The Longest Reign Challenge
The Longest Reign Challenge
This challenge is an alternative ruleset for the BACC with heavy influences from the prosperity challenge among others with a caste spin. The “goal” of this challenge is to expand a custom hood using Reign Points through 5 generations to see which of your founding families reigns supreme!
Starting Out:
Create a new blank neighborhood with townies.
You may add all of the Vacation Hoods.
You may add another sub-hood of any kind at any time (shopping/downtown/university) but it has to be blank. Sub-hoods can have townies but no playables. (see Uni)
Place 5 empty lots 2 x 2 lots in your neighborhood (or spread amongst your subhoods). Of the 5 lots, 3 should be residential. You can change the lot type (community/residential/apartment) throughout the game but the size of the lot must always remain the same. You can even bulldoze a lot completely to make renovating faster but its replacement must be the same size!
Create 3 CAS families. Their appearance can be chosen but randomize the number of members (min of 1, max of 8), ages, aspirations, personalities, etc of each family. Move these families into their own residential lots leaving you with 2 blank lots left.
The youngest sim in each family is considered generation 1.
Each founding family must be assigned (randomly) a family trait. (See Traits)
Restrictions:
You must choose a Patriarchal or Matriarchal lineage system for your neighborhood. This cannot change throughout the entire challenge. Depending on the system – it may cause one of your CAS families to lack a heir for their family so choose wisely! I will be assuming you've chosen a patriarchal lineage system to make explanations easier to understand. Simply change the genders if you choose Matriarchal.
*Note: You can decide how you want same sex-marriages to work but these are my recommendations: (Patriarchal)
Male x Male: Choose one of them to leave their Clan to marry into his partner's Clan. He must follow his Husband's Clan traits.
Female x Female: Neither one of them can carry on their Clan name. They both become Undesirables.
In the beginning you are restricted to the number of lots you start the game with – 5. More can be earned as you play the hood. (See Lots)
New lots cannot be purchased with simoleans alone. You also need the required Reign Points. (see RP)
Each household should be played for the same amount of time. 4 seasons is considered 1 year.
All services are unlocked at the start of the game. Households cannot have fire alarms, burglar alarms, sprinklers nor car alarms. Firefighters and Police have to be called using the phone. This restriction never changes.
Careers are open to sims who have the corresponding LTW. Ex: A sim can only join the business career track if their LTW is to become a Business Tycoon. Careers should be found via the newspaper or computer. (no cheating your sim into the position)
You can “create” LTWs for custom careers but LTWs should be assigned randomly.
Sims in the Founder class can unlock career positions for their future descendants. (see Caste)
Elixir of life cannot be used by sims to extend their lifespan.
Townies/Npcs/downtownies/etc can only join the hood through marriage or pregnancy.
You cannot use mods/reload without saving in order to choose the gender of a sim upon birth or adoption.
No money related mods to increase household funds.
Servos are not sims and have no status.
Reign Points (RP):
Reign points are the only way of acquiring land for a Founding Clan. It also determines a Clan's status in the neighborhood.
+2 (Patriarchal) Marrying a female sim from another Founding Clan
+1 (Patriarchal) Marrying a female sim to another Founding Clan
+1 For every Founding class sim born (excludes adoption) into the family
+1 (Patriarchal) For every male sim who reaches the top of a career track for the first time. (max : 28 without custom careers)
+3 For the first birth (excludes adoption) of a new generation (max 12 points)
+2 When a Founding Clan member (including spouses) achieves a LTW (limit of 1 point per sim)
+1 For each individual business that reaches rank 10 (only earned once per business)
+5 For the Clan with the highest Clan Score at the end of 1 sim year (4 Full seasons).
Male and Female sims can cause a loss of RP for their families.
-1 For every sim who becomes Auxiliary class
-3 For every sim who becomes Undesirable
-2 For every sim who is adopted
-10 Every time a sim is adopted for the sole purpose of continuing the Clan name (as in you have no valid heirs)
The total number of RP acquired by a Clan (spent and unspent) is their Clan Score.
Points used to purchase lots are spent and subtracted from the Clan's pool of available RP. Meaning you can't use the same points to repeatedly buy more lots.
Available Points and overall Clan Score can go into the negative.
Lots already purchased by a Clan will remain in their control even if their Clan Score decreases.
Caste:
There are three classes in this challenge. They are Founders, Auxiliary, and Undesirables.
To make things easier to keep track of, it is recommended that you change the surname of any sims that have a change in caste status. Only sims in the Founding class can earn RP (see Reign Points).
In general (Patriarchal), children take on the caste and join the clan of their Father. Similarly, wives take on the caste and join the clan of their Husbands. Divorced females go back to their original caste and Clan.
Founders: These are the CAS sims you start the challenge with. They are the most privileged class. (Patriarchal) Male sims in the other two classes can never elevate to Founder status. Female sims can marry into a Founder Clan thereby gaining Founder class.
- They can own home and community lot businesses, other residential lots, and vacation homes.
- They can join any career if they have the corresponding LTW.
- (Patriarchal) Once a Founder class male sim reaches the top of a career they permanently unlock one position in that career for any of their descendants regardless of that sims LTW. If their descendant loses Founder status they are no longer eligible for this career position.
- Founder sims can marry any other sim regardless of their caste though there may be consequences. (see Traits)
Founder class sims can lose their status in a few different ways. This loss in status affects this sim's future descendants. Their current descendants retain their status. (assuming Patriarchal)
- Female sims who marry an Auxiliary class sim become part of his Auxiliary Clan. Her future children become Auxiliary.
- Male or Female sims who violate their family trait become Undesirable. Their future descendants become Undesirables.
If one of your Clan's members impregnates another sim out of wedlock he can abandon the baby thereby forcing it to be raised by its Undesirable Mother without taking a hit to his class status. Otherwise:
- Male sims who have a child out of wedlock and keep the child become the head of an Auxiliary Clan. They must move out with his child and can no longer represent their Founding Clan.
note: This does not apply to alien babies. Alien babies do not cause a loss of Founder status. They are immediately accepted into the Founder Clan.
If one of your sims ends up pregnant out of wedlock you have 2 options. Option 1 is allow them to give birth but immediately put the baby (neglect) up for adoption as soon as it's born. Or option 2:
- Female sims who have a child out of wedlock and keep the baby become Undesirable. She must move out with her child and can no longer represent her Founding Clan.
Auxiliary: These sims are the middle class. They consist of Undesirable Male/Females who elevated in status. They also consist of Founder class sims who lowered in status. Vacation townies and dormies are considered Auxiliary class by default.
- They can live in the households of Founder class sims as servants/hired help.
- An Auxiliary clan can own 1 lot of any size IF one is available/not owned by a Founding Clan. (RP not required, just simoleans)
- An Auxiliary clan can have 1 business.
- They can join a career if they have the corresponding LTW.
Undesirables: These are the lowest class of sims. There are two ways a sim can become Undesirables. Namely, through out of wedlock children or violating their Clan Trait. Townies/Downtownies/Npcs are considered undesirable by default.
- They cannot own property or businesses.
- They cannot join a career track regardless of their LTW.
- They can work as employees/managers of a playable-owned business.
- They can live in the households of Founder or Auxiliary class sims as servants/hired help.
Undesirable sims can become Auxiliary class by (patriarchal):
- Female: Marrying a Founder or Auxiliary class sim.
- Male: Giving $30,000 simoleans to a Founding Clan or Auxiliary Clan in exchange for one of their daughter's hand in marriage.
Traits:
Only Founding Clans have traits. Randomly choose 1 trait from the list below. If your Clan makes it 1 full year (4 seasons) without violating their Clan trait – they can randomly choose a different trait instead of the one they currently have. Or , keep it the same. It is up to you.
There is no direct benefit to following your Clan's trait but there are severe consequences if your sim strays from the rules. Some of the traits are harder to adhere to than others. Traits are explained assuming patriarchal lineage rules.
1. Quiver-full: Sims in this clan always try for baby when woohooing – whether they are married or not!
2. Just enough: Each couple has as many children as it takes until they have a boy. If they have a boy on the first try then they can no longer have children.
3. Polygamy: Male sims can have multiple wives. These wives can live on different lots but they have to be owned by their Husband's Clan.
4. Arranged Marriage: Sims have to get married the same day they age to adulthood. (mmm double cake)
5. Good genes: Only male descendants with a particular genetic trait can procreate.
6. Nurture or Nature: A teen descendant takes the aspiration of the adult they have the highest relationship score with. (aspiration can never change)
7. Hopeless Romantic: Sims (male & female) can only marry someone they have a 3 bolt chemistry with.
8. High Standards: Male sims can only marry sims from other Founding Clans or Auxiliary Clans. (remember – vacation townies and dormies are considered Auxiliary class)
9. Fly the nest: Male sims can only get married if they own their own property and live alone.
10. Pure Bloodline (courtesy of litlegothcat13): Your sim cannot marry or breed with any supernatural creature. Alien babies and any custom supernatural sims are considered undesirable.
11. Symbiosis (courtesy of litlegothcat13): Your sim must marry or breed with a sim of a different species. (custom supernatural creatures included)
Lots:
The 2 left over lots (after your 3 families move in) are considered public property. They can be purchased with simoleans by a Founding Clan, made into future residential lots for an Auxiliary Clan, turned into public community lots or made into apartment complexes (recommended).
Additional neighborhood lots require RP and simoleans to purchase. These lots are automatically owned by the Founding Clan who put forth the RP/simoleans to buy them however they can be sold to other Clans or donated to the neighborhood.
RP used to purchase lots is subtracted from the Founding Clan's RP pool. Simoleans used to purchase lots is done automatically if it's a community/residential lot – otherwise manually remove the cost of the lot using cheats or mods.
The RP cost of a lot is determined by multiplying the lot's length by width. 1 x 3 lots cost 3 Reign Points. 5 x 5 lots cost 25 Reign Points. Etc.
Uni:
University is a special case. While you can add this sub-hood at anytime – it has to be blank. In order for sims to attend University the sub-hood must contain:
- 3 Community lots of any type/theme (but functional!)
You can use your initial 2 leftover 2 x 2 lots to get a head start on this 4 lot requirement. The remaining lots have to be donated by your Founding Clans to the neighborhood (using their RP AND simoleans – cheat/mod away the cost of the lot after building it).
More lots can be added at your discretion.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Thank you for reading if you made it this far! Rules/point system subject to change as I am still playtesting my own hood. Any feedback is appreciated.