This isn't a challenge, per say, but a rule set I've developed that enforces strict restrictions/rules on careers and could easily serve as the basis for a city building challenge. I've imposed it myself in my hood after many weeks of play, as it works best, generally, with an already well-populated neighborhood (although this is not an absolute requirement). Although the rules are strict, at the same time, they give enough flexibility that a happy well-adjusted society can abide by them just as well as a more fascistic or dystopian society (especially if you choose to have a tyrannical Mayor or a repressive secret police).

I'm putting the final touches on the rules now (will post them once finished, with a preview snippet below). They are fairly dramatic in terms of changing the whole concept of the career system, which I do via imagination and cheats to force specific jobs, although a mod/hack would be the proper way to do it, in theory.

I'd love to hear from people who decide to try these out and the different hoods that arise.

(Snippet on the military career track...)

Upon adult transition, all citizens must serve their country. The primary means of service is one week of compulsory military service, however a Sim may choose to enter certain other fields in lieu of military service: these careers would generally be permanent (or at least long-lasting) ones.

Military:

Taking inspiration from the history of the United States, the SimNation military (The SimNation legion, SNL) is organized into four sub-legions, each an integrated force of infantry, armor, naval, and air forces. One general (10) is in overall command of the SNL. Each sub-legion is under the command of a Commander (8). Officers, NCOs are enlisted ranks are assigned to the different sub-legions in rotation. A given sub-legion may see combat in a given week (see combat rules) which puts members of that sub-legion in harm’s way.

Citizens are drafted into the SNL as Recruits (1) for their service. A recruit must serve one week in and may advance no further than NCO (3). At the end of a week’s service, the recruit is discharged and may obtain other employment. A recruit may choose to remain in the service if they have reached NCO status by the end of their initial service and re-enlist as a career NCO. Career NCOs remain at pay-grade (3) the rest of their career and must serve until retirement (career NCOs must retire upon reaching elderhood) or death.

A citizen may join the SNL later in life (not as an elder) and is subject to the same rules as a new recruit.

A citizen may also choose to join the SNL as a commissioned officer. They must be college graduates (any major) and join upon graduation for a three week commitment. Officers come into the service at Jr. Officer (4) and can advance freely to Sr. Officer (7). After the initial commitment is up, officers may continue on a week-to-week basis. They may also resign and transition into business, politics, secret police, law enforcement, or education (professor level or administration) w/o restriction. Officers do not have an age limitation and may serve into elderhood.

Advancement to Commander and General are by appointment only. The General is appointed by the Mayor for a lifetime term. Any officer is technically eligible, however, the General should normally be appointed from the ranks of the Commanders. The General is not officially a member of the Mayor’s party, but is considered loyal to that party and would generally run as a member of that party in any future political career (but does not have to). A new Mayor does not have the right of re-appointment, which would suggest that a military coup ‘d’état may be something to explore as a story-line in the future.

Commanders are appointed by the General, with veto power to the Mayor (this prevents a hostile General from stacking the deck with his/her people) from amongst the officers. Again, seniority should be a major consideration, but it is not required. Service is for life, resignation, or further appointment.

A special case is the Astronaut (9) corps. Potential astronauts must be career officers and must have served at least two weeks prior to appointment. There is a limit of six (6) active members of the corps. Astronauts are not eligible for further promotion and must retire upon elderhood, at which point they may transfer w/o restriction into business, politics, science, show business, or education.

Took me a little longer, but I've finished the rule-set. Thoughts, comments, critiques, etc. welcomed, as are stories, etc. using the same.

EDIT: UPDATED rule set on 4-22-14 with some modifications, etc.

Very cool. I'm reading through it all right now. I'm always looking for ways to make the careers more challenging, especially as a family or neighborhood gets up there in generations and everyone gets wealthy. I can see it working really nicely for a dystopian type theme.

Awesome job, egswanso! Very thorough, and I will be using this -- thank you!

It's funny, I didn't originally plan for the rules to create a dystopia, but in the end, they end up creating a very oligarchical society that can easily push into dictatorship. Using them in my own hood, my back-story is a Revolution in SimNation has led to the creation of a Regional Authority (the hood) and everything is vaguely fascistic, yet so-far, people are happy - so a utopian dystopia, perhaps. I'm chronicling the change through the means of the town newspaper, which is Pravda-esque in its constant praise...

These are awesome rules! I plan on using them in my MegaHood!

I read through your rule-set, and I think I've not seen a better written, comprehensive set in a very, very long time. I've always wondered how to do a 'transition' style play, where citizens go from one job to another and your rules did the job.

It even inspired me to start up a completely new neighborhood with them.
But I do have a couple of questions.
In the political field transition, you write:


Forgive me my inability to comprehend the term, but what do you mean by "apparatchik"? I do know the official definition of the word, but as applied to the game? The only LTW that I can remember is the "Become Mayor" that applies to the political field.

The other question is: can the want come from a rolled want, and not a LTW-for you see, I (along with many others) use the "LTW Variety" hack in their game, and many times a pixel will roll a LTW that has absolutely no relationship to a career. That hack makes it possible for a pixel to roll any wants whatsoever, and often they'll roll everything but a career want. I also don't often reference it, either.

But otherwise, it's an awesome piece of work!

Thank you!

Re-reading my rules, I see the confusion. Essentially, I'm using the Appratchik for an invented career path within the political field of the party minion, the political hack, and so forth. When I say that one has to role the LTW, it would indeed be the "Become Mayor" want - essentially, what I've tried to do is create two categories of politicians - the career politicians (and by calling them appratchiks, I suppose I am giving them some level of disdain) and those who had some success in another field, then turned to politics, as I always thought the career progression in the political field in the default game was a bit unrealistic. With the changes, I'm envisioning something a bit more realistic, where you may have sims who are ambitious, but can't easily gain a high-level elected seat - which hopefully leads to the creation of interesting storylines of a Machiavellian nature, perhaps.

My idea regarding the LTW limitations on the entry of certain fields was two-fold: to force more sims to just be ordinary workers (after all, we're not all big shots in R/L) and limit the number of high-level people, as I was finding it a little silly that everyone in my hood was a big shot. I would think that if they roll the want to enter the career, that would be fine, even if it's not the LTW, as long as it's still fairly balanced.

I do have a few minor updates I wrote that might clarify/add some things as well, which I'll upload tonight.

If you're struggling with your sims being too successful, another option is to only allow them to actively study/skill when they have a want to do so. That seriously slows down career progression. I combine that with a few 'extra' promotion requirements - such as a requirement that sims at certain levels of some careers must have a hobby card or a certain type of owned business to advance - enforced with Cyjon's job stopinator.

Yep, I only let Sims who roll wants to skill to do so, unless they do something autonomously that builds a skill. Works well to keep people from rising too far too fast unless they're really "driven" to succeed, either by rolling wants or doing useful stuff autonomously. I've also made rules that some careers -- like, say, Medicine -- require a college degree and a certain GPA at graduation to max out. (Because it bothers me that you can have surgeons who never went to college) and then I made college harder to get into and to succeed at, with a higher probability of flunk-out/drop-out. So there are all sorts of ways to do it.

That said, I'm going to have a look at your rules; I'm always looking for ways to make life harder for my pixels.

I do have a hack that limits the pixels to studying skills very slowly-where they don't gain skills at the drop of a hat, and it requires some very intense work to get them.

It's by Lientebollemeis at her site: New skillspan: 28 hours instead of 1 hour

It makes sense to do this in the game to me because in real life, you don't learn how to cook every single time you turn on the stove!

I had already done that and wanted to shake things up a bit more.

*looks around shiftily before stealing Nysha's idea and trying to look innocent whilst wandering off with it to try it in her game*

Can you share some examples of the extra promotion requirements you use in your game, Nysha? I.e. which career tracks, which levels and what are the requirements? :-)