challenge is impossible without it. You NEED to get inside to get those temps down. Yes it was Rome !! Actually Athens, Santorini, Malta, Sciliy, Sorrento and Rome :-D but whos counting lol It was a cruise. And in Sorrento we crossed the Bay of Naples and went to Pompeii for the day so you can imagine the inspiration I got there ! First time ever that I ran out of memory for my camera - over 500 pics in total for a 10 day trip so not too bad lol And I would go back to Rome in a heartbeat. We didnt even get to see it all even tho we were there for 2 days - definitely needed more time. But the Vatican can take up the better part of a full day all on its own. When I get my camera hooked up and the pics downloaded I will try to post some on the blog for you to see - hopefully some of the 500 turned out decent :-P

Wow Anna, what an experience you had! I learned to take along a couple of thumb drives to download my pictures to. I am a shutter bug to say the least.

VT, I wish you would have told me you had glitches in your hood. I might have been able to fix it before you had to bomb it. The next time you have a glitch, try sending one sim in each household to a community lot and then right back again. It unglitches it the household apt. I stumbled this fix by accident. The other headache saving trick is to place your buildings to the lot and homes bin before you move any sims in. It saves you lots of time having to rebuild them.

I'm off to update my weebly page,
Hugs, Debs

Wow. this is exactly the type of think i've been looking for, i'm starting right away. now.

Thanks for the tips, Debs. I really wish I'd known that. My original ToTM crew will be greatly missed - would it be cheating to just recreate them as closely as possible and pick up more or less where I left off? I could always say they migrated again... yes, I think I'll do that. Vortex and Wildfire are one tough couple, after surviving the mutant apocalypse they wouldn't let a little glitch stop them. And I'm sure the singles would be more than happy to continue their shenanigans too. I'll go do that now.

- VT

edit: Anna, you get those pictures up, and make it snappy. (Pictures, snappy, get it? Well, it was worth a try.) I'd love to see what you've seen and done in Rome (and all those other places).

Well since my original post i played and played and played. I've created the hood, the original 56 lots, all the families, It's been a trip to say the least i played each family for a few weeks each, long enough to get several children in one or two families. I have lost spouses to grimmy. So there is one single father with his only son, a single mother with a daughter, and a boy girl twin set. i don't know what i would do with bass and squash meals.. Good luck teaching your toddlers anything!! it's a nightmare in these conditions! Since i have a LOT of free tie in the next couple weeks, I Have some questions since i plan to plow ahead.

What is the process for grown children to marry? do they marry members of the other families, or do we CAS them a spouse?

I've noticed some of the children bring friends home from school, usually members of the other 4 families. I have done my best to send them away ASAP, but the children have friendships created just from attending school. What do you suggest here, do i just keep sending them away when they come home with the kids?

Can we give Neanderthals beach lots or no?

Thanks!

Wow O_O you did all that in just one day?! That deserves a medal. I'm impressed. And you seem to be having a great time of it already ^_^ thanks to Grimmy. How interesting the next few rounds should be.

From the original rules:

---1) There is to be only bloodlines going from your original families. Starting with the Roman stage, you may also add one single adult CAS sim per family to the mix. These sims may be of any class, however choose wisely.---

Yeah well although I'm sure Neanderthals interbred like rabbits, the game doesn't allow that too easily so I added a new CAS couple when my gen 2 kids had grown up and moved out/started their own families. I plan to do that every generation as otherwise everyone will be related and nobody will be allowed to marry; which is a shame because if you look up the Romans they seemed to pretty much prefer their first cousins - keeping blood lines strong and all that good stuff huh. And yes - children of age to marry *cough* taliah uses this term lightly coz she is naughty *cough* marry those also of age from other families.

For the other children brought home from school - all townies, NPCs etc must be sent away, but kids of other families are allowed to stay.

As for the beach lots - why not? ^_^

taliah~

i changed it a bit.i added a monarch in victorian age.obvioussly,it queen vic.and i had a rule that you have to kill albert five days before he becomes an elder.also,they must have the same amount of kids as they did in real life.bassicly,you have to copy their life.

I'm going to give this challenge a go since I need a change of pace from my normal playing which has gotten rather boring and all of you seem to be having a lot of fun. However since historical stuff doesn't appeal to me, I'm going to alter things just a bit. I'll stick to the rules as much as I can, but like VT has his/her mutants, mine will be a group of aliens sent out from their dying home planet to colonize elsewhere. And they crash landed in my sim game, thus destroying any alien technology they posses. I'll get started just as soon as I finish organizing my DLs folder, which is rather large and only organized by the site I found the item on, thus leading to great headaches trying to find a single piece of content. However I'm almost (i hope!) finished so should be able to start playing this tomorrow, but hopefully later today. Anyway, off to play with Delphy's Download Organizer.

Two questions: One: hacks are allowed right? 'Cause my game is rather heavily hacked to squelch alot of sim annoyances. And Two: when splitting children off to their own households and assigning them the same amount of funds as their parent household, is that number the amount in the bank or the household's net worth (as visible from neighborhood view)? those tend to be very different numbers (especially as the value of household possessions get larger).

Thanks and I'll be back later (or tomorrow, one or the other) ~VP

I'm back ^^ I played more and I can't wait my sims to get into the Roman Empire and Dark Ages ^^ (I already downloaded lots of things perfect for those stages).But, until then ...

The Afia family now has 5 children: Adaeze (who's now a teen and already has a child with Esi Chidi, Adisa), Ama, Dayo and the twins Aliyah and Anisa.I wanted to make the game a little more interesting so at least one of the children from each family will have to die sooner or later.For this family, poor Anisa will have to die in her teens (13 days old).I think I'll miss her, because she's a really cute toddler.

The Chidi's have 4 children and one grand-daughter: Esi (a teen now, she has a daughter with Adaeze Afia, Adisa), Bongani, Anan (he's the one who is gonna have to die as a 27 days old Adult) and Abimbola.

Desta family has 4 children and another on the way: Arawn, twins Anuli and Awti and Baako (poor kid is gonna die as a 5 days old Adult).As I just said, Neka is going to give birth to another baby very soon.

Adripin and Zerdali Ime have 5 children: Nahele, Imanu (the albinous girl), Chichi (well, they had another white child O.O ) and the twin Dada and Enu.Dada has Skin 1, just like her father, while her sister has Skin 4.

Kgosi family has 5 children: Eshe, Femi, Dakarai, Achieng and Ige(sadly, he'll die as a 2 dayls old child).Emem is now a plant sim, but that is kind of an advantage for my game, since they have so many kids to take care of and it's complicated to look after all of them (and, with only three simple motive bars ... Emem is a great sim ^^ ).

Adaeze Afia and Esi Chidi got married and moved together with their child, Adisa (kind of ... weird, because Esi got her husband's family name, while her daughter kept her mother's maiden name >.> ).Esi is also pregnant again ^^
So, generation 2, here I come ! ^^ One more generation and they'll have to change their life style and put on their roman togas ^^
I'll post some photos of the teenagers later ^.~

I'm really having fun with this challenge, so I'll keep playing as much as I can ^^ Guess I'll be busy this summer ^^

Thanks for Answering those questions for me Taliah,
I'm so happy to know i can make CAS spouses for my second gen I've been playing long and hard and i was trying to workout couples from the 5 families only. it just wasn't working the way i'd hoped, Where i could pair a few up here and there, i was left with more males than females to go around, and i'm very excited to get some new DNA in there.
Thanks again! i'm about 5 minutes away from spending the rest of the day and night in my hood!
Happy playing!

Also! I wanted to add that I've had to add small 3x3 shacks to the properties after a couple harvests. The sunstroke was making me lose entire second generation children groupings to Social services. which is Extremely Un-Neanderthal. lol I have one family that lost 5 kids to social services, and aside from their eldest teen son, it was craptastic, i had them start over once the shack was built and it seemed to solve all future fainting spell social service problems. I'm going to be kind of bummed about it,as they had a daughter i was rather fond of! and they ended up with 4 sons on top of the lost 5 children, before mama died. ah well! that brings me to a probably dumb question.

Where do kids taken away go? they remain on the family trees, and relationship screens, but i wonder can they be adopted? likely not?

Adopt away! Social services is where adoptions come from. Last taken, first in the queue (which is going to be weird for the ages).

However, people who've had children taken away are not considered good candidates for adoption, so they can't go straight back into the families they came from. Also their memories will be messed up, I believe. I've only ever adopted one toddler that was taken by social services, and he has relationships with all his former siblings, but no memory of anything prior to being adopted. I've read on here that adopted children forget their first set of parents?

Taken by social services doesn't happen in hunter-gatherer societies, but child death is common and children who are orphaned are routinely farmed into their nearest kin's family or taken over by mothers who have lost kids, so you can still make it work.

Thanks, great points.

So that brings me to a new question. the Rules state

"7) Everytime someone marries out of their social class, they are to take on the higher of the two classes.."

So where I have a poor chap and his teen son, (mother died after childbirth) they happen to be skin 4, i'm not big on the racial undertones in this challenge. and i think the emperor will go to highest family funds . regardless of colour. but in this round, i'm going with it. and so if the skin 4 adopts these skin 1 children. Does he and his son move up to the higher class, or do the kids become lower class?

if i understand the rules correctly, class doesn't start until the roman age, so your skin 1 kids with the skin 4 adoptive parent won't suffer for something way beyond their control.

Excellent thanks!

Wow, I've missed a lot of posts. So many new Simmers playing this challenge! And VP (this might get confusing, having a VP and a VT on the thread... all we need now is a VQ, VR and VS! ) just so you know, I am a girl. Good to know I'm not the only non-historical Simmer out there.

- VT

VT, good to know. And having that many Vwhatevers would start to get annoying eventually. If only for the reason of all of us getting confused as to who said/did what. It would however be at least somewhat amusing for a while. But anyway, this challenge is beginning to slightly annoy me already and I haven't even created anyone yet. But that's b/c I decided I needed special default skins for this and they are proving to be difficult to get the way I want them. However, once I do, my aliens will look completely awesome. That and my story line involves the skins for some part. I wish this skin would hurry up and cooperate already 'cause i really want to get to playing. Ok now I'm off to go fiddle in SImPE some more. Hopefully the next time I post will be after having had played a bit. ~VP

That would definitely be a few V's too many. (It is a little strange that both of us non-historical players are V-somethings, I think...) Anyway, good luck getting your skins to work. I have to say I really admire SimPE users for both knowing how to work it and not being too chicken to download something like that, like I am. You start playing soon, y'hear?

- VT

Definitely starting today. Got the skin file working beautifully. Just have to make my founders. The females are done, but I realized as I was making the first male that I have no clothes that work with how I want them to look. So I had to go find some. Found a few that will do, but aren't perfect, but since I'm not in the mood to do recolors right now, I'll deal. There is a distinct lack of male sci fi clothing unless you want stuff modeled after a TV show or movie. That or I really need to refine my search skills. And really SimPE isn't hard to use, once you know what your doing (tutorials are wonderful). It used to scare the crap out of me and I only got it in the first place to recategorize clothes, but once I decided I wanted to create stuff and started really using it, the fear just went away. Anyway, I'm off to make those last five sims now. See y'all later! ~VP

EDIT 5/25 (only b/c I'm against double posting): So still haven't started yet... I blame the clothes. All the males were going to be stuck in the exact same thing while the females had different colored versions of the same thing. So I had to recolor the males' stuff so it matches the female. And I then had to alter the alpha and stole a part from the females' outfit. But now they'll all look awesome, and match so it appears they all came from the same ship... I so wouldn't worry about this if i weren't planning on taking pictures. *sigh* ok now I really will make the last of those sims and hopefully start playing before I go to bed.~VP

Hi friends, Wow we are sure growing by leaps and bounds here.

Welcome all you new players.

I am Debs, I have been playing this challenge since December, 2010. I am on Neanderthal era, generation 2. I am playing a little diffrent as well, I started my challenge from a book I read. Johanna Lindsey's Warrior Woman. It is very loosly based, as to say I used the names in the book and a little of the begining of the story. I keep a Weebly webpage using my name. You can see my story progression there if you are interested. I update it each weekend.

So far my couples are all paired up and ready to pop with their first babies. I still need to build their tree houses in my Sea Clan hood, and I decided to dig daylight basements for my Sand Clan. I plan on earning the funds by beachcombing and digging for buried treasure. Yes, I am mashing up the rules a bit, It is ok, my friend starsaphire and I are making them up as we go along.

Well, the power keeps going on and off, the winds are at 30 to 55 mph today, so I dont want to lose my game or computer.
Hope you all have fun.
Hugs, Debs

This challenge is so fun! I've done a few short challenges and I wanted to try a longer one and I found this and it was so interesting, I started it right away.

I've just started round 2 in Generation 1 and its hard having a constantly pregnant female Sim, a bunch of kids, toddlers and babies running around the lot. Even though I built them a small shelter, they all constantly get heat stroke! Its definitely a challenge, but I'm enjoying it so far! I can't wait to get into Roman times, I already have a ton of ideas and community lots I want to build :D

I took some more photos of the teenagers.
Adaeze and Esi Afia are just married and have two children: Adisa (she'll turn into teenager in two days) and newborn baby Afolabi.

Adaeze Afia


Esi Afia


Adisa Chidi (she kept her mother's maiden name, because she was born when her parents weren't married ^^" )


More photos later ^^

Hi.... where's everyone gone? VT is still here, even if no one else is. And guess what? I've decided to become a CC creator - and not give up this time. (Most of the stuff that other Simmers create just didn't suit my weird tastes, and what did wasn't enough to build a 'hood on, so...)

So yes, I'll be taking a break from Simming as I learn how to texture and mesh and create objects and the like. I'll also be starting an all-new ToTM, since I've completely reinstalled and cleared out most of my old downloads. Only this time, it won't even be poking Earth with a stick.

Anyone still here with stories of their own to share?

- VT

I'm still here VT. Just haven't played ToT in a while in favor of my Prosperity Challenge. Currently my founders are all on the same lot and getting to know one another so that the baby making may commence.

Good luck on learning to create stuff. Its not all too hard once you figure out what you're doing. For me the hardest part is meshing. And trying to do something in SimPE w/o clear instructions/a tutorial. And I want to see what you create, ya know, after you get through all the beginner tutorials. ~VP

I started this challenge today. It's really hard but so much fun!! Is anyone else having trouble with their Neanderthal families fainting of heatstroke?

I don't know whether I'll be able to complete it, it seems like some sort of mutated monster-legacy! :L

It's really interesting to read other people's experiences and to know what I've got to look forward to (or to get sleepless nights about!)

Welcome SilentFootprints ! ^^ It's good to see so many people enjoy playing this challenge ^^
Well, at first I had some problems with my sims fainting of heatstroke, especially with children (lot's of socials services paying visits to me ^^" ) and pregnant females (too many miscarriages >.>), but I discovered that if I put children's beds inside their temperature will be normal and I won't have to worry about someone coming and taking them away from their families.
So, my advice is to be careful and put their beds inside (maybe build a room for them) and not to put them work outside too much (I had the bad habit to put them work in the garden when their parents were too tired ).

This challenge is hard, but that's what makes it so interesting ^^
Maybe you could share some photos with us ^^

Haha! I'll try. Have you ever got some fish, stocked the fridge with them and then they just dissapeared into the ether? Like, you can't cook any 'Bass with Squash', or 'Blackened Catfish'?
This only happens in some of my households (they are now living off of gelatin). I still fish and grow crops so I don't really consider it to be cheating!

It never happened to me before, but I do have a problem with the "read" option (every time a sim gets a book, sits somewhere and starts reading it it will simply disappear and the option will disable).

About your "fishy" problem ... do you have a stove on your lot? (not a grill, a normal stove) Because I had a similar problem before, when I downloaded some medieval stuff and I didn't know that the "stove" that I placed on the lot worked as a grill >.>

Nope it's a normal stove. The same stove for every household actually, yet the problem occurs in three of the five. I wondered if it was something to do with cooking skills, but that doesn't make any sense as they all start out with 0. I even tried getting a different fridge but it still happens! O.o

Still playing! When i have the time. my mortality rate is ridiculous, like unbelievable.i have one family who completely didn't make it past their first generation, must've been cursed. The rest are quite a lot in some cases, it's hard to get them all caught up with one another, but i do have a couple this gens born in some families. i can't wait to get to the next stage. i think it's going to get a lot more interesting! and hopefully my mortality rate goes down.

SilentFootprints, is it a custom fridge? I've heard those can "eat" produce and fish when you stock them.

EDIT: I was checking the "What did you discover today while playing the sims?" thread and someone else had fish disappear in a fridge. Here's someone's reply to theirs that explains the issue:



Hope that helps! (and keeps the rest of us from having sims live off gelatin!) ~VP

Hi friends,

I am back, The weather finally straightened out here. I want to say Hi to you new players and wish you luck.

I am currently playing my Neanderthal Gen 2 adults on day 5 in their new hoods. The Sea clan are producing babies left and right. I have Banyan a boy, Banana a girl, Seastar a boy, Shell a girl, Orange a boy, Tikimuku a girl, and Summer a girl. All the 7 women are expecting again after a full day of rest. They had to find the energy to throw a party.

The Sand Clan are also producing their first babies. They are Digger a boy, Jewel a girl, Rocky a boy, Scarab a boy, Nomad a boy, and Treasure a girl, I have goofed and forgot to play Storme and Lainka for 2 rounds. They had twins for my punishment. Cyclone a boy and Tempest a girl.

So far all the sea clan have their tree houses built and having fun throwing parties. It won't be the greatest in the world with all the restricted activities and objects they are allowed to do, but it serves its purpose. Meet and keep friendships.

The sand clan are busy gardening, digging dugout houses and furnishing them. It takes a lot more money and finding buried treasures to complete this task. Soon they will have their dugout hut finished and can get a life other than digging. It reminds me of that Disney movie Holes.... but I am straying from the subject.

Well, The trick for preventing heat stroke is to drink lots of water and have them outside at night doing strenuous activities , and keep them inside an enclosed building to sleep and eat. You can have an archway for a door, but not just an awning overhead will do. I considered my building as a cave. The other trick is to create a swimming hole for them to cool off in when they get hot. Not a hottub or spring. That makes them even hotter. You can recolour the floor and walls with dirt colors to imitate a pond. I hope this helps.

I also had some fun creating a community lot for my 2 hoods. I tried my hand at building a water slide. I looked up the how-to in the sims2 exchange and built a Volcano for the sea tribe and a pyramid for the sand clan. They have not been there to visit yet, but I cant wait for the first babies to grow up to go there.

Well, I will get back to playing my sand clan now and have some fun. The next babies need to get started with each couple. Oh joy more babies. Bring it on.

Hugs, Debs Debestfriend4u.weebly.com my story webpage

@VioletPadfoot,
No it's a normal fridge aswell! I have tried cooking them straight from the inventory but it still wont let me!! Arrgh it's so frustrating!

@Debestfriend4u,
Wow your families sound so much more interesting than mine! And I loved that movie (Holes).

I preferred the book myself.

Still learning how to create CC, but once I can actually create decent-looking textures I'll be right back into the challenge with new, shiny VT Original Stuff (maybe I need to use a word that isn't 'stuff' - VTOS already stands for VT Original Setting and, for some odd reason, the word 'stuff' makes my dog bark... as long as I say it while standing in the living room doorway closest to the front door, and only in the evening... strange, strange dog. But I digress.)

It might take a while for me to get the hang of it, especially since that Big Event on another site rules my life at the moment but it will be awesome, even though I have no idea what I'm going to be creating. I think I might keep my post-apocalyptic mutant theme... just not on Earth.

Well, off to switch back and forth between Texturing 101, baking and weird online sports. (Maybe I could make my Sims some team T-shirts! )
- VT

Hi friends,

About the fishy situation. I find that I don't use a stove at all in the caves. I use a bbq instead. I click on the bbq and click Bass and squash meal. I looked up Snootysims website online. It says cooking the Bass is level 0, Blackened catfish is level 2, Stuffed Rainbow trout is level 4, Stuffed Golden Trout is level 6 on the cooking skills chart. Since my cavesims do not learn how to cook all that fast, I just keep the bass and sell the rest. You can keep the fish in the fridge or in the back pack, the sim who cooks the meal has to have the fish in their possession.

I hope this helps out.

Hey there VT, I can't wait to see your new Stuff, er creations. I heard the bark. lol
My cat comes running and jumps in my lap when I have to shout so my hubby can hear me.

Hugs, Debs

I have started the challenge and just made a weebly to show it off.
Let me know what you think.

http://elvis2010.weebly.com/

Hey DitzyEkko ! Nice to see you're enjoying your time playing this wonderful challenge ^^ You've got some interesting photos over there, on your blog.I really hope your simmies will be fine ^^

Hey there Friends,

Nice weebly you have there DitzyEkko, and welcome to the tot. What do you want us to call you?
Silent Footprints, are you doing better with the fishy situation?

I am on day 6 of my Gen 2 with toddlers all over the place and expecting mothers again. Whew, if the babies kept the couple busy, you should see how the demanding toddlers do it. I decided to try a little bit of diffrence with my clans. I am not going to have any ponds for fishing for my desert clan. They will survive only on their produce gardens and trees. They will eat up all their fish they have in their back packs, then have to live off the land. I will keep their meals to salad and cereals from the fridge they will become vegetarians of sorts. My Sea Clan will be the opposite. They will not garden at all, just harvest their orange and lemon tree and fish on their small private pond for food. They will be allowed salads from the fridge to eat and the bbq for the fish. Star and I want the 2 clans to start to separate and be diffrent for the next phase in the challenge.

Well, I'm off to play some more.
hugs, Debs

Hey Ditzy ! Wow thats a doozy of a challenge you got going on there. You will have to build a room for the sims to get in out of the heat or I dont think you will survive. If we hadnt of done that I dont think we would have gotten past gen 1 lol I look forward to seeing where you go from here :-)

Hey all. Ditzy, enjoyed reading your blog and seeing your pics. You got further along than my first attempt and I applaud you. I learned that sending cave-people to bed when they are already too hot is a bad idea. LOL So I started having them nap (inside) on a couch until their temps dropped back to normal....then they could crawl under the covers...they do even better on a hammock (indoors, of course). Good luck!

I read a fun book the other day that reminded me of an alternative way to play this game. The book was called Enclave by Ann Aguirre. Really reminded me of VT's style. I think Ms Aguirre was channeling VT.

Hoping to find some time to play....
Star

Welcome to the challenge, Ditzy! I can't think of anything to say beyond what the others have already said, particularly with regard to the heat (that's one of the reasons Star allowed a pool in her version of the challenge, I think). Anyway, welcome aboard, keep up the good work and I hope you enjoy your stay.

Debs, you seem to be getting on great with your ToTM too. I have to admit fishing ponds don't make much sense in the desert - maybe one oasis on a community lot, but one on every home lot... unless it's some sort of alien spawning oasis that branches off onto all the lots... I've just this minute got out of bed, can you tell? I like the idea of creating differences between the two clans, Variety being one of my keywords. I have always wanted to create a massive huge hood and build each subhood as a different country or area or something, but I just plain don't have the attention span...

Hi Star! Hope you find some time to play soon. I've never read the book you mentioned, but I think I might just look into it. Once I have some spare cash, that is. *used to always have plenty of money to spare... then I discovered earrings* I've never heard anyone describe a published author as 'channeling VT' before. I have to admit I'm flattered by that statement - my ambition is to have something published myself. You know, once I step away from my Sims long enough to actually get around to writing it.

Keep on Simming everyone!
- VT

Phew...what a week
 

I don't really care what you call me, I've been ditzyekko, ditzy, whatever.
I noticed that you all seem to consider your 1st generation born in game your 1st generation instead of the. starter sims being the 1st gen. That depressed me, cuz that means I'm just starting to have 2nd gen births where as I was calling them 3rd gen.
If you've seen my weebly (WWW.elvis2010.weebly.com), then you'd know I've lost another family. I now have only 3 surviving surnames from the original 5 couples. But I made CAS sims to replace those families. And I'd only have 2 but I cheated to save some children who are now reproducing teens.

Also interesting but true - my 1st births were twins Unga & Ungers Ugg and now in the 2nd gen my 1st births are Ugg twins Brayv & Bouph (sons of Adduh Ugg and her sister Unga's mate Bodba Bo)

Actually, I think most of us - or at least most of the players who were here at the start of this thread - consider the starting Sims the first generation. If nothing else, it means the challenge progresses faster. So go ahead and say they're third gen if you want.

- VT

Yay, thanks VT. You made my morning!

Uploaded picture of the Uggs just before my parents age and Daimer moved out with Adduh and Oo-Oo

The Ugg, Bo, and Erm family pics
 

Just some pictures before everyone ages and I've forgotten which pictures are whom

Adduh Ugg has given birth to Bodba Bo's babies, but she isn't married to him. She will live in a cave with her brothers (Daimer & Oo-Oo) and have babies with anyone (Erman Erm, Erodu Oworo, or Bodba Bo) Unattached women do not retain the rights to their children so the children will then be split up onto different lots dependent on their skin color. Skin 4s will live with Bodba and his mate Unga, Skin 1s will live with Erman and his mate Fuma, mixed skins will live with Erodu Oworo and his sister Yleri. Same goes for Yleri who also will not marry. She will only retain children that have her coloring and only because she lives with her brother.

Actually maybe Adduh can keep her sons because she lives with her brothers. I don't know yet. What do you guys think? I won't move them around until they are child age, so there is time to think about it. But moving them out of their mother's cave does leave more room for pregnancies on that lot, but could overcrowd their father's lot since he will have a mate and children there also.

I think it's a lot more realistic to have the kids with their mothers. In matrilineal tribes, the relationship with the mother's brother is more important than the relationship with the father; the kids may not, in tribal terms, be "related" to him at all. In patrilineal tribes, fathers must go out of their way to acknowledge bastards, and it can be really hard to prove paternity. The only relationship you can be 100% positive of in most species (only seahorses spring to mind as an exception) is the mother/child relationship, after all.

The fish is good guys! The fish is good! I just bought a different stove and everything was hunky-dorey

Ditzy - I love your Sims's name's! Oo-oo is most definitely my favourite.

Hi Guys! I just started playing this challenge last friday after I just couldn't get started with anything else. I'm not very creative with names so the families are Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Davis and Evans! Got all of the wives expecting before starting back through the second season. Wouldn't you know it, my Alpha mother had TWINS!!!!! Talk about pressure! The parents were in contant desperation mode trying to keep the babies fed, changed, bathed, etc. I don't know how my game got glitched but by the time the twins aged to toddlers, the mother aged to elder!!!!!!!! Since premature aging could reasonably be expected, I'm just going forward from there. I'm not good at keeping up blogs so I'll just pop in here from time to time to give you updates on my progress.

Ditzy I'm one who consider my CAS generation one ! But i think Taliah used the first born kids as gen 1. So feel free to play it either way. To speed things up I like my way Course it would really speed things up if I actually played the silly game haha Ive been sidetracked with another game which is taking up all my time but hopefully that will change soon. SandyJS welcome and good luck to you ! Even tho I go MIA occasionally I always keep coming back to check on the progress here :D

Welcome to the ToT, SandyJS! VT here. I'm the weird one. Currently between hoods on this challenge, but planning a comeback as soon as I can get some new CC sorted. I'm not very good with names either, but at least I have my trusty bag of Scrabble tiles and a black belt in anagram-fu. And what did you say happened with your aging? Maybe it's the stress of parenting, like you said...

Anna, good to hear from you again. By the way, WHERE are those holiday snaps of yours? I've been checking your blog for ages but haven't found any! I hope you get back to good old TS2 soon. *VT needs updates from her ToT friends!*

- VT