Bored with the legacy challenge? Ready for something REALLY difficult? THE POVERTY CHALLENGE!
this is not a beauty contest

Instructions:
STEP ONE: Create a CAS Sim to be the founder of your impoverished family.

STEP TWO: Move the sim onto the largest (5 X 5) lot. Spend all of your money on groundcovers/terrain smoothing until you only have 100 simoleans left. Nightlife users should use the familyFunds cheat to reduce the net worth to 15,300 from the get-go.

STEP THREE: Check- are you down to 100 smackers? Okay. The true poverty challenge begins here: survive and thrive as best you can. The challenge ends when the youngest grandchild of your first (CAS) sim dies of old age.

POINT SYSTEM:
+Each simolean (of the family net worth) is worth one point in this challenge.
+Each child is worth 3,000 points (provided you raise them to teenagers).
-5,000 for each child taken by the social worker
-3,000 for accidental deaths (by fire, etc.)
-2,000 for each teen runaway
-1,000 for each promotion, including chance card promotion

RULES:
1. NO REWARD OBJECTS
2. NO PRIVATE SCHOOL
3. Your original (CAS) founder Sim may work ENTRY LEVEL JOBS ONLY.
4. Other sims MUST START AT THE BOTTOM of the career ladder. You will lose points with each promotion, so think carefully about your strategy, and whether you want them to be promoted or not.
5. All children must have the money aspiration. Grandkids can be anything.
6. NO UNIVERSITY- you are poor, remember?
7. NO ADOPTION- you are poor, remember?
8. NO REWARD OBJECTS (We mean it!)
9. Only NPCs or service sims may join the family. Nightlife users may not ask them how much money they have.
10. Sims may only visit approved "Poverty Legal" community lots, NO OTHER COMMUNITY LOTS allowed! Here is the first:

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=125890

NEW! SHINY! NO EP!
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=240257

11. Hacks and custom content are allowed, but not if they are against the spirit of the challenge. Any custom careers must be BALANCED (eg. travel is okay, and OTR sales is okay because of the insane hours; richest sim and stay-at-home careers are not).
12. The poverty challenge stays on the poverty lot- if a sim moves out, they are no longer considered part of the challenge. This means a sim may not receive an inheritance, or any money or gifts/inventory items, from off-lot sims. See posts below for ways to get rid rid of inheritance money.
13. Teens may move out with an adult, but not alone. Kids and younger may not be moved out, period. Otherwise you will lose the 3,000 child points from raising them.
14.Nightlife dating objects must be kept in the inventory- not used or sold.
15. Sims may not purchase real estate, or order/sell deeds with OFB.
16. Sims may not run a home business- unless it is the lemonade stand.
17. Poverty challenge sims may not be hired as employees by another business.
18. NO SNAPDRAGON and NO SERVO
19. Poverty Challenge families must be played using all four seasons. You may arrange the seasons in any order, and you may start in any season, but you MUST have a winter, spring, summer, and fall.


BONUS:

LONE TEENAGER: No points for this, since you have longer to find a mate. But it is difficult in its own way, and we will all admire your fortitude. Start the family with an adult, then kill them off, or use a hack to turn your CAS sim into a teen.

PREGNANT TEEN (+1500 points) Use the insiminator or other hack to start the challenge with a pregnant teen sim- but no points for the unborn child.

OLD MAID (+35000 points) Your sims do not marry/move in anyone, ever. All new family members must be born. You may have children out of wedlock.

So post pictures please! I am interested in seeing them!
And as a final caution, know what you are getting yourself into. Simmish life is rough: this challenge is not for those easily shaken by the sight of pixellated misery. Have fun!

***12/13/2005 -updated the rules in an attempt to simplify the challenge and make it more exciting. You are now penalized for every promotion. Those who have already started the challenge will not be penalized for promotions prior to this change.***

***1/28/2006 -another update to the rules- your sims may only visit "poverty legal" community lots that been previously approved by me, and right now, that means Ed's BBQ Shack. Again, those of you who have already started will not be penalized. Just mention it when you post your final score.***

*** 6/27/2006- old maid challenge now worth 35,000 points, instead of 3000. ****

***9/6/2006- made 3 new lots for those with the base game. See my second post in the thread***

***7/17/2007 Seasons rule update: Poverty challenge families must have all four seasons. Sims may not receive gifts/inventory items from off-lot sims. Also, new lots are available- see my second post***

Alternate rule set : http://www.modthesims.info/showpost...8&postcount=829

holy cow! That sounds...very..hard...

OTHER APPROVED COMMUNITY LOTS
All-in-One Community Shack (no custom content)

OTHER APPROVED COMMUNITY LOTS (NO EP)

Thrift Llama Convenience Store (no custom content)

Old Scout Hall

Dreamland Woodland Park

Produce Stall

Carnival Center

Many thanks to those of you creating lots for this challenge!

ANSWERS TO RANDOMLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
1. There is no cap on the amount of money your sims may ultimately earn.
2. Chance cards are allowed, however you will lose 1000 points if they result in promotion.
3. If you screw up and the CAS sim is accidentally promoted, they must quit immediately, and you must deduct 1000 points from your final score.
4. You can sleep with whomever you want. They don't have to be NPCs, but only townies, NPCs or service sims may join the family.
5. Starting funds should equal 100 after the purchase of the lot. Less is okay.
6. You get points for every kid born & raised on the lot at all, they don't even have to be a relative. Just make sure you have at least one heir of the original sim around for each generation.
7. NPC sims that join the family must quit their job and start at the bottom of the career track.
8. If you have nightlife and you get a huge, expensive gift from dating, don't sell it or use it: keep it in your inventory. Try not to profit from it in any way because it is an unfair advantage to NL users (until I think of an appropriate NL handicap). Think of it as a fancy but useless card.
9. Using beds or other objects not normally available in community lots that are enabled through a collection, etc., is considered a cheat. DON'T DO IT.
10. No skilling on community lots, either.
11. Inheriting money from a relative that has died off lot, and is therefore not part of the challenge, is not allowed. If you foolishly allow this to happen, you must get rid of the money somehow, by whatever method (terrain tool, hacks, NL cheat, tile method-see "Reducing Wealth," below)
12. You may marry/move-in the vampire NPC's, but they must be cured immediately. You can't play them as vampires.
13. Cheesecake is okay.
14. A note about custom content- if it gains value after you buy it (and isn't art), so that you sell it at a profit, it is considered a cheat. Please avoid.
15. Sims are not allowed to earn money on community lots, so you shouldn't fish on community lots, either--even if you don't sell the fish, you either save money on food or increase the family net worth. Sims may only fish at home.

A TIP: taking a picture in game every time something happens to affect your score is a good way to keep track of things like promotions, runaways, etc.
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REDUCING WEALTH:

Nightlife Cheat: FamilyFunds (family name) (x amount of money)

Terrain Method: blow all of your money by raising and lowering the terrain, or with groundcovers

Tile Method: For this, you need a tile that is worth 0 simoleans.
First, lay down your expensive tiles, until you have spent the amount of money you are trying to get rid of. Second, place the 0 value tiles on top of them. Third, delete all of the tiles.

I am not responsible for helping you find zero-value tiles, so please direct those questions elsewhere. If my computer ever gets fixed I will make some for the challenge, so be patient for now.

Hack Method:
I found a hack that shreds simoleans that many of you may find useful for reducing wealth, especially after an inheritance or something: http://www.insimenator.net/showthread.php?t=125

Those of you using JM Pescado's money order hack may also send extra money to sims outside the challenge. Get it here: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s.../index.php?dir=
Click on the folder with your most recent EP, then "hacks," then download "moneyorder.zip"

Like all hacks, know that you are using them at your own risk. I am not going to answer questions regarding compatibility, conflicts, etc: direct questions about it to the creator- don't spam the thread!

I am going to try this out!

Hmm i really want to do this but i'm not exactly sure what to do lol I'll read over the rules and things again and see. Then i'll get started and post some pics. Also just wondering how you are going to know if people really did follow the rules?

I am relying on the honor system here. If people can't follow the rules it is okay, but they won't be able to compete and the score will be set to zero.

Essentially, your sims must survive and thrive under very harsh conditions, with very little money and an entry level job. I tried to keep it relatively simple, so success is judged by the amount of money you have and the number of kids.

I tried to make the rules to keep the game fair- so no having kids just to kill them off or have them taken away, no sending them to uni so they'll have extra time to find a mate and disadvantage those without uni, no money trees, and no elixer of life to keep the challenge moving.

There are special rules for the first two generations: the CAS sim and their partner must work entry level jobs, and the CAS sim may not be promoted. Their children must be money sims (because they had to grow up without).

Grandchildren are free aspiration, to keep things interesting and prevent shrubbery overload.

so, points are essentially number of children plus the family net worth (the amount of money you see in the neighborhood screen), minus 1000 for each promotion.

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In my own game, my CAS sim was essentially homeless and had to go to the community lots to eat hot dogs for a while... it was really hard, but turned out to be a lot of fun.

Anyway, here are some pictures, to get into the spirit of the challenge:





warning: spongebath related nudity
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y1...ms/Poverty5.jpg

(these are pictures after I had been playing for a while- in the beginning I could barely afford 4 walls, a sink, a bed, and a toilet)

I don't think I'm going to completely follow these rules and I will do this for my own personal fun. I have a family who are meant to be poor, and they have a teenage daughter I feel like insiminating... Well, actually, they have 2 teenage daughters I could do this to, but I like the one too much to torture.

Wow, this contest is a REAL competition! But I can't enter... I'm just too much into cheating :D:D:D

you can use the teenage daughter if you get rid of all her skills and relationships, so she has no advantage over a CAS sim

All right, I'll take it on, although I don't know how far I'll go.

Billie Dunn. Simoleans(after buying lot) 0
Age: 15
Aspiration: Fortune (I wasn't sure what her aspiration was allowed to be, so I chose fortune just to be safe.)
Pregnant With Alon Livingston's child (using insimenator.)
Entry level Actress = 95$ a day

The aspiration of the first sim can be anything, it doesn't really matter- just so long as the second generation is money... I was afraid of making the challenge so difficult as to be impossible from the get-go.

We have our first pregnant teen! Good luck Billie!

So our sims are allowed to use hacks, like get pregnant. Also what is the cheat for nightlife to get them to start of with 15000?

familyfunds (last name) (amount of money)

Use this hack in the neighborhood screen before moving your family into the lot. Also, the 5x5 lot is 15200. So I did give her the full 15200.

i would enter but i cant be bothered are there judges at all? coz ill be one.....

***EDIT***
nevermind, changed the starting conditions so it must be exactly 15,300 from here on out

A "get pregnant" hack is okay to start the pregnant teen challenge, but not afterwards- part of the challenge is to see how successful your sim can be in a limited amount of time, because they are not allowed to use the elixer of life. So there are no points awarded for the child of a hacked pregnancy.

Other hacks, like "pay bills at the box" or "no screaming" that don't do much except streamline gameplay are alright.

Another, more complicated method for reducing wealth without a cheat could be to lay down tiles of a known cost until you have subtracted about 4,700 simoleans, then cover them with a tile that costs 0 simoleans (either downloaded or made with homecrafter), and then delete the costless tiles.

Name: Penelope Udelle
Age: 18
Aspiration: Family :D
Beginning money: 15, 300 after buying lot, $100

Here are some pics i'm gonna do this kind of like a story. I think it will be interesting, so beware lots of pics and text is on the way.

Yes i know it's not a beauty contest but that doesn't mean she can't be beautiful does it?



She began with a tonne of land and......a chair. That's all she could afford. She is not yet pregnant but she has already introduced herself to some townies.



Needless to say she was not too happy.

After awhile her and her chair got bored and a passerby felt the rage.

Later it was time for food and time for a wee so it was also time to go to a community lot. How would she get there though? The chair was sold and a table and phone were bought. Then it was time to go.



Ahhhh what a relief!

I'm going to do it! So, are we allowed to give them just 15,500 or something just so they can afford like something to eat?
Oh and where do I get a teen pregnancy hack?

***EDIT 12/13/05 : STARTING FUNDS MUST BE 15,300 FROM NOW ON***

Whatever. The starting funds are the trickiest part of organizing the challenge and I am still fiddling with it, just let us know what the starting funds are after buying the lot- for now we can just subtract it from the score to level the playing field. I can't play the game until the end of this week because I have exams, so final tweaking/fiddling will have to wait a few days until I can resume the challenge myself.

You have to get creative to survive the first few days. For example: really sloppy sims should be able to eat from the trash can and pee in the bushes (if they are male and outgoing as well). There are also free ways to get fun and comfort, so think carefully about the first thing you buy. You won't lose points for gong into aspiration failure, etc: the key here is survival.

The teen pregnancy bonus is optional, but you can find hacks at MTS2 and the insiminator websites.

Name: Caty Durnham
Aspiration: Fortune
Pregnant
Job: Lab Glass Scrubber $65 dollars a day
Simoleons left: $0

Wow, she is pretty. This is not a beauty contest, but I am impressed.

Good luck, and try not to get too attached to her... ;D

No, I know it's not a beauty contest. I just wanted her to be realish looking.

Billie just delivered....twins. Does one of them count?

Did you know she would have twins, or was it an "accident"?

How would I have known she had twins? When the window appeared, it said TWO new members. I am having a hard enough time keeping Billie alive. I didn't want twins, but I figured that if I had them, it might as well count for something.

Oh wow! My sims plumbob is red. I'm not having any trouble with food, but her fun ;evel just keeps going down and down and to sleep she has to be on the ground. Can't I do just one little kaching? Just for a bed? Pleazzzeee???



I feel so sorry for her.

Oh, and what about chance cards? Do we just ignore them?