I decide to start a Solitary challenge somewhat based on the reality show. I am currently playing the challenge and have changed a couple of rules along the way. I am not fully finished with the challenge, although it is quite fun to play.

Llamanator Corps. is conducting an experiment on un-educated Sims. Eight Sims have signed up for the project for a free llama when the experiment is over...if it ever will be over. They will be trapped in solitary confinement for an entire month. Their goal is to teach themselves as much as they can within that time.

Object: Try to get as many skill points for each Sim as possible before they become an elder/within thirty days.

Beginning the game:
Build eight octagonal rooms on an empty lot with the length of 2 tiles per wall. You may also add a 2x2 attachment to the rooms.
You may add the cheapest ceiling light to each "pod".
There may be no windows or doors connecting to the outside world.
Move in eight adult sims and move one to each pod using "moveobjects on".
Place the cheapest fridge in each pod.
Place the cheapest trash can in each pod. (Or if you have it, the trash chute)
Begin!

I suggest randomly assigning an aspiration to each Sim. It's much harder to manage certain Sims than others and it's interesting to compare the differences.

Rules:
a.You MAY re-buy a fridge if there is no food available.
b.You MAY re-buy a trash can if it is full.
c.You may NOT have your Sim leave their pod for whatever reason.
d.You may NOT delete the mailbox.
e. You may NOT re-buy an item if it is taken away from the repo-man.
f..Starting at 6PM, at every 6AM/PM and 12AM/PM, you may buy the cheapest type of one object (Bed, T.V, Bookcase, etc.) and delete one object on the ENTIRE lot. These times will be known as "buying periods".
g. At every buying period, instead of buying an object, you may upgrade a specific item to the next cheapest one available.. (i.e. You have the cheapest television set. You may upgrade that T.V. at a buying period to the next cheapest television set)
NOTE: For beds, you must first buy the cheapest couch and upgrade that to a bed.
h. Only one item can be added to each pod each day. No "4 items for one pod".

Scoring:
You may count the score once 30 days have passed.
+1 for each skill point gained
+2 for each badge level gained (1 gold badge + a bronze badge = 4 badge levels)
-20 for every death

I have to admit that my explanations were not as clear as I hoped, so if you have any questions, I will be sure to answer them and edit the rules post if necessary. If you have any photos or stories of this challenge to show us, it would be neat to see them!

I would let them sleep on the floor and have 1 chair and a bookcase. You could let Paladin's bill payer be put outside, so the bills would be paid automatically. However, without a bookcase there is no way to earn skills. Eventually you could buy them an easel for creativity, a radio for body skills, and a chess set for logic. They need a bookcase to start with. If they each had a cheap dishwasher then you wouldn't need a garbage can at all. No stove, let them live on jello. The dishwasher could take the place of the stove. They could live on sandwiches, cereal and jello...Nice idea....I may just try this.

Edit:

I have seasons....So I might add to the challenge by having the sims have to grow their own little gardens, with indoor greenhouses. You have to have a greenhouse door, I think, to make it work...But greenhouse door could be on the inside...leading out to little greenhouses for each sim. Then if they don't grow their own food, they go hungry. Also, the cheapest dishwasher is always breaking, so they'd better get some mechanical skills or they get electrical shocks when they try to repair their dishwashers. Oh fun ensues.

Edit two:

Okay, they don't need a dishwasher, they'd have a sink. So can they have a toilet and sink? My son pointed out they have to throw away fruit juice. So ignore my entire part about the dishwasher. I still think they need a bookcase to start with.

If I'm not mistaken, a trash can/chute should work fine if you don't have a dishwasher or sink. I automatically placed chutes in each of my Sim's pods to avoid any major messes.

I like the greenhouse idea, since it really makes them work for their food. I was thinking of giving them a new fridge after every skill point gained or after every buying period, but it was just too difficult. Adding a greenhouse as a starting condition is totally acceptable. Everything except the trash can/chute and the cheapest fridge are my default starting conditions. Everything, including bookcases, showers, and toilets were bought during buying periods.

It's quite interesting to see how your Sims look all nestled "in their new home".

Okay, I gave this a try. It was fun and hilarity ensued when the rabbit showed up 14 times in four days. Since my mac won't do more then a few sims well, I did four.

I built the lot on a 2 by 4 lot. Made four "pods" and one sim. I added the other three using the tombstone of life and death. It spawned me some interesting sims. Each one walked into his pod, and the door was deleted.

The first day was okay. They each got a bookcase, and slept on the floor. Then a toilet, a sink, and were doing their gardening. They got bronze badges. I had them water the plants all the time. That way they could grow different stuff.

The second day the bunny appeared, and never stopped. He visited them 14 times. By the fourth day, they were all in the red, nuts, and blubbering. I felt rather bad for the idiots.

After the sixth day, I admit defeat. The sims were just sitting on their one chair, and blubbering. They wouldn't eat or garden. So I moved them into two pods. They hated each other! They had only xxxs for each other. It was just as fun as the beginning.

My first man and woman fought three times, the bunny reappeared, then they fell in love. They now have a kid, who is locked inside the pod with them. It sleeps on the floor. I got Mom and Dad the cheapest double bed. She's pg again.

The second couple won't speak to one another. They hate each other, and one lives in the greenhouse. Anything to stay away from the other. The garden is doing great though. This challenge I have failed. But boy it's led to some other interesting ideas.

Thanks for suggesting it.

Hahah, great to see it has spawned into other things entirely. It will take some time for your Sims to get their moods up a bit after some buying periods. I personally started off with just two buying periods, but that I was simply lazy and took quite awhile for a single Sim to be nestled into their pods. (I should possible change the name of the challenge to Peas in a Pod) Just this evening I was thinking of possibly making another challenge similar to Solitary.

It would have been "mad scientist" like, with different pods, each with their own goal. For example, one needs to be abducted by aliens, the other will be a "pod house" with a couple that needs to have a baby, another that needs to max all of their skills, etc. Of course, that's for another challenge.

I debated with myself whether or not you should be permitted to interact with the Social Bunny, considering there are other ways to boost Social. (Diaries and such) Since the Social Bunny only visits for a single Sim and only once in awhile, I guess it's acceptable.

Also, if you're upgrading an item, note that you may upgrade to the next cheapest of a type of object that has better stats than the other. For example, a bed that has Comfort 2 and Sleep 3 that was worth $100 was upgraded to one with the same stats but was the next cheapest one available. Instead, you may simply go to the bed that has Comfort 2 and Sleep 4, but is the cheapest one available in that "stat group".

For double beds, you must first go through the single beds before it until you may upgrade to a double bed. Once you have a double bed, you may simply upgrade to other double beds instead of the next single beds. (Remind me to add these to my Rules post)

I may be confused. This is the way I understand this:

1. Create 8 sims that have randomly different aspirations.
2. Move them unto a lot with 8 pods that are octagons (each wall a length of 2) with an additional 2x2 room attached (for the bathroom) that contain only a fridge and trash receptacle.
3. After sending them to their pods, delete the doors (or use moveobjects to place sims in pods).
They do nothing but jump rope or garden (with appropriate EPs) until 6 p.m. when 1 of the 8 sims is allowed a toilet, the cheapest bookcase, or couch? Then at midnight a lucky 2d sim gets one as well? By 6 a.m. the next morning a third sim gets one?

I'd play the solitary game, but I don't like to be cruel to sims. I could see waiting until noon for a toilet, but not until 6p.m. Also, I don't see how you could really compare the different aspirations when they don't all get the same item at the same time.

Did I misunderstand? I think the knowledge sim aspiration would come out ahead and the poor popularity and romance sims would be in constant aspiration failure.

When I did this, I didn't mind the lack of a toilet. I just let them mop it up. They carry the mops in their pockets. I kept them busy watering their one tomato plant. By the end of the first day they all had a bookcase. They also had their bronze gardening badge. Then they planted, I think, cucumbers and strawberries. By the end of the second day they had a toilet and then sinks. But I only played four sims, so it was faster to get their needs. The challenge was in watching how they responded to the loneliness. I am a loner. I do not mind being alone. I do like folks, but being alone just doesn't bother me.

So watching how different personalities reacted to being alone, in hard conditions was interesting. I admitted defeat, and moved them in together. What was fun was watching the two couples decide maybe they could get along. One couple married and had two children. The other, finally became best friends. The computer crashed at that point, and I re-loaded the community, without the challenge sims.

I grew up on ranger stations. Being alone, was just part of being a rangers kid, in the fifties and sixties. We had horses, mountains, long rides up old mountain trails, and out houses. We used old limbs for the out door toilet when we hiked or camped. I guess it jaded me a little.

Is there a size recommendation for the greenhouse?

Also, do you mean us to buy the cheapest item of its type by function or by category? - ie: start with the cheapest item from the entire large electronics catalgoue, or with the cheapest item among the choice of TVs?

How are we supposed to pay bills? or do we have to let the repo man come?

Since I flunked this challenge I don't know if my answers count. However, I made a 2 by 2 square greenhouse, 2 squares wide and 2 squares deep. The walls have to be at least half greenhouse walls and the greenhouse door, which I put the greenhouse door on the inside of the pod. I had them plant 1 tomato plant. Then just have them keep watering it the first day, and they should get their bronze badge. Don't worry about it dying. You can replant it. Yes, they can get a bronze badge by just watering 1 plant over and over again.

After they get the bronze badge they can plant cucumbers and strawberries. It gives them something else to eat. I didn't have to replace the fridge, the greenhouse kept them fed.

I started with the cheapest objects and never got anything more expensive, except a double bed, but by then I had moved the couples in together. I used the tombstone of life and death to churn up my other sims. I made just one in body shop. That way they already had personalities I had nothing to do with. It made it very interesting. I did control if the tombstone churned up men or women. I had two men and two women.

But I did fail. After fourteen visits from the bunny, I just moved couples into two pods. One man spent 3 days in the greenhouse, to get away from the female. They did become best friends. The other couple fell in love and married and had two kids. I stopped at that point.

Edit: How to pay the bills

Paladin at the simwardrobe.com, has a bill paying machine. I got that and put it inside of a little fenced area, on an end table, and had it pay the bills. I don't know if it was challenge legal, but it did keep the bills paid. Once you have the sim on the lot, you just click the object, it looks like a calculator, and tell it to pay the bills. The bill payer, at simwardrobe.com, is under sims 2 downloads, objects, home life improvements...automatic bill payer. He has one for apartment life as well.

Also, with the latest SP, the solar panels and wind turbin can earn money so the sims don't have to pay bills. If just one small one was placed on the roof that might be enough to avoid having to pay. If they later got bills, another one could be added. That is of course if that doesn't violate the rules.

Thanks for your replies. 2x2 sounds reasonable for the greenhouse, since that size is the basis of the rest of the building.

Ooh, what SP is that? I think I need it!
EDIT: Mansions and Gardens! I must have picked this SP up like six times since it came out, but I never bought it. Now it's on the EA download manager. Thank you!

this looks fun... I haven't tortued my sims a little for a while now I think, like eccentricgnat, I will try to start off with four, and assign them all different things to do- this will be a great experiment !

Well I just made the building and the sims. I moved them in and took out their doors. I have a different slant on this that I'll share with you later. I'll see how it goes. I had to go download some things and will need to restart for them to show up.

Here is the Solitare Complex of eight individual modules with small gardens and equally small bath rooms.



One of the occupants snuck in a newspaper. That would be Sebastian. I think he is a knowledge sim.



He dropped it in his trash chute and another occupant passed it along to the next one. All the sims were just jumping rope, like Sharon here, until they noticed the paper. Then, they were happy to stop exercising and take a break to look at the newspaper.



So far they each have three happy tomato plants and have spent their time just jumping rope.

I downloaded some mods from modthesims2 that will allow them to pee anywhere and to sleep on the floor. They do not increase any motives faster. They just allow you to tell the sim to pee or sleep. If that's cheating, so be it. I just can't make my sims suffer when they should be able to pee in their gardens and sleep on their floors.

I let them have the newspaper so that those with job wants would spin so they might get aspiration wants fulfilled for buying the refrigerators and toilets that most sims will get credit for when moving into a new place.

I also got the idea to use the trash chutes to pass small objects through, like a newspaper, book, cell phone, or lap top. I know sharing like that will be a cheat; but really only one item for the whole building every six hours means that someone doesn't get anything for 48 hours. So I am improvising.

I also plan to buy two items every buying period so that every sim will get something new or an upgrade every day. For instance the blonde guy and gal get something new every day at noon while the brown-haired guy and gal wait until 6 p.m. The red heads get their purchase at midnight, and those with black hair get to buy something at 6 a.m.

To Ciane: I love your pod house. I loved your orphan challenge house. It "grew" to be beautiful. You are really good at these challenges.

I figured out a way to add a fishing hole to each pod, so next time I will have them fish as well as garden. I love the pee anywhere mods. I didn't think of those. A pile of logs in the corner, and the pee anywhere mod...and it will remind me of the old days.

Good luck. This challenge I did fail, but it was fun. Going off to try again, but with fishing ponds added. I know it's not challenge legal, but I will fail anyway. I only finished one challenge successfully, and that was the alien kidnapping challenge. I used a mod for that one that allowed females to get pg.

I thought about a small fishing pond in the garden. That would be a great place to pee too. It would be great to see you try this again, and we could compare some of the challenges or trials and laugh together. Good luck!

Thanks for the positive feedback! I am glad you like my houses. I have enjoyed seeing you or reading your comments in the other threads as well.

I just found a scroll in a box by HP at modthesims when I was looking for a cell phone that might be found in buy mode. I didn't have any luck on the cell phone, but the idea that they could pass messages back forth and maybe even develop a romance via coorespondence sounds intriging.

I do plan to make this into another story here.

The first purchase included books and magazines as half of the sims wanted a bookcase. These were, of course, shared with all the pod mates one trash chute at a time around in counter-clockwise circle. Sloan started the procession.



Sierra, a fortune sim, didn't care about books. She wanted an easel so that she could paint and make money. Though it sounds selfish, the others may thank her later as they will need money to purchase more things later.



By the time the next purchase opportunity rolled around, comfort needs demanded that a folding chair be obtained. This would allow the chair to be passed through the trash chutes and give the sims a small respite. They could sit down in the chair while eating their jello or studying. Is that relief on Sabrina's face? (She isn't going to the bathroom, but the "go anywhere" mod retains the pixelation until the sim showers.)



Another growing need was that of hygiene. Therefore, a bucket, again small enough to pass through the trash chutes was found. Now the sims could have a quick sponge bath or even wash the jello plates.



Here Shane is happily taking a sponge bath. He doesn't look that happy though, does he? Oh well, showers and tubs are too expensive and not at all mobile.



Skyler, a family sim, is already thinking about an engagement. How can he find anyone with which to fall in love? Social needs were growing urgent.



Fortunately another buying opportunity came up. A folding table that could just barely pass through the trash chutes when turned at a 45 degree angle was bought along with a laptop. The laptop easily passed through the chute and, along with the folding table and chair, made internet chats a possibility. Stacy, a popularity sim with the greatest social need, jumped on the laptop for over an hour.



The next buying purchase included something for the social need again. Only four sims shared the laptop in six hours. The other four still greatly needed social and the first four were still in need as well, just not as greatly. So, another small folding table and a message device was most welcome. Now one sim could chat on the laptop while another sent a message in more old-fashioned way.



That's where I left them. They spent the night sleeping on the floor. Almost half are still sleeping. One or two have bathed. One's on the computer chatting while another has the scroll. This sharing of resources is a very good thing for them, though rotating all the items from one pod to its neighbor all the way around can get old real fast.

I didn't know you could send things through the trash chute! Don't they just vanish? How does it work?

Thanks for sharing your pics and story.

They can only put trash in the trash chute and that disappears. I manually pick up the bucket from pod 1 and put it down in pod 2 and pick up the chair from pod 2 and put it in pod 3. Two trash chutes attach to each inside bathroom, which at this time is not a bathroom. So every sim with an inside bath has a trash chute leading to another sim's inside bath. So half the sims can pick up items to use or pass along to a couple other sims. The other half can only use the items that drop through and then return them through the same chute.

That means I pause the game, go to buy mode, select the item, and move it accordingly. The idea is that the object must be able to fold down, be carried, and fit through a hole the size of the trash chute. I just got tired of continuously queueing the jump rope and having them jump once and put the rope away because they didn't need any more fun.

Having a pond would keep them engaged longer; so I think if I did this again, I would build a river under the building and give them all a hole in the bath room. They could pee in the hole and fish there too. Though that sounds really bad to pollute the water one fishes in, I think it would work well.

Oh, I see. Clever idea!

Remember the Solitare Complex with everyone passing small resources through the trash chutes so that a time share effect occured? One pail gets passed from pod to pod so that everyone can do their dishes and take a bath.



Sometimes the residents have a little problem with the plumbing. However, a few have been working on their mechanical skills. Luckily Stacy was one of them.



They have two laptops that they share as well. Even when no one is on-line, they can send emails. They have no more problems with low social.



You might have noticed that they all have comfortable chairs now. (They are the cheapest lounge chairs, but they are twice as comfortable as the hard folding chairs.) It makes studying skills so much better and a few have maxed their cooking skills already.



The increased enthusiasm for cooking means yummy appetizers.



They invested in the chairs before even buying something to sleep on.



So they spent the first few days sleeping on the hardwood floor.



They all got toilets installed in their bathrooms before buying hammocks. Sierra got the first one. She was so happy to get that.



Skyler found an undiscovered star one night and got $500 from the astronomy club. That was great.



They have ran out of money for new purchases on Saturday. They get refunds from the solar panels on Tuesday and Friday for about $300. They haven't maxed their painting skills yet and are only getting around $50 for a painting.



So on Saturday morning of week one, everyone has a hammock, toilet, and lounge chair of their very own. They pass a couple laptops, easels, pails, and a telescope back and forth among themselves. Their tomato plants are doing well and most have a bronze badge now. The skill building is going well and sometimes I even have them all in platinum at the same time.

Long time no see! It's been so long since I've been on the forums that I have completely forgot about this challenge. I personally have not touched my The Sims 2 in awhile, so I have not gotten back to playing the challenge again. Once I have finished my original Solitary challenge, I will go and make one with a greenhouse, since I heard it is quite fun to have in this challenge. It's so great to see other players doing this challenge. Of course, my schedule has been quite rough on me, so chances are I won't be playing my own challenge for a couple weeks. Nice to see people sharing their stories of the challenge, keep it up everyone!

Actually, bladder was easy. I sold their trash can in each pod in trade for a toliet. You have to plot out how you do it, as you'll eventually need to sell the toliet to pick up the trash and then later trade off the trash can for the toliet.

I tried this challenge and it was good the first two days. However, on day three, two of the eight sims died as they went crazy and wouldn't eat due to break downs. I eventually traded their items in for upgrades for the others, it ended up getting some necessities, however, another sim eventually fell as he was eaten by flies because his trash bin was full and I had forgotten to refill.

The ghost aren't very nice...

eccentricgnat, I love how yours turned into such a different situation than the original challenge. That always happens to me when I try challenges.. >_>

This sounds SUPER interesting and fun, like something that I would have done when I first started playing TS2 years ago (I was a torturous simgod!). So I think I'm going to have to try it! Although I don't think I (or my computer) can handle eight sims... I guess I'll just have to try it and see!


edit: For some reason this challenge reminded me of this article I read a while ago.. http://www.popsci.com/lunagaia
Astronauts live in little pods that are connected to a common room... complete with greenhouses, an air circulation system, and all kinds of cool stuffs. This might be a good base for another challenge, or just another version of this one.

If I wasn't trying to cut back on my custom content, I would so incorporate a spacey theme to my solitude challenge lot! Maybe I'll give it a try with the CC I've got..

Quick question is it ok to use Moniques computer hacked objects for trying to earn skills/money I think the object also has an automatic payment system for bills I think I know Monique has some mods for paying people and bills