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Sarcastic Evil Muppet
retired moderator
Original Poster
#1 Old 14th Nov 2006 at 8:05 AM Last edited by Phaenoh : 10th Feb 2014 at 5:44 PM.
Default Progress Over Time Challenge
Have you ever wanted to start a neighborhood with nothing and build through the generations? This challenge just might be for you. Share your tips, tricks and ask for help here!

GOAL:

To have a family progress through different eras as the generations pass, maintaining a consistent timeline between the generations in their assorted houses as you do so.

Optional goal: to build and furnish houses (and other lots) in styles appropriate to each era (you may download lots built by others to use if you prefer, but will only receive lot-building related points for the ones you build yourself). If you do build custom lots for this challenge, you are encouraged to upload their non-furnished versions for others to enjoy.

STARTING OUT:

You may start with your choice of either one or two characters. At least one must be an adult, the other can be any age and of any relationship (including just roomies) to the other.

They can be CAS sims, or a sim from a previously completed challenge, or one of each. Make an empty smallest sized lot somewhere in your neighborhood, and move your sim or sim(s) to it - you will not be playing your character(s) here, just setting them up for play.

For each era of play, you are to build a totally unfurnished house of the appropriate style - you may test placement of the furniture you'd like it to have while building it, but must clear all Buy mode objects from it before using it. The total cost of the unfurnished house (rounded down to the nearest thousand) may not be more then 50,000 simoleans.

Tip - the easiest way to clear a furnished house is to make an extra character, and move them into the house and then back into the bin. All the furnishings will be sold off and any rewards removed.

Once the house has been built, look at its cost, round it down to the closest thousand, add 15,000 to that amount, and cheat code your sim(s) at the vacant lot so they have that amount in funds, ie, enough to buy their house plus 15k in starting cash. Check the inventories of your sims and remove everything except their ReNuYu potion, and, optionally, a single object they are bringing with them from their previous home.

Move your sims from the vacant lot to the new house and start playing them.

As each generation sets out on their own, you are to temporarily move the heir out to the vacant lot and build the next era's house in the exact same way - ie, unfurnished, and cheat coding the heir to only have the cost of the house plus 15k - before moving them in.

You can make houses that have been "renovated" from the look of an earlier generation, for example a victorian mansion that's been turned into a hippie commune.

In building and furnishing your houses you may use custom textures and custom objects, as long as they are appropriate to the era (or the ones prior to it), and do not modify the sims aspirations, relationships, skills, or moods in any way that the Maxis objects don't. Use of items that have functionality not appropriate to that era, but with an appearance that is, are allowed (for example the violin radio and crystal ball TV by Dr. Pixel here at TSR, the assorted horse-powered "cars" from hexameter at Mod The Sims2, are suitable for use in eras pre-radio, pre-TV, pre-car).

Exceptions:
- vital furnishings like a fridge, stove, and telephone can be used even if you can't find one re-meshed or at least vaguely retextured to suit the right era
- cheat codes and objects that allow you to redress and makeover NPCs in era-appropriate attire are allowed


ERAS:

Eras and a rough guide to their building styles are as follows:

1) Settlers - log and stone cabins, plank construction, tents, lean-tos, a sod house if you can figure out how to build one, etc. No electricity! Lights, cooking sources, etc. must be flame-based (candles, fire, oil lamps, etc.) No radio, TV, etc. No cars.

2) Victorian - brick, stone, or painted siding houses, lots of porches, balconies, towers, turrets, gothic rooflines, widow's walks, decorative cast iron or turned/carved wood railings. Only the very simplest of electrified items (lights, mainly, maybe a very early style of record player) No cars.

3) Art Nouveau/Deco - flowing lines, layered geometrics, buildings starting to experiment with shape and material but mainly fairly standard construction. Electricity being phased in - lights, record players, radios. The car has only recently started into mass production (Model T ford type vehicles).

4) Postwar - cookie-cutter housing developments are the latest major trend. Simple little early-suburbia family dwellins. Cars are starting to lead to suburban sprawl, factories are churning out household appliances. Radio still the big entertainment form.

5) 50s - plastics and bent plywood and "futuristic" look coming in. Lots of experimentation with house shapes due to new materials/methods, at least for high end homes. TV at last! Cars really taking off. Age of the drive-in and drivethrough and motels. Suburban sprawl is growing fast.

6) Groovy - the psychodelic and/or disco generation. Flower power! Rebel against authority, don't let the man get you down, etc. Lots of electricity, lots of cars.

7) Contemporary - more or less the here and now look. You should know this one

8) Future - what do YOU think tomorrow will look like? Modular habitats, biodomes in a wasteland, the next ice age, the flooded lands, space travel, life on the moon/Mars/Venus etc... be creative!

9) OPTIONAL: Farm Life - may be played once, between any two eras of your choice, and should be mainly styled like the era before it with a little of the next era if you wish. For example, a farm era played between Victorian and Art Nouveau/Deco would be a mainly victorian-look farmhouse with some more "modern" touches allowed.

10) OPTIONAL: Poverty - may be played once, after any era of your choice, can include anything from any era before it that looks old, worn, stained, broken down, etc.

as posted by MsBarrows on TSR
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Sarcastic Evil Muppet
retired moderator
Original Poster
#2 Old 14th Nov 2006 at 8:05 AM
BASIC RULES:
- The heir does not have to be the firstborn child. However, the heir must be related to the founding sim. For example, if your female heir married an NPC male sim who then had an alien baby, the alien cannot inherit becuse they are not a blood relation of the founder. Adopted sims also cannot inherit (even if they were taken by the social worker from parents that were blood relations).

- If an Heir dies without having children of their own, you may pick any still living relative that is descended from the founding sim as their heir, preferably a younger relative such as a niece or nephew.

- The heir must move out to a home of his or her own in the style of the next era as soon as they're an adult. They are allowed to move home from college but cannot stay there more then 1 sim day, and may not marry or get a job during that day. This is basically just a chance for them to get back in touch with their relatives, and optionally have someone living there move out with them. Note that if the heir runs away from home as a teenager and shows up in the family bin, they can start their own next-era household at that point.

- The heir is allowed to bring along one item from their previous home if they so choose, but are NOT allowed to sell it for funds; it should be an object they brought along because it's something they treasure, or a family heirloom of some kind.

Note - the single object brought cannot be a career reward or an aspiration reward - households may only have the rewards the members living there have earned. However, if when the heir moves out they bring an adult sim from the previous household with them who has earned a career reward, that sim may bring their reward(s) with them as well. Non-heir sims who move with the heir are not allowed to bring any other objects with them apart from their own career rewards and their ReNuYu potion.

- You must continue playing each house at least until the heir of that generation has died (unless they've become one of the immortals, like a vamphire or zombie), and preferably until all residents have died or moved out. Ie, if Billy Bob Joe is the heir who originally purchased the Groovy house, you must continue playing the Groovy house until Billy Bob Joe has died, or until his heir has become an adult and moved out if he died when the heir was not yet an adult. This does mean you may find yourself playing several houses at a time if you have, for example, elder Victorian grandparents, their Art Nouveau/Deco heir and his/her family, and their Postwar grandchild just starting out on his own, all still alive and kicking.

- When you move out non-heirs, you can either leave them in the family bin, place them on a vacant lot with a telephone and cheat-code their deaths at an appropriate point in time related to the time line of the family (for example, kill them off of old age when the heir of that generation is also an elder), or optionally put them in an era suitable house and play them also as part of the storyline of the heir line, again being sure to kill them off at an appropriate point. It's simpler to keep the "over time" time line part consistent if the great-great-great grandson of the original founder doesn't trip over one of the founders children still walking around alive!

- Your heir can marry NPCs or adult CAS sims, however, you are not allowed to play the CAS sim, just place them on a lot with a telephone (you may visit lots with teenage CAS sims to send them to college if they went steady with the current heir they must live in the same household as the heir while in college). You will receive fewer points for marrying them (see below). You may seed your neighborhood with as many of these unplayed CAS sims as you'd like. You may build and furnish a house for the CAS sim if you'd like to take advantage of the "go to your place" interaction when dating them.

- Immeadiately before you marry any CAS sim, or a sim you had move in with you at college, you must move them by themselves onto a vacant lot with a telephone, clear everything out of their personal inventory, and make sure their personal worth is only 20,000 simoleans.

- The heir can have children from or with multiple partners. For storyline purposes, you may use cheat codes to impregnate the heir with NPCs that you cannot normally interact with (such as the Grim Reaper or the Social Bunny, or even the dreaded Mrs. Crumplebottom). NPCs that you can interect with must be wooed and won in the traditional manner.

- Once an heir has moved out and started the next era's house, the houses of any previous still-living generation can begin to acquire furniture upgrades suitable to the more modern era if you so desire.

- When any child becomes a teenager, you must roll for their aspiration. Standard rule of:

1. Wealth
2. Knowledge
3. Family
4. Romance
5. Popularity
6. Pleasure


- You are encouraged to create and maintain a graveyard for your family! You can move gravestones to and from it as much as you wish. You are allowed to move a CAS character into houses where everyone has died off in order to send the gravestones to the graveyard. You are allowed to make a community graveyard as well if you want to keep dead unrelated people somewhere other then your own family cemetary.

- The legacy ends when the last era's heir becomes an elder or dies. This will normally be the Future character, unless you chose to play the farm and/or poverty era after the Future era.
Sarcastic Evil Muppet
retired moderator
Original Poster
#3 Old 14th Nov 2006 at 8:06 AM
Points

Personal Development Points:

These points can only be earned by the heir and his or her spouse (or significant other if they are living together in an unmarried state). Extraneous characters such as extra children or non-related roomies do not earn points.

- 1 point for each skill maximised
- 3 points if they maximise all skills, if that is not their lifetime aspiration
- .5 point for each aspiration worth 20,000 points or more which has been fulfilled
- 1 point for each talent badge worked to the gold level
- 5 points the first time they fulfill a lifetime aspiration
- 2 points for each additional lifetime aspiration they manage to fulfill
- .1 point for every five best friends they have at the time they become an elder (this includes related sims)
- minus 1 point every time the psychiatrist visits the household
- minus 3 points any time a household member uses ReNuYu orbs or potions

Marriage and Birth Points:

Only earnable when the heir marries someone, they can earn them multiple times if they marry multiple times during their life.

- 1 point if they marry or have a civil union with a CAS Sim
- 2 points if they marry or have a civil union with an NPC
- 3 points if they marry or have a civil union with a service sim (maid, handyman, gardener, etc.), or a university staff member (cafeteria worker, professor, etc.)
- 1 point if the sim they marry or have a civil union with is someone they went steady with while a teenager (can be CAS or NPC)
- 1 point if the sim they marry or have a civil union with is an NPC college student that they invite to move in with them
- minus 2 points if they marry a distant cousin, ie, anyone also descended from the founder but not considered by the game to be too close for marriage. Exception: No, they can't marry their own multiple-greats grandchild, even though the game does consider them to be non-related.

Heir Only Points:

Yup, only the heir gets these ones!

- .1 point for every 1,000 simoleans they have when they start college (round off the value shown while they're still in the family bin to the nearest thousand)
- .1 point for each semester they graduate on the Dean's List
- 2 points if they graduate Summa C. Laude
- .1 point for the first Dream Date they have with any one sim (can only earn again by dating different sims)
- 3 points if they have someone they went steady with as a teenager come to college and graduate also
- 1 point if they have someone they went steady with as a teenager come to college but drop out
- 3 points if they have an NPC student move in with them at college and graduate also
- 1 point if they have an NPC student move in with them at college but drop out
- 3 points if they start a frat house while in college and live in it until graduation
- .1 point for every member the frat house they started has when they graduate
- 1 point if the heir has an alien child or twins
- 1 point for every child they successfully raise to young adult/adult level (only applies to children raised within their own household, earned when the child moves away from home), even if the child is not related to the heir. Yes, you still get this point for any children who were still in the household at the time of the heir's death and raised to the move-out point by the remaining members. Exception: no points for raising children who were adopted as teenagers. No points for children born or adopted after the heir dies, unless it's their own heir who is the one born.
- minus 3 points if the heir drops out of college
- minus .5 points every time they fail a semester
- minus .1 point every time the heir gets visited by the social bunny
- minus 1 point every time the heir uses elixer, cow plant milk, or any other life-extending substances that get added to the game
- minus 1 point for every child taken away from the heir's household by the social worker, even if the child is not related to the heir
- minus 2 points any time a teenager runs away from home

Elder Points:

These points are only available when your heir becomes an elder.

- .1 point for every 10,000 simoleons their houshold has, rounded off to the nearest 10,000; this is the value shown in the neighborfood view, not the available cash funds when playing within the household.
- 1 point for each business the heir owns
- 1 point for every career they reach the top of, excluding teen jobs

Household Death Points:

Only earned while your heir is still alive in their own household, and for their own death. Any subsequent deaths do not count.

- 1 point for every household member who dies of old age
- 2 points if they leave a platinum gravestone
- 1 point for every different colour of ghost in the family graveyard
- 1 point for each different platinum aspiration grave in the family graveyard
- .1 point if a ghost walks at least once before their gravestone is sent to the cemetary
- minus 3 points if a gravestone or urn is smashed
- minus 5 points if an NPC dies while visiting the household and is not resurrected
- minus 3 points if an NPC dies while visiting the household but are brought back as a zombie
- minus 1 point if an NPC dies while visiting the household but are given a $10,000 resurrection

Theme Name Bonus Points:

What can I say, I really like themed names, so giving some bonus points for them! If you are planning to follow a theme or an alphabetical order rule of some kind, make sure to state what the rules you'll be following are.

- 10 points if the final heir still has the same surname the founder had, but only 5 points if its the same surname but one or more heirs had a different surname.
- 5 points if your family name had a theme to it and children within the heir line stuck to the theme (examples would be the Tion family, whose names formed -tion words, and of course my own Soup legacy).
- 5 points if your legacy followed an alphabetical order in naming each generation; this can mean either each generation has their own sequential letters for naming and/or marriage purposes (see the Alphabet Challenge), or that you started with an "A"-named founder, their children were B-D, their first grandchild an E, etc. In order to allow for starting this with Sims from a previous legacy, you may start at any point in the alphabet and work sequantially onwards from there.

Building Related Bonus Points:

To encourage players to make their own houses for this challenge and stick to the themed eras look, of course

- 10 points for building your own era-appropriate house
- 5 points if you build at least one era-appropriate dorm/commercial lot for your college, or two points if you at least use someone else's era-appropriate building
- 5 points if you build at least one era-appropriate commercial lot for your downtown area, or two points if you at least use someone else's era-appropriate building
- 5 points if you build at least one era-appropriate business in your business district, or two points if you at least use someone else's era-appropriate building
Scholar
#4 Old 25th Jun 2007 at 10:39 PM
Wonderful! But....how can we do all era's without downloading CC...which is what I don't want to do.
Test Subject
#5 Old 2nd Mar 2008 at 10:23 PM
I'mma try this. It sounds really interesting.

The only problem is that I don't have Uni, which seems to gain you quite a lot of points.
Test Subject
#6 Old 26th Mar 2008 at 10:19 PM
I just saw this, and it looks like a lot of fun. Since I'm going to be starting with a fresh and clean game (no cc for the most part) I'll drop some ideas for those who also don't want to load their comps with cc.

My order is

1) settlers - game has all the country items, log cabin items, plain as you can make it, dirt, browns, dressed in "Farmer" looking clothes
2) farm - same with a few touches of victorian and plain wood siding (aka planks)
3) victorian- siding, fancier windows, the dresses (medieval-ish ones will have to do), the fancier decorated build items
4) art nouveau/deco - research build styles, odd windows, plain style clothing (not yet modern)
5) post war- Mission Furniture, build houses to look alike
6) Great Depression- POVERTY!
7) 50's- ultra modern items
8) Groovy (70's-80's)- self explanatory I think
9) Contempo (20th-21st century)- anything and everything
10) Future - Aliens!- just go to strangetown!
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