The Military Research Centre Challenge

Your aim in this challenge is to start with one Sim and use them to recruit a military and science team in order to build the ultimate military research centre. This challenge is loosely inspired by Mass Effect (hence the team recruitment and structural aspects). Note that where I mention gaining a grant, I of course mean use the money cheat. This challenge follows some basic rules but allows for flexibility depending on personal tastes and how difficult you want it to be.

To begin:

Create one Sim. This will be your Commander, in charge of the base and recruiting the rest of the team. Move them into a property and get them set up in the military career. Their aim at this point is to reach the level of Commander.

Building your team:

Once you become Commander, the government will consider you for the Research Centre project. You will receive a grant of §10,000 to help you get set up. For each military team member you recruit, you will receive a grant of §5,000. You can begin to expand your current house as the base or move to somewhere more appropriate.

The first person you will need to recruit is your second-in-command. Choose your recruit and then have them move in. Their career aim is to become a Senior Officer in the military career. Your second-in-command is the only other person who can personally recruit other team members, and if your Commander dies, is dismissed or retires the Senior Officer will become Commander.

You then need to recruit the rest of your military team, three more in total. Their career aim will be to become a Junior Officer. The job of the Junior Officers is to train under the Commander and Senior Officer (with the help of the military career reward) as well as complete solo training in the gym and any custodial duties that need doing (you may either hire a maid and gardener or have your Junior Officers take care of those tasks). Also, one of your Junior Officers could be the designated cook or you can have everyone pitch in.

Your military team established, you now need to recruit your scientists. Remember that only the Commander and Senior Officer may carry out recruitment. For each scientist you recruit you will receive a grant of §7,000.

The first scientist you recruit will aim to become a Project Leader in the science career. Technically this will be your team's third in command, although without military training they will not be able to ever transfer to a military role (more on that later). The Project Leader could also recruit the rest of the science team. The second will be a Lab Assistant, and together they will carry out research with the science career reward, making money by creating and selling viruses and cures to the government. If your Project Leader dies, is dismissed or retires then the Lab Assistant will become the Project Leader. The last team member you will need to recruit is your doctor. They will aim to become a Surgeon and will work on medical research with the aid of the medicine career reward. If they max out their logic then they can also help with scientific research in the lab. Once your military and science teams are fully assembled and reach their target jobs you will receive a further grant of §10,000.

Your other task, apart from recruiting your team, is to build your research centre. You will need to build the following rooms:

Staff quarters: It's up to you how you organize this. Your Commander should have the best room, definitely with enough space for a good bed, wardrobe, desk with computer and en-suite bathroom, as well as any other amenities you require. Your Senior Officer's quarters should also be nice, probably just a toned-down version of the Commander's quarters. As for the Junior Officers you can either be strict and set up a shared room with single beds or give them their own small rooms, the choice is yours. The scientists should probably sleep in separate quarters, with the Project Leader having a private room and office. If your lower-ranking members don't have private bathrooms then you'll need to build some shared bathrooms.

Training area: Using your military career rewards and other gym equipment, set up a gym in which your soldiers can hone their body skill. If you have University then you will need one of each type of workout equipment plus the military reward (if you have room).

War room: Basically a meeting room where everyone can get together to discuss research progress and war strategy. You will need a good, long table with eight comfortable chairs, as well as a flatscreen TV for projecting information. You could also have someone temporarily work up the politics career and use that reward to enhance your war room. The war room could be built underground for added security (and effect!)

Lab: The room your scientists will work in. You should have the science career reward and two desks with the best available computers for your scientists to work on.

Med bay: This should include a couple of single beds for any team members who fall ill, the medicine career reward, a desk with the best available computer and a couch and armchair (for psychiatric counseling).

Recreation room (optional): It's up to you what you want to provide for your team to do during their downtime (if anything). Some ideas are: TVs, games consoles, bookshelves, computers, easels, a piano…

Once you've assembled your entire team, got them in their appropriate roles and built every room with the right equipment, you've successfully completed the challenge! You will receive a final §20,000 grant for any final touches and upgrades, like better beds or some nice decorations. You can then move on to your next challenge or carry on, making more money to build a bigger and better research centre and continuing to recruit members as others die, are dismissed or retire.

A few extra rules (which can obviously be tailored depending on your preferences):

No one must surpass their designated roles in their careers. Doing so will be seen as insubordination and will be grounds for dismissal from the facility.

Everyone must be actively working in their careers as well as working in the centre. If anyone wants to quit or retire then they have to leave the centre and a replacement must be found.

If a soldier wants to retrain as a scientist, or vice versa, they will have to first gain five body or logic skill points before switching careers. A new role will be assigned to them depending on demand and someone else will need to be retrained or recruited to fill the gap.

More ideas:

How you organize training and research is up to you. You could be very strict and make everyone train and research every single day, or be a bit more lax and let them have free time when they take vacation days from work.

You could leave a space free for someone to have a child, who could be guided from birth to be the next Commander. This will also open the possibility of romantic intrigue. Will your Commander fall in love with and marry a scientist? Will two of the Junior Officers have a secret affair?

When you complete the challenge you could have the government upgrade everyone's status. The Commander could move up to General, the Senior Officer to Commander and the Junior Officers to Senior Officers. The scientists could also be leveled up similarly.

To build a bigger team, you could download a mod which allows you to have more than eight family members. This would allow for more roles, like a journalist to liaise with the public and keep track of general world events, a politician to provide direct governmental oversight of the facility, or a specialized chef to provide the team with the best meals.

You could name your family according to the code name of the project.

Finally, the grants are designed as a reward system for completing certain tasks. If you think they make the challenge too easy, forget about the grants and instead try to build your research centre solely from career income and the selling of cures and viruses.

Please do comment with your thoughts!

This is an very interesting type of challenge-and it is very different than the standard ones. I might try it with one of my second gen kids (if they want to be in the military, that is).

Thanks for posting such a well thought out challenge! I think it sounds interesting, and it could work in my BaCC.

Sorry, I've only just come back and seen your comments, thanks guys! I've tried this out properly now and realised that the starting grant is pretty meagre, even for the most basic of research centres. Instead I think it would be more enjoyable to just build a (very) basic centre which can be upgraded as you get more money, and just supply your fledgling commander with enough money to purchase it and get started.

Another idea I had was having your scientists become robot experts and building the a robot army to replace your standard humans. Could add an interesting edge to it!

This sounds like a neat challenge I can do as a side with some spares from my legacy challenge. This way they can have a successful life without creating even more families that I have to play. :D

I have a few challenges going on at the moment but I do like to have a variety to get into at any point so I don't get bored with one. I will try this since it is something I've never done in sims 2. When I played sims 1 I used to start off my neighborhood by having four females and four males in one basic house and they all took a job in military since it paid the best and didn't require many friends. So they worked on skilling and moving up the military ladder. Once they made it to the top I would move them out to start as a couple and do the family side of things then. So I have loosely done something in the military field before.

Yeah, the military career is definitely the best for easy promotions and quick money!

I really like this challenge and I already the perfect lot for it in my game. I created a Militaray training center originally for my Uni-hood as I had Sims in the military career while they attended university. I have 2 Sims that managed to keep their jobs in the military career track and graduate University with a perfect grade point average.This would be perfect for my 3rd generation Sim (when he becomes of age) whose father is a general. This is an excellent story progression for my Legacy Family. I also have a military Housing Lot where one of the Sims who graduated lives with his family.

This looks like a really well-thought out, fun, and interesting challenge. I'll have to give it a go when I'm in the mood for starting a long challenge.

I really like this idea. I just started a basic training facility at Mango military base from sunlit tides. It already had barracks so all I had to add was a mess hall and some training equipment. I have 7 troops and 1 cook who works in the mess hall and cleans the barracks. Problem is they all enlisted at the same time so they are all the same rank. My favorite thing about living on base, they wake up to revelry every morning.
Perhaps I will start this challenge once they reach their highest rank and then move some troops out to make room for the new recruits. Thanks for the ideas!