I feel your pain. At least you were left with a teen and a child. I was left with just Dad when mom and toddler both died. You'll make it. I have faith.

Here's a pic of my sims' shack. The pond is used for watering the garden. Fish caught are deleted. You can see they have been working on their snowman skills during the winter!

(Edit - actually, the pond is not visible. Oh well.)

I would love to try this but I am very confused over the virus system could someone simplify for someone not so bright thanks

Things are hotting up a little. On day 13 Gwen, mother of the family, ran into another sim at the dumpsters, but survived the infection. Overnight, a burglar tried to rob the shack. Gwen (now immune) fought him off with ease (silly burglar! This shack is full of super-athletes). Then a policeman came by to tell one of the boys how they didn't catch the burglar. Drat. No one asked him to do that. However, Ben survived the contact and also gained immunity. So far, so good.

Two of four are now immune for a while. This may even give Gwen a shot at her lifetime wish, which involves charisma. She hasn't been able to work towards that because they don't know anyone. Now she will be able to go out and meet a few people maybe. Ben has also succeeded in stealing two beehives. Remarkably, the bees seem unperturbed by the deep snow. And even more remarkably, beeswax can apparently be eaten roasted over a fire. Who knew?

Well, my sims have made it to Day 8 unscathed. All are now immune, so they won't have to make any further virus checks. I've given them a food cupboard and basic counter from the trader, in exchange for all the random unwanted furniture they've collected out of dumpsters, plus about 35 jars of honey and 15 or so cakes of beeswax.

The garden has now thawed out and begun to produce - the plants which escaped the raid were harvested this day, while all the rest are just thinking of sprouting. Really, there should be no further difficulties for this family. Until the next challenge...

No kidding...

Thanks you are very kind. I am really struggling. I had to have some abdominal laproscopic surgery and I am feeling so bad right now. Any well wishes and so forth are very welcome.



I love your little shack! So sweet.



Hi there, I'll try to explain it a little better. Think of the virus as unfolding in waves. Initially, the only time you have to do a virus check is if you directly touch someone outside of your household (i.e. someone comes over and gives you a friendly hug, etc.). Then as the countdown goes on, the virus advances to close contact (so if you are scavenging in town and someone walks directly past you). There are also rolls needed if you have Seasons and your sims get sick (germy). So here is an example:

It's Day 29, since Day 30 just passed, we're still at a virus threshold of 8 (according to the instructions on day 30). Also, on day 30, the virus check became close contact. One of your adult sims decides to try to scavenge in town. Right when he makes a turn onto the lot with a promising looking dumpster, someone crosses his path. Pause the game.

1: Go to random.org (or use some other random number generator) and set the numbers from 1 to 20 and roll. Remember, today's threshold for the virus is 8 so anything 8 or below means infected).

2-A: If your sim rolled above the threshold number, than the stranger was not infected and neither is your sim (no further action needed).

2-B: If your sim rolled below the threshold than the stranger IS infected and so is your sim. Go to 3.

3: Your sim is now infected, roll again to see if the virus kills him/her. The base score to beat is 12 at all times for the check to see if an infected sim dies. You can subtract 1 from that for every point of athletics that sim has. So let's say your sim has an athletics score of 7. 12-7 = 5. 5 is now the score to beat so make your roll (1 - 20).

4-A: Your sim rolls above the target (i.e. according to the example above, gets a 6 or better). They survive the virus and become immune until the countdown says otherwise. That means if he comes in contact with any more sims while immune, no virus checks need to be made. He's immune!

4-B: Your sim rolls below the target (again using the example in #3, rolls a 5 or below). The sim dies and must be deleted.

I don't know if that made it easier to understand or more difficult. Hopefully it helps!

Yay! Looks like you're going to make it

Great Job! My family is coming along slowly. I am about 10 days from them aging up to adults. Further than I've made it so far and this time there are two kids. One is a toddler and one just became a kid and I have him signed up for homeschooling.

I would be further but one of my sons turtles died today. I don't know what happened. We changed the smaller one to a different tank just in case there was some kind of virus. Funny, we got the little one a few months back. It's not even 6 months old yet. The lady who sold him to my friend raises them to sell to Japan for food. Holly was able to rescue three of them and gave one to my youngest son who has always loved turtles. Seriously, once he is old enough to drive, I swear hes going to have a bumper sticker that says... will break, get out of the car, and rescue from the middle of any road any turtle I see. You have been warned!

Hes doing better now though so I'm going back to the sims before I have to go back to my real job tomorrow. <sighs>

Yeah, I have a 2nd family I'm playing through the challenge. Thinking of adding a few more daily events to keep things interesting. So far I am 9 days away from aging to adult and my couple has 3 children (1 about to be a teen, 1 child, 1 toddler). We have had very few brushes with the virus and nothing anywhere near fatal. I actually prefer the shack portion of the challenge. I already have an abandoned shack set up and ready to go for them with only a couple torches and a candle for light

Some more daily events might be good. It will be less interesting for me in this last portion, because all my sims are immune and it is just a matter of waiting out the days. (Although I admit to thinking about making up my own follow-on challenge for them!) I could make a play for some lifetime wishes, now that they can interact freely with the rest of the populace.

However, if I had lost a few sims along the way, and they were not now immune, I might just be glad to watch them garden safely for a few days! So it probably depends a lot on the luck of the draw.

I have a definite urge to work out what should happen next in this world. That makes it a good challenge! Misty, are you feeling inspired? Hope so.

That last week or so was just kind of a wait it out phase. All my remaining sims were immune from the last check til the end.

So I'm going to try a more difficult scenario for the last 7 days in my next attempt at this: I'm going to build an isolation unit near the town's hospital, create a doctor (probably a level 8 doctor: Infectious Disease Researcher) to staff it, and put each of my remaining sims in isolation for the last week.

Each sim will be checked for the virus every day; no more immunity whatsoever in the last horrible rampant phase of the quarantine. No contact with each other is allowed, but the sims may socialize with the doctor for a half hour every day when it's time for their virus check.

All food items were confiscated upon their arrival at the isolation ward, but the facility serves the patients 3x a day, either quick meals from the fridge, food from the ITF replicator, or whatever the doctor sim can cook ("Damn it, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a five-star chef." Maybe I'll add a second staff member to take care of more menial stuff like that).

Other than that, whatever power and water restrictions were active remain in place through the isolation phase. The sims are restricted to their individual rooms, each with a little bathroom of its own. Each room gets a bed, dining chair and small table, and one of the shorter bookcases, as well as two skill-building/leisure items to use in the room.

Doesn't have to be a cheaply built facility, either. This is on the government's tab, after all.

Anyway, I'll give this a try on my next playthrough of this challenge. I suppose I don't really need a doctor. I'm just a bit too fond of sim doctors being able to force those enormous horse pills on their patients.

Definitely and I'm starting to feel better (thanks to all those who had me in their thoughts). I'm probably just not going to return to work until next week. I actually had internal bleeding in my esophagus and had to have surgery to fix it. Lost a lot of blood and had to have a transfusion for the first time in my life (yuck) and I've had some complications post-hospital but today is the first day I've actually started feeling better.

All that said, I'll be working on another challenge in the meantime

That sounds something related to what I'm rolling around in my head, although I was going to add the complexity that you had to invite in roommates to fill the vacant "spots" and as they die off from the virus, they are replaced. Kind of a pe-colony camp where survivors of this challenge are desperately trying to get int to but there will be definite chances for dying/infection. Is it OK if I use some of your ideas? I'll give you credit in the challenge.

I'd also love to hear any other feedback.

I'm glad your feeling better. Your right transfusions aren't fun. I had to have one after the birth of my youngest child.



So a quarantine station for the colony? That would make sense. After all you don't want to let just everyone in, that's how infections spread. You also want to be fair to people. For instance, if you have an evil kleptomaniac that is harassing the people in quarantine, you might not want to let that person move into the colony even if the person is virus free. You want the best and brightest, not the best of the worst. Which of course could set up an entire new question.... As the God of these sims... Could you bring yourself to leave behind your son or daughter just because they might not be the best person in the world? Would the colony consider it in their best interest to put up with such a personality If the Sim they were with was of a high enough level of usefulness?

How do you decide who gets to move on to the colony and who has to stay behind? Would you leave behind someone who was absent minded simply because they might, while hunting for supplies, come into contact with someone infected? Would everyone who enters the colony have to be exposed to the worst strain to prove they were actually immune?

How much of the moral dilemma can actually be worked into such a challenge? I don't envy you the attempt but its obvious that if anyone can do it, it's you.

Sure, if anything I said integrates well with what you had in mind, feel free to use it. I don't know how well any of that's going to work out. I'll build a place and stick my challenge family in it later today and see how playable it is.

And they thought they'd made it safely out of this challenge.

A couple things...

THIS CHALLENGE HAS BEEN UPDATED, YAY. I added several additional events to the countdown which I hope you will all enjoy.

NEW CHALLENGE: I'm going to crank one out and incorporate all those great suggestions. I should have it out to you guys by this weekend. The colony itself does not give a damn. They are out for the best and brightest (as ladykelien said). This is the last, great hope for human survival so compassion just isn't an option but those moral dilemmas will be presented to the player and if they choose to look the other way, their facility eventually suffers for it.

Here is what I'm thinking, feel free to poke holes:

Someone comes into the station/facility and must stay there for a certain number of days. During that time, they have to pass rigorous physical and mental challenges (kind of hunger games style but not to that extreme). If someone fails, it's assumed they possess a bad trait. Maybe they get a second chance. Ultimately the goal is to populate the colony as quickly as possible with the best. If your station does well, the "powers that be" reward you with more advanced technology, more staff, etc. If you do poorly, you will eventually be shut down. So if a mother and toddler enter the facility and the mother fails, you will have to decide whether to boot the kid or not (they are taking up space and time will have to be invested by the staff, etc.). That's just one quick example. What do you think?

Well, I'm going to be snowed in (again) this weekend, so I'll have lots of time to try out the updated version. It reads pretty well, and I'm looking forward to starting it and seeing the next challenge you're working on.

Hey guys, I changed the name of this challenge just to make it easier for newcomers to follow along. It will be:

DOOMSDAY CHALLENGE PT 1: COUNTDOWN
DOOMSDAY CHALLENGE PT 2: ISOLATION
DOOMSDAY CHALLENGE PT 3: COLONY

Also, just to give you guys a taste of what is to come in the continuation of this challenge, here is a backstory I drafted up. Enjoy a sneak peek!

BACKSTORY: You sigh deeply as you stretch behind your massive desk. The sign on the door reads your name and “DIRECTOR OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE”, in other words, director of a crew of one assistant trying to separate the wheat from the chaff of what Is left of human civilization. Still, if you succeed in isolating the right character traits and keeping the virus under control in your Unit, you’ll be well rewarded. It's a big risk, both personally and professionally, but worth it.

Overhead you hear the beating of helicopter blades and from your office window, you spot a black and gold chopper cutting the night sky. The letters ISOCORP etched on the side, your employer. The plan has gone into action. Thousands of notices will be dropped across every city. You thumb a copy in your in-box that reads:


Until now, your CIU has been disturbed only by the sounds of your work and contractors building the structure to IsoCorp code. Your assistant arrived today and will be taking over some of the dredge work (thank goodness) allowing you to focus on the potential colonists. It’s going to be a mad house here tomorrow and it will be up to you to keep the Unit safe. Another letter, directed to you personally, rests on the corner of your desk. You reread it for the thousandth time:

Doctor,

Congratulations on a fine promotion to Director of Infections Disease of your own Colony Isolation Unit. This is a prestigious and well-earned opportunity. We here at Iso-Corp have the utmost confidence in your abilities and anxiously await your results. Your priorities are outlined below. The method of achieving them have been provided in the attached policies and procedures manual.

1. On Day 1, each potential colonist (henceforth referred to as "subject") must be introduce to the Unit in 100% isolation. Risk of cross-contamination is high at CIU onset and your responsibility is to preserve the reputation of Iso-Corp. If subjects are permitted to co-occupy the same room before the isolation process, they must be quarantined and the error kept confidential. Such instances in your report at the end of the week will be looked upon as highly unfavorable.
2. Each subject must have a thorough health assessment. Any who do not pass must be removed from the unit immediately.
3. Subjects must be interviewed individually and assigned appropriate residential units.
4. All eligible subjects must pass at least three analysis studies before they can be considered for the colony. More if you wish.
5. Physical and psychological evaluations must be conducted on a daily basis

Your government and Iso-Corp are looking for the best of the best, the top of the human gene pool. Nothing less will do for our colonization efforts.

You take a deep breath in anticipation of what is to come.

That sounds like a cool way to play while building the colony

Thanks MistyDW I think I got it now I just have one more dumb question to ask When you say dose that mean towns like Dragon Valley,Midnite Hallow and Aurora Skies ect are off limit?
I ask becuse I have uninstalled Supernatural to run another Ex pack ( my Computer can only run 10 EX and Stuff Packs at one time)

I primarily meant that time line wise, this took place before sims went to the future. Since lunar lakes is supposed to be another planet (i believe) i'd say no to that one as well just because story line wise it would seem odd for the virus to reach that far.

Noooo Say you didn't change it Please!!!!!!!!!! LOL Oh well, starting all over again for the fourth time is easily justified since my game keeps locking up at the same point on day 38, What's sad is I like this version better... Okay, so now I need to copy the three stages of the challenge into one file so I can access it when I am offline and start new again... You know Mysty if I didn't like you and your challenges so much.... LOL I hope your feeling even better today.

I'm about to start the revised version of this challenge, but a quick question and an observation before I get going.

Should that "everyone" be an "anyone"?

The other thing I wanted to mention was the first appearance of the old man, on Day 22. I was wondering about making the "Try to Rob" option more tempting. The radio's the cheapest item he offers for normal trading, and it's really not enough to risk both a virus check and him never showing up again.

Maybe something like "steal 3 things of your choice from this list, but any adult or teen must be checked for the virus, and the old man will never come back." That would make me think for a while about which option to take. That risk vs. a lot of food saved.

I like the changes you've made. I also like othiym's suggestion for the trader. The way it stands, we'd be stupid to try robbing him.

I've been making my own follow-on challenge. Nothing like the way yours is heading with the Isolation unit, but more playing with ways to work through the mess towards a return to normal. More crime but less clinic.