I've been doing this challenge myself. Started with one sim, gave him a beach lot with a pond for fishing, had a small shack on the plot which was just big enough for a toilet, shower, fridge, chair, bookcase, phone and easel. He slept in a tent, had a grill and table and chairs outside. But most importantly a ticket booth which was never turned off. He could just go about his business of living, sleeping, fishing, tending the garden and befriending the customers enough so they could move in then move straight out giving him extra cash and increasing the households from the start. Sims spent hours on the plot, fishing and playing on the beach, had a 5 star business in a few days. There was also the added bonus that sims that I'd moved in and out into their own places had enough fish in their inventory to keep them going whilst they found their feet.
So far I'm having so much fun with this challenge, I'm still in the early stages yet but it's definately keeping me entertained and out of trouble.

Oh goodness, this is soooo much fun! Serafina (my founder) is now an elder, and getting ready to pass her three level 10 businesses to her daughter. I have five households: my challenge founder, a legacy family, my Xenophilia challenge family, a school teacher who lives in an apartment below the school house, and a house with the two oldest from the legacy family.

My current population is 36 - 18 actual sims and a multiplier of 2. There's a grocery store, a clothing store, and a diner, as well as a church/graveyard (community lot) and a school house (residential lot using Inge's hacks) which were both paid for out of the town funds.

It's been slow going mainly because of how heavily I've handicapped my poor little sims. They're taxed very, very heavily. I've further restricted fire and police services - neither are available until the city can afford to build a police station and fire department. Also, until they build a local hospital birth control is unavailable, so I've set ACR to "always try for baby." That's really upped the drama...my Legacy family is on welfare and has become utter trailer trash, and they had to kick out the oldest son and their pregnant teenage daughter because there simply wasn't the room or money to house and feed them any longer.

Until I managed to build the school, none of the children attended, and I'm not buying ridiculous skill building items if my sims don't specifically want them. How many people struggling to put food on the table will go out and buy a telescope or chess set to play with at home? Instead, my sims can either (a) pay out the wazoo for online classes, (b) use things they already have, or (c) wait until the town has the funds and open slots to build a science center or community college.

Playing this way has really rekindled my interest in the game. There's a challenge to it again, and not all of my families are following the "get married, spawn, reach top of career, die, repeat" pattern I'd been stuck in.

Wat the freak is this??? :/

Well, I'm still playing this AND The Sims 3.
Thought I'd say what's going on.

My founder, Sam Boswell, after a few updates to his lifespan has had six children and is still an adult.
He married a Townie, had her pop out two girls, then he had a child with his first daughter's lesbian lover, then he had another son with his wife, then twins with another woman. I thought it all worked really well.
I plan on having him move in with his twins after his wife dies. She's an elder.
Then, his son will inherit the family home.

I might have to start this again. Regain a certain style for my neighbourhood. Change some of the rules around. I just need to start again anyway. I spent far too long away from it. I think I'll try Hysterical Paroxysm's method of making unique sims...

I guess i'm gonna have to try this: I always wanted to build a "city" on Sims!
Its gonna take a while X_X

hey just thought I'd say (incase no one checks the boolprop site) the challenge has been updated with al eps. Heres the linky:
http://www.forums.boolprop.com/view...hp?f=32&t=31450

Alright, I'm interested in this challenge, but there is one thing I couldn't find in the rules: how do you unlock more CAS sims?

thanks xx

clockworkapple - you get CAS points in various ways:

Each community lot - 1 CAS point.
Each business district - 5 CAS points.
Downtown - 20 CAS points.
Each university - 5 CAS points.

thanks katya

I like this challenge! I'm going to try it. I've been meaning to start a hood from 'scratch' for a long time. Hmm, I am thinking that having a University should unlock all careers, though. Do people playing this challenge think that change would make the challenge too easy? Partly I am thinking this is more realistic and partly I just don't want to have to keep track of lots of details forever, but prefer to be able to look at my city and figure out what is and is not unlocked. (I realize I can make any rules I want, but I am looking for feedback on whether people think this rule change would change the nature of the challenge much.)

deann000: If that rule change makes the challenge more fun for you, I say do it.

I'm doing this challenge now (just starting rotation 7) and I've made a few rule changes along the way, too.

One big one is only amassing $500,000 to have the college. One million is just too high a sum for me (I'll lose interest trying to get to that total). And I'm also going to use a pre-made university and have my sims pay a flat fee to attend college. That way not every sim will go to college (and I won't have to play college all the time--college is quite dull for me).

I'm also going to use a pre-made business district (for the first one I add on). I've altered the rules to take into consideration the sims who already live in Bluewater Village (and have businesses).

I also allow for small changes like being able to call for groceries (that's supposed to be something you unlock) and other little things like that.

I'm really enjoying this challenge a LOT. It's definitely breathed new life into my sims2 game (and has me playing a lot of different aspects of the game that I ignored while writing stories and doing other things like that).

I haven't been playing Sims games for too long, and this the first interesting challenge that's gotten me to stick to playing for a while. I think of idea of expansion and building up a city into bigger and better helps me stay with my families, because now there is a bigger purpose that just living XD


Anyway, I think I started like a week or so ago, And I have I think 10 Households and 12 People XD

I started with my founder Swarlos, who married an townie and had a kid. He entered the gamer career and took out a huge loan to buy a music hall/bar and grill/ Club that I built, in anticipation of his daughter entering the music Career and So that I could have a slacker opening. At some point in one of my other households I had enough fires or a burglary (can't remember witch happened first) and his wife Entered the Law Enforcement Career. Then She died of Old age after getting the the top of the career (she was kinda old to begin with). Swarlos is now and Elder top-level Game Designer and His Daughter is a Teen.

From There I used my CAS point to make an Asylum, where my controllable sim entered the Slacker Career. I didn't Set up the hospital (where it takes place) too well, and a fire started and the other sims were blocking my controllable from putting out the fire, Which Eventually killed All but 3 sims. At that point, I changed the Asylum rules for myself (since I don't care about the points, I just want to have fun with it) so that I kept restocking the house with crazy people. About Every Day in the Asylum ghosts scare 2 or 3 people to death, and I now have about 40 Graves On the Lot XD

I set up a cemetery with Swarlos so that he could put his wife's grave on it. With that CAS point I created a rich sim on a lot with a bunch of trees, and in about only a day she had turned into a plant sim. With her money I kinda Cheated and opened like 5 busniness (and leveled them quite a bit, because plantsims themselves are basically cheats (never need to leave a community lot as long as it has a shower or a sink? XD)

I made a couple of poor people, one in the smallest newbie road house, one in a tiny, tiny shack. Etc, etc.

Eventually my Plantsim reached the top of the business career, So I opened a business District.

On the Business District, I tweaked the Rules a tiny bit for myself. Instead of just getting an empty business district and 5 CAS sims, I decided that I would be able to build 5 non-player-owned community lots that didn't count for anything other than CAS sims; that way, I could actually have some store lots to visit.

Currently, for fun, I made an Island on the biggest lot size (surround in water) and put a guy there with no money at all, and he could only leave the island to pay bills, and he can't interact with townies or anything. It was really hard at first, just fishing and digging for treasure all day for the bare necessities, but by now, he and his daughter have a nice, small house going. He either digs, works on broken down cars, fishes, or recently works on his robot badge. She is a Teen now, and she paints and fishes. Because They never will interact with the town, I don't have to worry about age sync so I'm playing them for a while until I get bored/when I get bored. They just ran out of the food that came in the fridge, and I suck at gardenging, and fishing is tough XD

I just reached a population of 117 I think.


This is the funnest thing i've done in the sims 2 yet.

I decided to restart mine, and it's going (in my mind) a lot better. My stats stand at 29 sims and a SM of 14, giving me a population of 406. 11 community lots and 2 universities will do that to you My starting sim becam a plantsim and spawned two kids; a townie he moved in also turned in to a plantsim and spawned one kid. I've also decided to use CAS points, as opposed to focusing on one family populating the 'hood.

Every household has/will own at least one community lot -- whether it's unique or a copy of what I've already got will depend on whether/how it opens up a career. At first I hounded my sims for college money (and found the 'glitch' where a sim with a gold sales badge can sell a $9,999 ticket to a sim...put a couple of bubble blowers down and they'll stay for hours), but now that I've got two I'm going to let them earn money for a third as it comes.

Hi,

I'm very glad you posted this challenge; I'm a sucker for long, complicated stuff and I'm already hooked on this one. I thought the rules you linked were clear and interesting to read. (BTW, I sorted the jobs by availability, that is, the ones that are quickest to reach like Oceanology, Science or Gamer at the top.)

I'd like to see a points system for this challenge but I'm well aware that it would be a bitch to put together for such a complex challenge. And I admit I'm not brave enough to tackle it.

I have some questions,

most importantly I'd like to know: how much taxes are other players taking? So far I take none at all from households below 10 000 and 500$/week from households between 10 and 20 k. I'm not sure what to charge those above 20 k.

I created a "tax collector", that is, a Sim who's never played. His only function is to have the taxes send to him via money order, so it's easy enought to see how many taxes are collected; I just have to look at his funds.

Then there are some things I just want to check:

since there isn't anything about it in the rules, does it mean that aspiration rewards (thinking helmet, re-energizer and so on) are allowed?

What about secret lots, do you allow your Sims to visit them? Sofar I haven't come up with a good excuse for such lots in the middle of nowhere.





Now, because I can't resist: some picture spam.


Isla de la Luna belonged to the Lunas since it was a filthily rich family. Pity that's a century ago and by now there's little left of the family and nothing of the money. The family is too desolate for any business and just attracts some tourists now and then who usually complain that yes, they wanted "close to nature", but not so close to nature that there isn't even a Bed&Breakfast to be found.



Sarah Luna inherited the island, that is to say, she signed the papers expecting that there'd be some money to go with it. There isn't, and since she's broke anyway and her job in the city s**ks, she decides to move in.



It isn't long before some tourists drop by, grateful for an invitation for lunch even if it's just soda and sandwiches.



One of them is just Sarah's type...



By now there's even a little family going, but I dind't want to paste in even more pictures. I'd love to see some pictures of other Build-a-City hoods!

[QUOTE=alchemist]Hi,

I'm very glad you posted this challenge; I'm a sucker for long, complicated stuff and I'm already hooked on this one. ....
I have some questions,

most importantly I'd like to know: how much taxes are other players taking? So far I take none at all from households below 10 000 and 500$/week from households between 10 and 20 k. I'm not sure what to charge those above 20 k.
......

I tax 5% of net worth as determined by the neighborhood screen view of the lot, but always leave sims with $1000--so it is a progressive tax with business breaks. To talk to more simmers playing this challenge, come join us at http://www.forums.boolprop.com/view...p?f=187&t=34202
The more recent discussions include taxes (about page 59 of the chat)

This is a very long and very fun challenge, but I do not think trying to keep track of points would appeal to most people as it is hard enough just to keep track of things specified in the rules. I am playing minichallenges like Legacy and Asylum inside my BACC....though some might find it odd to consider Legacy a 'mini'. You could do those for points, if you want. But, humm, I don't play those for points anyway either.

Heh. Well, I've been away from anything computer-y over the summer, thanks to my profession. (I'm a musician. I play weddings and music festivals, so summer is very busy! I'm still booked for weddings on weekends, but at least festivals are over, thank Gawd!) So, I'm afraid I've completely lost track of my BACC. I've decided to start it over. Tonight. And I've decided that I'm going to randomly generate all my CAS Sims, which will make things fun, I think. Should get some interesting genes that way.

Anyway, for taxes, I take out 10% of the money each household has at the end of their play round. I play each household Monday AM to Monday AM, so each household pays their taxes on Sunday night at 10PM. I deduct 10% of whatever they have at that time using the familyfunds cheat and just keep track of what I've collected. It works for me, but I like your idea of a tax collector, too. With a percentage tax it seems fair to those of various income/wealth levels, and I don't have to keep track of who's in what tax bracket. I'm lazy that way. I understand the appeal of making it more complicated and therefore realistic, though.



I never use them (or career rewards) myself, which is why I didn't mention them in my rules, if you're talking about my rules but I think they're fine to use. They're earned, after all, and they also have their pitfalls, so they're not totally advantageous in a way that feels too cheaty to me.



I rarely visit these, except to do a cooking contest if a Sim really needs $500! But, according to me, they're allowed. Again, entrance to them is earned by the Sim in question, so I think they're OK.

And I like your island! I like the idea of an island. Makes the whole thing feel even more isolated. Looking forward to more pic spam, should you decide to post more.

That's pretty close to what I do - mine pay their taxes at Sunday, though so far I haven't got a specific time.

I'm still racking my brain over the taxes: I want a lot of it so they'll get a college, but I want them to have enough money for new households, too. There's a catch: I don't see who would give any Sim moving out of a household 20 k unless it's their own parents, so I fiddle around with family funds a bit to have the parents giving their kids what they can for their own household.

So far, Sims pay 10% taxes on property and 50% on cash money. That's not so unlikely; I know that in my country (Germany) half of what one earns is collected via various taxes and dues. I'll probably raise the property tax for the better-off Sims.




Aren't you right about the pitfalls! I'm usually very careful, but now and then I send a Sim into the Regenerator or hand them a Thinking Helmet at the wrong moment, and *poff* they fall asleep on their feet or loose a knowledge point.[/Quote]






All too happy to oblige.






Benjamin and Sarah end up chatting late into the night: about his dreams of being a game designer one of these days (just too stuck in an old job right now), how one can feel safe on such a huge island without even a police around...




Sarah even tells that silly old song and dance about UFO sightings and abductions. They both have a good laugh about it, naturally.





"No, really! Light years of travel to end up here out of all the places on the world?"




On a date a few evenings later it really sparks between the two of them.So, why wait? The official population of this island has just doubled and Benjamin can pursue his dream of designing the most awesome games ever.

By now I'm cruising through this Challenge. I have 67 Playable Sims throughout 27 households, with a multiplier of 20 (1 business district, 1 University, 1 Military Base and a bunch of community lots), I have a population of 1340, Yay!



First thing I'll say is that at the very start of the challenge, It takes a a while to get households started, get CAS points, and increase the population overall. But boy, as you start unlocking business districts and universities, it gets hard to use up all the CAS points you have XD
Also, if you're like me, it gets kinda hard to think of interesting things to play will all the families XD I'm trying to find some good mini-challenges to play inside of the challenge, but most of them I just don't find too fun XD Others, like the legacy, I would never be able to finish if I started a legacy in my 27 household rotation XD



Also, the military district is pretty interesting in itself, but I'm thinking that I will get bored of playing a bunch of families living in the same exact houses with the same jobs over and over, so I'm trying to make it more interesting.



All in all, this challenge is probably going to suck so much free-time out of my life, but, eh, who cares XD

Maybe the Xenophilia Challenge or, very evil and short, the seven toddler challenge?

Xenophilia: get a starter sim abducted seven times and raise the resulting seven kids. It's pretty harsh since any given night, he's either pregnant or abducted.

Seven Toddler: This should kill off your CAS points quick: create one adult Sim and seven toddlers, dumb them into a 20 k lot (with or without house). The aim is to avoid social service. I love this one, and it's comparatively short.




If I'm afraid of loosing contact with Real Life (TM), I half my time: 15 minutes Sims, 15 mintues Real World. It lowers the risk of dreaming of people with a green trapezoid over their heads.

Yeah, on my first run-through (which I had to abandon because I couldn't remember what the heck I was doing since I didn't play all summer), I found that I was building/developing too quickly, so it actually got overwhelming. And yeah, it took forever to get through a rotation, particularly once I had a military base (which I enjoyed, but I think I'm going to keep it small next time I have one; you're right that it had the potential to get boring). Overall, I think it was just too much too soon. I remember that I changed my play schedule from a Sim week for each household to three days per household, and that might have helped...but then I stopped playing altogether because I had too many music commitments.

So now, for Mark II, I'm taking things a lot more slowly, and I've found that so far it's much more enjoyable to play. I've been playing every night for a week now, and I've only got five households plus a convent where I'm going to place people according to rules I've set up for it. But this time, I'm not feeling urgent about adding anything. I don't have any overriding plans/goals for the neighborhood. I'm simply following the LTWs and wants of my playables. As in, if a Sim has an LTW to reach the top of a certain career, I actively work on opening that specific one...unless it's one requiring a uni degree, which is impossible at the moment, so that Sim's out of luck.

I've also added a quite rigid religious structure because I've decided that this is going to be a conservative religious community with a very strict moral code of behavior that, in my imagination, each Sim must agree to adhere to before they can live in the community. If they screw up, they are banished, meaning that they go to the Sim Bin, never to return. I have a feeling ACR will eventually give me a number of banish-ees...but I don't have any so far. Anyway, because of all this, I've disallowed the Romance aspiration, at least for the time being. I might add it back in if I feel I need some "spice." So far, I kind of like it because it's giving my households a schedule and a set of rules to live by, which gives ME stuff to think about. Like, Saturdays are fast days, no food at all for the entire day for Sims child age and up, except for preggos who can only eat moderately (i.e. the least-filling choice for each meal). And then there's a big family breakfast on Sunday before they head off for "church." So, I have to plan accordingly and make sure that each household member who's going to fast is well-fed before they go to bed on Friday night. On the two days of the week, Monday and Thursday, when only fish can be eaten for dinner and no leftovers are allowed, I have to make sure that one person goes to catch at least one fish beforehand (until I can get a fish shop set up), and I have to leave enough leeway in case it takes more than one try to catch a fish, as it often does at least until the Sim has a fishing badge.

I've also come up with a system for determining how/when each household has kids, based on the aspirations/wants of the parents. This way I don't end up with out-of-control breeding like I was starting to have before. Plus, I've also decided that I can only add a maximum of 2 households and 2 community lots per rotation to put some constraints on growth, which means that I won't be getting any add-ons for a good long time. But I'm OK with that.

I've also decided to randomly generate supernaturals. All CAS Sims will have a 20% chance of being a creature; I'll InSim them to the supernatural type they roll for as soon as I move them into a house. I'll roll to see whether they turn those they befriend into creatures, too. I think this will add some interest. But I'm not going to allow the supernaturals to live forever. That's what makes them boring for me, for the most part. So, I'm going to allow them to be supernatural for six Sim weeks and then cure them and immediately age them to elder. That way, I think I won't get bored of them, and it'll add some variety to my genetics because I'm going to use Olliepop's system of inheriting supernatural-ness.

So, yeah, I learned a lot from my first attempt at this, and I'm doing some things in this second attempt that I hope will make it more interesting/enjoyable and less overwhelming.

I'm always in favour of handicapping Sims! Makes the game more interesting.

Please, tell about your taxes in detail! I'm going easy on Sims below 20 k properties, but I need some evil taxes for the better off ones. So far I'm taking 50% on cash and 10% on all other property. What are your rates? Do you scale them by property levels? (I do that so I can really skin the rich Sims and get a university quickly.)

Not sending the kids to school sounds ideal; I considered that myself but I don't want to loose my kids to the social worker. What CC do you use to avoid that and have them earn good grades? A link would be great, if you'd have it!

Inge has several school hacks at Simlogical. The school page is here. I've not used any of them, but I've got kids who are coming up to child age, and I'm thinking about having all kids homeschooled until I've got a Sim in the Education career, so I might use the Flexischool one...

A rules question:

I'm thinking about one of my sims starting a little shop - fish, produce, maybe meals. Is a shop on one's own lot okay? Any chance that such a shop counts as community lot?

You can have a home business, sure, but (according to me, at least), it doesn't count as a community lot. It can be a good way to start a community-lot business, though, to build up money to buy a community lot if you're not into the taking-out-a-loan thing. Or, it can be a good way to make money if you don't want a Sim to own a business or have a job. But according to me, it won't earn you CAS Sims or count toward earning a business district.

I got the same thing from the rules; it's not a new building on a new lot, so it doesn't count as a community lot -- no addition to the SM, no new CAS point, no addition to a new business district.

However, I do believe that if you can get it to level 10, it'll open a position in the Business career.