New Idea September 03, year 2010. After playing another round of this on my neighborhood, I've seen the importance residents have to maintain their old friendships, even in the last days of their lives. While it's good that a CNA can invite a resident's family over to visit, we have an acceptable break from reality. That sim on her last day of life can still dial a telephone and talk to neighbor, daughter, son-in-law, whomever. If you have 4 residents, designate one day per week to each resident and let them dial out, invite people over, build those relationship scores (or let them fight if they start fighting) Monday for Bob, Tuesday for Sue, Wendesday for Alice, Thursday for Grace.. you get the idea. Scoring? How about a glass of brandy and some nice socks while you play the game. That's a good score.
Everyone who posted here. THANKS for your ideas. I'll let others read your posts and adapt as they wish. There are a dozen ways to play this game. It can be played against the asylum rules or exactly the same as you wish. I'm not above a dice roll and Rodney's Death creator to deal out a random death or two.

The Golden years don't look so good here at Shady Oaks. Medicaid only pays for so much. We'll seize pensions and family favors for the rest. Our staffing formula says only one nurse/CNA per hall, so you have one adult and as many elders as you like. That's the catch here. All the NPCs you create to live with your adult must be elders. The elders get no jobs. They stay at home all the time. It is best to use sims you've played until they reach elder. Let them retire and bring that pension to Shady Oaks. Did you charm a nanny, headmaster, or host into living with you? Send them to Shady Oaks for a "peaceful" retirement.
As for your Nurse/CNA you must remain on the lot at all times. You can't have an outside job and you depend on the residents for income. The next shift called in sick, so you have to stay for double, no triple shifts. Sick days? Forget it! We can't pay for that. Did you think you would get a vacation day? Fool!! We can't afford the extra staff, so you're stuck here until someone can replace you. Yes that's right. Maybe another adult has befriended you and you can ask her to move in. That's the only way you get to leave. Do not marry or move in a partner. If Shady Oaks wanted you to find love, we would assign you a partner. Nurse / CNA tends to be two to one female to male, but you can play either gender. Wear your scrubs or nurse outfit when on duty. Use testing cheats and shft-N if you must to create the outfit.

Shady Oaks home must have at least one electric stove. The food isn't that good and the elderly don't absorb nutrients as well as you. Provide frequent access to meals or snacks. We tried, but the residents must have free access to the kitchens.It is a rule from a recent lawsuit we had. Have fewer beds than residents. If you have six residents , four beds are required. Some residents sleep in ugly cheap recliners or on cheap couches. Place television or radio for residents preference in living areas (near couches and recliners) and in bedrooms. One or two residents per bedroom is the maximum. Another lawsuit says they can turn on and off the electronics any time they wish, even in the dead of night. Yes, the elderly do wander the halls at night. You must keep the doors locked after 10PM to prevent falls and injuries. Reopen at 8AM.
You must get to know their families. Answer phones if you're required. The secretary is unavailable always. If you see visitors, allow them access to the residents at all times.
Yes, at Shady Oaks we do take care of the afterlife! Outdoor garden access to tombstones and indoor table access to urns is available. Our residents don't mind getting a visit from that passed away spouse, sibling, or room mate. It is a friendly reminder to our residents , they will get to leave Shady Oaks some day.

Score 1 point per resident every day the elderly remain alive. Score 5 points every time you move in the nanny, headmaster, or host from that restaurant. After, they score 1 point per day like others. Score 10 points for each resident that dies of old age. Score one point per visitor per day that you allow access to Shady Oaks.

Subtract 1 point for every visit by a psychiatrist / doctor required. Subtract 1 point for every fire, electrocution, or fight between residents. Subtract 10 points for every person that dies of fire, fright, electrocution, etc - not old age. Another family lawsuit would put us out of business!

Some ideas for variations.
If you have Seasons, only allow outdoors visits in summer. No residents go out in Winter!
If you have Apartment Life, can you create a one story sprawling building for Shady Oaks? You must NOT use staircases. The residents may fall!! (ok, I've never seen that in Sims 2, but it is reality, so no staircases) Elevators may be fun?
If you are familiar with Scout's Asylum challenge, try adapting rules from it. But the key difference is all your NPC housemates must be elders.
Dementia has deteriorated their minds. Expect elders to act in confusing ways. They may not understand your commands. They will wander day and night in the halls. You cannot control the NPC residents.
Use no hacks that provide free cash, full fridge, prevent kitchen fires. Maybe you should make this challenge as difficult as it can be. Score some extra points if your hack / mod makes the challenge more difficult!
sitting tubs only! Do you think Grandpa can stand in a shower stall? If the resident wants to take a two hour bubble bath, you must allow it. Maybe 1 tub per four residents, including yourself.
Dude you stink! Influence -> Bathe . If I had it I would use it every day in this challenge. It's the only influence I would use.
You may hire repairmen and a gardner if you have decorated outside the building. Score 1 point if you do NOT have a maid.
All the time, some residents pass out and fall to the floor. In reality this would be a Very Bad Thing, but here, how should we score it? The elderly are much more robust and hard to injure in Sims 2.

If you have variations for this challenge, be sure to discuss them. If you ask "Can I do this?" Yes, but do not make the challenge easy. Having a difficult time is fun!

I don't know if I will actually try this as the challenge, but I really thank you for the idea. I hate it when my sims age up to elders - especially when they've achieved most of their goals. So I love the idea of moving them into a retirement home with a single adult on-staff at all times! And a graveyard for families to visit, because I don't like ghosts waking babies up all the time and I don't have whatever expansion is required to have a community graveyard. So you've suggested a solution that fixes 2 problems for me. Thanks.

It is Nightlife that allows community graveyards. However, this challenge can be done with any combination of expansions. I've run it with no better than OFB.

I must say that I like your description of this challenge-that's almost as much fun as setting it up, which I will do as soon as I have enough elders to put into a nursing home...oops-I meant a "seniors retirement home".

I've thought about having an elders home, not necessarily a challenge.

You know, that does sound like a good idea...except I generally like multigenerational families.

If I did have an old folks' home, I'd have the caregiver write checks to the old people's families so they can inherit Grandpa's half-million Simoleons.

This is just a poor copy of the assailum challenge but with old people. I have an old peoples home in my game and was hoping this challenge would spice it up but I guess not. Why for example would anybody put their parents into a house if they can't even get a bed? My resident's all get their own room. The money they bring in is their money, so it's in their inventory, and every week they pay an amount either 500§ or 10000§ depending on do they have a double-bed room, or a single bed room. Every time a bill comes, the resident's pay 200§ (I use the 10x bills so bills are huge), for expenses. When the resident dies, the staff gives the money to the residents next of kin (the person they had the best relationship with).

What makes it challenging is trying to operate the household with only the money you get from the resident's, and your own job if you have any. Also when a resident dies you need to fill up that empty room to survive otherwise you cannot afford the bills. Currently my old folks home is on cutbacks, that means no maid, no repairman. The owner needs to take care of these stuff by themselves. Resident's are never directed to do house work, they are there to be taken care of, not taken advantage of. I'm going to loose two residents the next time I play this house so the challenge bit is going to increase, and because I only put play-able sims who have grown old in the house, there will be no magically appearing elders to fill the empty slots.

When a resident dies, the bed they used will be sold and replaced (so nobody needs to sleep in an dead sim's bed), this also effect the bills and it forces you to re-decorate the room for the next resident. And it can't be done with a cheap bed, it has to be in the medium to high category. When a resident dies, a funeral has to be held by the home, it's paid by the resident's money, and the rest is given to the next of kin. Because rent is payed on monday, a new resident cant come into the house until the next monday. So If a resident rents a room, pays the rent, and dies the next day, you have to wait for a week before you can put a new resident in.

Because not all old people can afford to pay the fees, the fees will be paid by their children. I either play the elder and have the home cover his fees, and then play the kids house and have them pay the money the resident owes.

This challenge does have potential, but currently, I'm just not seeing it.

I may do this to get rid of a few elders I wasn't sure what to do with. I have a few survivors from my asylum challange who diserve to take it easy in old age. Not that they will.

There are certain, self-important people here who should get off of their high horse and keep their negative opinions to themselves. Also, these same people should learn to spell.

Great Idea! A home for old people...why didn't I think of that?

Ever get left with a bunch of elder sims that you just don't know what to do with? You don't really want to play them cause they're boring or they take "forever" to die. Well this is all about giving those oldies an ending.

The point is to let your oldies die naturally in gold or platinum aspiration, while give them a chance to live out those golden years to the max, wild and fancy free! Think of this as an opportunity for those Seniors to Get Wild :P

First you will need a retirement home/village, it can be large and grand or tiny and dishevelled. Whatever pleases goes, provided:

- Each Elder or Elder couple that moves in must have a combined bedroom, kitchen and living room and bathroom to theirselves.

- Each Elder Home must have 3 doors, 2 for the oldies to lock and allow themself through and 1 for the caretaker to be able to get through. This way the oldies never have uninvited guests!

- Enough apartments for up to 7 elders and 1 caretaker to be living in the lot, so up to 8 apartments in total. If you have a hack/mod that allows more sims on the lot then increase the amount of apartments. note: the more apartments the more items, the slower the game will run. Try trimming down the apartments, and making a commmunal living room and communal bathrooms.

- The 1 apartment for the caretaker to live in has only 1 door only and locked by the caretaker. Unless they have family, in which you will need a door per family member. See Caretaker below for more information

- There must be fun things for the oldies to do, a communal playroom, and some nice garden area/s are recommended (they did pay to live here after all).

- Maybe add a pool or sauna or spa (depending upon how classy you want the place to be). Hell even add a communal hobbies room! After all they should be allowed to do what takes their fancy.

- There must be a communal kitchen/dining room (operated by the caretaker only) to provide 1 or 2 meals a day (your choice).

- A visitors bathroom.

- Visitors/outings - allowed, let those senoirs go wild!

Variations/suggestions:
If you have more than 8 sims, you can make the apartments smaller with only a toilet, bedroom and sitting room. Make 2 communal bathrooms (male/female) and have a larger communal living room (with enough space for everyone to have some freedom).

Once the Retirement Home is complete add your caretaker (any adult will suffice, although I recommend a neat, nice personality).

Your Elders:
Generally when you retire you RETIRE, which means your elders shouldn't be working, retire those elders!

Check out their lifetime wants, if you can fulfill it give it a go.

Apart from locking their respective apartment door/s, you have the freedom to re-decorate the apartments, try not to remodel while there is an elder living in the apartment (remodeling when there isn't an elder living in the apartment is ok).

Try to fill as many wants as possible before death.

Other things to do: Try out hobbies, take them for a day at the park, have family and/or friends over to visit. Let the oldies mingle among themselves and watch the action unfold!

Yes elders can have pets, I recommend a communal cat, dog, bird, hamster or fish tank.

Elders interacting with each other is what this is all about, let them go for it, break marriages, make marraiges, have love triangles, enemies, best friends. :D

Your Caretaker:
Must be an adult sim, the rest if up tp you. For the purposes of a caretaker though I recommend a nice and cleanly sim.

The caretaker can make friends, fall in love and have a relationship. But their lover cannot move in or marry, I'll allow a relationship where you play the family on another lot and the caretaker visits but they cannot live there. UNLESS you have a hack/mod that allows more than 8 sims on a lot, then yes you can keep a caretaker family within the retirement village/home.

Caretaker duties:
Will clean the oldies homes, make beds, take out trash, clean toilets/sinks.

Will unblock toilets and repair sinks/showers, if your caretaker has a high enough mechanical skill (say 8 or more bars) then they can fix electrical items too otherwise call in a mechanic for those fixes and allow them into the house (unlock a door).

Keep the communal area's looking good, they may hire a gardener for the gardening.

Cook meals in the communal kitchen.

Pay the bills, (I suggest you go green and get some solar panels to help decrease those bills).

Help the oldies, befriending is ok, loving is not - strictly employee/employer.

In the event of death:
If the caretaker dies, save and move in a new caretaker or try to save the caretaker from death.
If death occurs and the family is on the lot then the family must immediately move out.

In the event of old age:
If the caretaker makes it to elder age, they move into an elder apartment and a new caretaker moves in.
In old age if the caretaker has family off the lot, they can move into their families home.
If the caretaker has a family on the lot the family must move off the lot, they can take the caretaker with them.
If there are no apartments available for the ex-caretaker, then they must move out until an apartment becomes available or they can live on another lot.

NPC's:
Allowed: Gardeners, Exterminators, Mechanics.
Disallowed: Maids, Butlers

Now its up to you to decide how to control the oldies, you can use a hands off approach for senoirs gone wild living, control every single aspect of their lives right up unto their death or do a mixture of both.

Yes, cheats are allowed, cheat to your hearts content, the less cheats you use the easier it is for death to take them unnaturally (thus making it harder for natural death).

The only person you will probably need to control most is the caretaker, as you will need to direct them constantly to clean/cook/repair.

Regular Score: (scoring is for elders only)
+1 for every want fulfilled
+5 for death with a green aspiration
+10 for natural death
+15 for completing their lifelong want

-1 for every fear fulfilled
-5 for death when in red aspiration
-10 for death other than natural

Let me know what you think, I generally get to elder stage and realise they haven't had the best life because they've been too busy popping out the next generation! So I enjoy the idea of making them live together communally, it gives them a chance to make friends and do all the things that they have always wanted to do. Below are some pictures of the retirement village I've built (Viper Village), its on the largest lot size and is very spacious. There's a pond and lots of garden area. A nice big pool and a large common room house, first floor is the communal kitchen dining with visitors toilets and second floor has a piano, tv, pool table, and various games. There is a telescope and an easel on the grounds. Each apartment has room for a small bathrooom, bedroom with built in cupboard, kitchenette and living. I have no idea on how to make it a packagable lot so please don't ask, however you are welcome to use the ideas for your own village/home.

what a good idea!! in rl I work in a nursing home & have often wondered how I could build one ingame, really didn't like idea of apartments from AL...have u built a graveyard on ur lot or do u just send them off to a community one when they do die?

You can't really do this with apartments per se, as you can only have playables in up to four apartments. The Myne doors used in dormitories, however, might be useful depending on how, in practice, you like to handle things.

Shouldn't there be points for gold and platinum deaths, not just green? And won't "wants fulfilled" be kind of a pain in the neck to track, as you'll be fulfilling quite a few of them every day - into the dozens, if they start dating hard?

The core idea is a good one. A number of people on here have said they built nursing homes for their elder sims, but some of them admit that they just farm them together and don't play them. A challenge like this one may be just what people who don't enjoy their elders need in order to get a handle on them. (I love all of mine, personally.)

Thanks sweetbaby160, yes there is a small graveyard behind one of the houses now, if the elders don't have family I put them there, otherwise they end up in Rust Inn Park.

Thanks for the feedback Peni, answers to the questions below:

The realization an apartment block wouldn't work if you want to control all the Sims at once was the first thing that hit me when I was planning the Retirement village.
They aren't actual proper apartments, the village is on a residential lot.
Above I call the little homes apartments but I really mean Units utilized in a dorm style.

To solve the problem of Apartment vs Dorm vs Unit I looked at the differences in apartment doors vs dorm doors vs normal doors.

Apartment doors are only really useful in an apartment lot, same for dorm doors on a dorm lot (I thought the picture may be handy).
However I thought if I were to use an apartment lot that means only 4 apartments and no ability for a caretaker role, plus you have to constantly switch apartments. Too much trouble for a retirement village.

A dorm lot is actually not a bad idea, the picture on the door would be handy, the down side is on one unit you have multiple doors with multiple pics and that got a little confusing for me. Not to mention I don't like the idea of having the elders in a dorm situation, they retired and its a retirement village, if I was creating a nursing home or share house these doors would be ideal. A plus is that a dorm lot can be played with all Sims in the same household.

Residential was the more likely option, using normal doors and locking them to allow only the Sim locking the door entry (allowing the units to feel like the retirement village units I wanted them to be). Thus the ruling about having so many doors per unit - 1 for each elder living in the room to lock and 1 for the caretaker to lock. Also the Sims appear together on the one screen for play purposes.

I thought about Gold and Platinum, I figured that most of the elders would die in green as there is not enough time in the day to fulfill all the wants. If you do have one that dies I recommended scoring:
+10 for Gold Aspiration
+15 for Platinum Aspiration

Fulfilling wants, well that's really hard one to do, in retrospect probably the biggest use of time when playing, as I ran into that issue playing last night, I figured this is the easiest way to handle want fulfillment.

Instead of fulfilling every single want they have select a major want like "make out with 3 Sims" or "study lifelong happiness" and only fulfill those wants. Select and fulfill any want with aspiration points of +1000 or more (that takes out most of the basic wants) and you can just score the big ones - it should be easy to keep track of just pick a major want for the day and lock it in whenever they wake up. If they have no major want fulfill two minor wants (+500 aspiration points each) to obtain the same goal. If they didn't complete the wants from yesterday you can choose a new one or keep the old ones locked in until they are fulfilled.
Only score for the Locked wants as I found when playing a few of the minor wants got fulfilled by the Sims themselves like Dance with someone or do the Smustle or play with Cola (the communal pet puppy).

Hope this helps, and thank you both for the feedback.

Yes I like playing the Elders this way in particular so much more fun. The current batch are easy going and like dancing.. lots of dancing. o.0 haha

oh i like this idea! I NEVER EVER play elders but i would in a scenario like this. A book club would be nice (free time is needed so they can DISCUSS books)....a communal green house is a nice idea too. Maybe a pond for the old guys to fish in. Oh i think im gonna have to do this!!!!!! Thanks

I never play as elder sims but I will give this a go!

I'm glad there are some interesting ideas on how to deal with the neglected Elders in our game. I think I like the idea of making a retirement home for them. Thanks TortureTheNannies and annoainthere!