The Test of Time Challenge

[cespencer7]

Allright, my ToT sims now finally have their own weebly page. Took me long enough to decide, but now I started it.
I started out with descriptions for each sim (pictures will follow soon) and my additional rules (pets, senate). Starting with the Roman age, I'll try to keep it up to date with the stories.
yukissims.weebly.com (http://yukissims.weebly.com/)

I know what you mean about the weebly site. The ones I have seen so far are very funny and the photos make it fun to read about their story lines. Can't wait to see the drama that unfolds.

[cespencer7]

Clarification Question:
When the rules say that teens go to school does that mean University? Right now all my kids get on the school bus so they are already going to school but I am assuming the Emperor's and patriarch's teens must go to the university, plebians may go to university or appentice at home, and slaves can't go to school. :report:

[YukiShine]

Actually, I thought only children were going to school (= bus) during stone age. So teenagers stayed at home all day.
In Rome, teenagers can also go to school. University is something else. University seems to be first mentioned in the Medieval stage.

[cespencer7]

Actually, I thought only children were going to school (= bus) during stone age. So teenagers stayed at home all day.
In Rome, teenagers can also go to school. University is something else. University seems to be first mentioned in the Medieval stage.

If teens don't go to school do they flunk out? Does the social worker show up?

[TortureTheNannies]

Cespencer7 , I have never seen social worker abduct teens for any reason. Keep in mind, i don't have all the expansion packs. I can't tell you if anything changed after OFB.

[VioletPadfoot]

cespencer7, if you're worried about your teens flunking, get the school changer I linked to a few posts (by me) ago. My teens are all using the Simlogicall Flexi school, which means they're enrolled in school, but the bus doesn't come for them, and their grades don't change. All my teens still have the A+ from hen they were kids.

[YukiShine]

At least until Seasons, the SW only takes babies, toddlers and children. My teens can all get their bad marks without anything happening to them. I don't use any school hacks, of course.

[starla13]

boolprop testingcheatsenabled true > shift click on child or teen > Spawn > scenario tester > add to private school

That cheat makes it so children or teens don't have to go to school period. However, if you want your teen to go to university later on I suggest you do that cheat after they have gotten a high enough grade to get in. For my tot neanderthal I have the kids not going to school since I think it makes more sense. I pretend they are being taught by tribal elders. hehe.

[cespencer7]

Thanks everyone for all the great suggestions on how to handle the school issues. I may actually have the eldest patriarchs go to the University in the Roman Age as part of their preparations for life as a Roman Senator and then again, it might make the rounds go faster if I don't. This next round is the first time I will have teens so I still have at least one more round to go before I will be forced to decide since teens hang around for 15 days before becoming adults. :luff:

[VioletPadfoot]

I'm done with Round Six! And my website's updated.

I'm almost done breeding my Gen 0. Two of the moms will give birth in the next round and the other three were too close to elderhood to have another. I think all my Gen 0 ages up at the end of the next round too. I just took a peek at my Sim Tracker and they're all three days to elder and my rotations are three days long. Except the next one which will be four, simply to get those children aged up to Teen faster.

I realize I'm nowhere near time to switch era's but I'm already betting on which family name will be the emperor. Since my Schafer family has the most boys, that means they'll have the most household with their name, which will mean more money added together. So right now, it's looking like they're going to provide me my emperor. The Farrar family on the other hand only has one son (and no more pregnancies) so they're least likely to get the bid for emperor. Unless you know Roscoe is super good at making boys. (Or i seriously cheat with the Sim Blender. Which I'm not going to do unless there's a severe bias towards girls again.) ~VP

[SandyJS]

Only 2 more families to go before I can change the seasons to something other than Summer! :beer: I lost 2 children from this last family to the SoWo tribe because I couldn't keep their temps down. I'd no sooner get them in the green, and send them back to bed before they were overheating again!. :faceslap:

[kittcat92]

great job Sandy! I'm taking a break from ToT at the moment, I downloaded some new fantasy skins ;) but I finally figured out why all my neanderthal sims kept trying to take a shower and why they were constantly hot, I hadn't updated my inTeen mod after I got Seasons so it was causing all sorts of problems with my game, everyone's temp was always in the red and when I tried to cool them off they got cold and then got sick, then my toddlers started levitating O_o once I updated everything went back to the way it should be. This should make my neanderthals a little bit easier to deal with, hopefully I won't have so many spontaneous combustions :P

[moonlight_frog]

Woah, kittcat92, I've never heard of the program Sims Tracker. Does it keep track of adoptive kids as well, or are biological and adoptive kids the same? Are there any other cool features? Good luck with your game!

[kittcat92]

Woah, kittcat92, I've never heard of the program Sims Tracker. Does it keep track of adoptive kids as well, or are biological and adoptive kids the same? Are there any other cool features? Good luck with your game!
there is an option to set if a child is adopted and still link it to the adoptive parents. With the latest update a section for videos was added so you can have a catalog of all your sims videos in the program

[cespencer7]

Well, I have finally updated some of my Roman Gen 1 family pages on my website. Since I am not using something like weebly, I only post a few photos to highlight the basic storylines. This last round I tried really hard to not God-mode too much and just helped the little Sims to meet their needs. Based on what I saw happening on each lot, I tried to develop a story. I found that letting things go along without too much interference made it harder but that the storylines got more interesting. I have drama: divorce, murder, love, hate, fighting, worries, silliness, and lots of other things happening. If I had God-moded too much I would have ended up with totally happy but boring Sims.

This next round, my fourth week in Roman Gen 1, is the round where everyone becomes teens. I find it hard to keep track of the love affairs so I am keeping a list of who has lightning bolt attractions. I want to give everyone a chance to meet everyone else, so no going steady until the round is done. I figure since teens last 15 days, I can go through this round by sending everyone to community lots daily to meet people. I might also host a few parties depending on the Sims "wants and needs". Can't wait to see what happens. I think I might be getting addicted. LOL :giggler:

[cespencer7]

:luff: Only 2 more families to go before I can change the seasons to something other than Summer! :beer: I lost 2 children from this last family to the SoWo tribe because I couldn't keep their temps down. I'd no sooner get them in the green, and send them back to bed before they were overheating again!. :faceslap:

Sandy, I bet you can't wait. I found that I really enjoyed moving away from my neanderthals. The roman age still has its challenges with the slave huts, but I found it fun to begin building roman style homes. It let me focus on the relationships more and not as much on just surviving. I look forward to reading how the roman age goes for you since only a few of us are in the Roman age.

[kittcat92]

Well, I have finally updated some of my Roman Gen 1 family pages on my website. Since I am not using something like weebly, I only post a few photos to highlight the basic storylines. This last round I tried really hard to not God-mode too much and just helped the little Sims to meet their needs. Based on what I saw happening on each lot, I tried to develop a story. I found that letting things go along without too much interference made it harder but that the storylines got more interesting. I have drama: divorce, murder, love, hate, fighting, worries, silliness, and lots of other things happening. If I had God-moded too much I would have ended up with totally happy but boring Sims.
I've been doing the the same except for when they were trying to take a shower when they didn't need it. I've found that letting them do most things on their own adds a bit of spice and drama since you don't know what will happen next. But, I don't leave them entirely alone since I don't want another Jennings/Gillman incident. I think I might start playing my ToT again here in a minute, reading the thread has got me in the mood. :D

[SandyJS]

:luff:

Sandy, I bet you can't wait. I found that I really enjoyed moving away from my neanderthals. The roman age still has its challenges with the slave huts, but I found it fun to begin building roman style homes. It let me focus on the relationships more and not as much on just surviving. I look forward to reading how the roman age goes for you since only a few of us are in the Roman age.

I spent the afternoon yesterday looking for things to make the game more interesting. While checking out the Warwickshire challenge, I found a storage cellar that works like a fridge. That's definitely more realistic for the eras up to the modern one. The only catch is that it doesn't hold baby bottles. So for infants, you need to hunt down the Nursing Babies Hack over at Insimenator.org. I'm adding those two things into my game today before I play a little bit.

[kittcat92]

Does it hold left overs Sandy? My stone fridge for my neaderthals doesn't so I've had to use a maxis fridge, it throws off the whole look :(

[moonlight_frog]

I'm not sure if this is cheating, but I sometimes put leftovers in the Sim Inventory when I get tired of fly buffets. :P

Recently I stopped doing that because I feel like it's just too easy to keep the sims alive that way..

[SandyJS]

Does it hold left overs Sandy? My stone fridge for my neaderthals doesn't so I've had to use a maxis fridge, it throws off the whole look :(

I don't know yet. I surely hope so since I keep leftovers of everything!

[Sims_Luver1323]

oh wow I havent been on in a while :)
MY sims are only on the begining of their second generation (neandertal stage) since I havent had time to play bc of school and all.
SOmetimes I wish there was a sims fast forward button for school :P

So my one family that i have been puting most of my time into has had 5 children, and for some reason I have a glitch or something because my skin 1 people end up having children with skin1, and a pale custom skin...
My skin 2 and skin 3 couple have had 4 children, and their glitch or whatever you wanna call it is that one of their children has one of my dark blue custom skins. lol its kinda funny and random. Dark blue skin and red hair, what a match.
None of my other familys hav had similar experiences haha. I think its kinda cool, but at the same time, it effects the challenge sortof. oh well :)
I am probably not going to be able to play for another week :/ but i cant wait till i can :)

[moonlight_frog]

Sims_Luver, I once had a very similar glitch as well; my problem was that my sim children in this one neighborhood were growing up with the wrong hair color (i.e. a baby with brown eyebrows grew into a blond toddler with brown eyebrows). When I reloaded my game and tried reproducing in that neighborhood again, however, the hair glitch went away... I guess it's just one of those Maxis errors.

You can check out the thread I made about my glitch here: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=440093

[VioletPadfoot]

oh wow I havent been on in a while :)
MY sims are only on the begining of their second generation (neandertal stage) since I havent had time to play bc of school and all.
SOmetimes I wish there was a sims fast forward button for school :P

So my one family that i have been puting most of my time into has had 5 children, and for some reason I have a glitch or something because my skin 1 people end up having children with skin1, and a pale custom skin...
My skin 2 and skin 3 couple have had 4 children, and their glitch or whatever you wanna call it is that one of their children has one of my dark blue custom skins. lol its kinda funny and random. Dark blue skin and red hair, what a match.
None of my other familys hav had similar experiences haha. I think its kinda cool, but at the same time, it effects the challenge sortof. oh well :)
I am probably not going to be able to play for another week :/ but i cant wait till i can :) I'm getting a similar glitch. Two of my kids that just aged up to teen are displaying the wrong skin color. I'm using specially edited skintones so that all sims child and below have white skin and all sims teen and up have colored skin in one of eight colors. The sims in question should have skin 3, orange for females and brown for males, but instead are displaying skin 2, purple for females and silver for males. I peeked into SimPE and both the affected sims have a random number assigned to their skintone filed, with skintone 3 in the skintone range field. The kicker to this is I was checking my other kids to see if anyone else was affected. One sim who shows with purple skin has the exact same number in her skintone field (she belongs to the same family but is a plantsim, so I just assumed the plantsim she got her genes from (i have a multi mod) had purple/silver skin) but another sim in a different family has the same number in her skintone field and is showing with orange skin. I stopped checking at this point, but I think I'm going to stop playing for a short bit while I fix the erroneous skintones and surgery the affected sims so that they show properly (several of my children also appear to have the random number skintone and need to be fixed.) Hopefully skintone surgery sticks better than eye surgery (which defaulted back at age transition) Hopefully this only affects this generation and the rest will be fine, or I'm going to have to be really checking SimPE to be sure my skintones are showing up properly. ~VP

Edit: So I was poking around in SimPE trying to figure out what's up with these skins, and I swear Meryl Tavares was affected by the glitch, but now her DNA looks perfect. However three others who i checked are still affected.... And on a side note, I know why my changed eyes reverted upon age transition. I never updated the "Age Data" area to reflect the default eyes instead of custom. I feel like a noob right now. So there's more for me to fix so that these guys look the way I wanted. And several sims whose eyes are going to be different upon age transition, if I don't surgery them before that. I'd only really bother with the teens, a chunk of which are only days (and a rotation or two) away from adult, so it really doesn't matter too much. Well and six are recently elders, so i guess i should fix them, just for looks since they have no more age transitions. *sigh* I'm off to play in SimPE until I get this fixed. ~VP

[cespencer7]

Does it hold left overs Sandy? My stone fridge for my neaderthals doesn't so I've had to use a maxis fridge, it throws off the whole look :(

Sophie-David created an invisible fridge, so I use moveObjects on cheat and then place the invisible fridge on top of a set of shelves, put some bread and veggies on the shelves and then I have my "fridge". I figure as the ages go along I can use cabinets and other things to create my food storage and still have a maxis style fridge that does what I need it to do for bottles and leftovers. :beer: Sophie David does lots of medieval custom content that can serve for other ages as well. Awesome designer. Sunni9676 does some awesome stuff as well and they both post on this website MTS

[SandyJS]

One more family to go! :Pint:

[SandyJS]

Yes!!!! :beer: Last family finished! :beer: Now to move them and finish setting things up for the Roman Era! The first thing I'm setting up is the seasons, I'm tired of constantly having to send them to get a drink! :faceslap:

BTW, I've updated my site with family portraits for all the families. Now can anyone tell me how closely related can two sims be and the game still let me have them marry? If I can't marry cousins, I'm going to have a population explosion very soon!

[anna220]

Congrats Sandy !! You will have to let us know how hard the move is. What is the process? You move sims to the sim bin, build new houses and then move them in?

[SandyJS]

Congrats Sandy !! You will have to let us know how hard the move is. What is the process? You move sims to the sim bin, build new houses and then move them in?

That's exactly what I did, only I moved each family as I finished playing them this round. I just had to make sure the family had a telephone so friends could call them. That was a lot less daunting then moving 9 families all at once. :heyhey: I've got to set up a Roman Bathhouse in the Town Center and a clothing store in the Market place and maybe one or two other community lots. Then I can start on this round.

[cespencer7]

Yes!!!! :beer: Last family finished! :beer: Now to move them and finish setting things up for the Roman Era! The first thing I'm setting up is the seasons, I'm tired of constantly having to send them to get a drink! :faceslap:

BTW, I've updated my site with family portraits for all the families. Now can anyone tell me how closely related can two sims be and the game still let me have them marry? If I can't marry cousins, I'm going to have a population explosion very soon!

Congratulations Sandy. Can't wait to check out the site. So far, I think that neanderthals were the hardest era due to the constant summer. The roman slaves live a similar subsistance lifestyle but without all the heatstrokes.

As far as marriages, I ended up adding about ten newcomers to my challenge to get the Roman age started. I didn't have enough "not cousins" for all my males. This gave me 20 families, which may have been too many, now that I have played that age for a few rounds. With each family having an average of 4 children who have made it into their teen years this has given me over 80 roman children. (Not as many children died from fire or heatstroke, or were taken by wild women of socialworkia, etc. Although some did die in fights)

Lucky for me the ratio is about 55 males and about 25 females with alot of them being related. So I will most likely end up with a bunch of unmarried folks who will become monks. (I am researching my monastary builds this weekend)

Can't wait to see and hear all about your Romans. :beer:

[cespencer7]

I am still working on the Generation One Romans and expect to have at least one if not two more rounds before I have enough adult males to worry about moving them out but, I am starting to wonder what I do for money for my non-heir males.

The neanderthals sent their children away with equivalent family funds, but for some of my families this would be well over $100,000. The notes say the emperor gives his married males $5,000. But surely that isn't enough to build the kind of home that the wealthy heir of the emperor would build for himself and a new wife.

Somewhere I read something about a $35,000 bonus and a $20,000 bonus, but I am confused. If you have done the 2nd generation Roman Age, what did you do? If you haven't, but you know the rules, what do you think? :faceslap: :call:

[cespencer7]

Congrats Sandy !! You will have to let us know how hard the move is. What is the process? You move sims to the sim bin, build new houses and then move them in?

Anna:
I learned a trick from someone else in our group. I moved the non-heir adult neanderthal males and their new brides into the bin. Then I used the CAS to create a new sim with the same last name but added a number to the last name. For example, my second male Scalyn was going to be Scalyn2. So I created a new sim with Scalyn2 as their last name. Then I moved them into an empty lot. Then went to the bin and moved the second Scalyn male and his wife in with the new sim. This meant the lot was now named Scalyn2. Then I used cheat <boolprop testingcheatsenabled true> to kill off the new sim with flies. (If you want to prebuild their homes, wait to kill off the new sim until you have the new family settled into the lot you want) That way I had the new lot name without keeping the new sim. This helped me alot since I ended up with six Scalyn families and I could keep track of their story lines and their lots better that way and use familyfunds without altering all the other lots with the same last name.

It is almost time for me to do this again since I will be transitioning to the 2nd generation of Romans. The transitions take time, but it is so worth it since you will play families for up to 6 cycles of 7 "in Sims world" days. (In our world, it could be months, so it helps to have distinct names.) :luff:

[lizz2034]

The emperor's family gets an additional $35,000 at the start of the roman era and each patrician household gets $20,000. I'm not positive about the patrician part but I don't want to look it up right now.
I've been reading debates recently about sims' relations. I've found in my 4th generation, it's a lot easier to find mates for the kids, even though they're technically 2nd or 3rd cousins (I believe 2nd cousins can marry--I think). It won't mess up your game through the family tree or anything like some were worried about. :luff:
Personally, I like that distant cousins can get married regarding this challenge. One of the funny things about this generation, is that I have some kids with the same last names, but so distantly related that they can marry. (I haven't altered any of the families' last names in SimPE thus far.)
Wow, 10 CAS's at the start of the Roman Age! I had to do aprox. 3 thus far, but I think I did 5 and I'm also adding a new Egyptian CAS for 4th generation. Pretty much, all of my Egyptian families are too closely related. I crefully select the last names of male CAS's since they're adding different family names in the neighborhood. You don't want to be stuck with something you hate down the line, especially if you don't want to drastically change them mid-challenge.
I enjoy playing all of my families and thus far I haven't had any problem following their story lines even though I haven't changed any last names. Sometimes when a household gets super boring and they're not an heirs' family, I'll grow the children up equally to their next stages to save a little time. I don't do this too often, though.
I have more to share, so I'll be back tomorrow. I love chatting with you all! :beer:

[SandyJS]

I'm glad to hear that cousins can marry. I don't really want to go from 9 families to 32 families! I've added CAS sims in to widen the gene pool out already, mostly to marry an adult female when there are no males available for her. I've been able to match the boys up fairly easily so far.

[Peni Griffin]

Rather than doing all that with the new sim and killing it, you can go into SimPE and change the household name in the FAMI data. All you have to do is type it over.

People are always telling me that the SimBlender will let you do in-game anything you could possibly want to do with SimPE, so you could also check that.

Yes, second cousins can marry. The game doesn't track relationships further than first cousins horizontally and grandparents vertically.

[lizz2034]

Rather than doing all that with the new sim and killing it, you can go into SimPE and change the household name in the FAMI data. All you have to do is type it over.
People are always telling me that the SimBlender will let you do in-game anything you could possibly want to do with SimPE, so you could also check that.


I'm gonna check out the SimBlender since I've never changed names in SimPE before. Do you know if it's compatible with Inteenimator and some/all of J.M. Pescado's mods/hacks from MATY?

[Tga Kiwi]

From my own experience, when I had Inteen, it wasn't compatible with simblender.
Another issue I found with simblender, was I could only change the first names of my sims, not the last. The simblender I used was the potted fig tree?

[VioletPadfoot]

From my own experience, when I had Inteen, it wasn't compatible with simblender.
Another issue I found with simblender, was I could only change the first names of my sims, not the last. The simblender I used was the potted fig tree? You have to do it a bit roundabout. Change the first name to the last name you want, make that first name a last name, then change the first name again this time to the actual first name.

Oh and i seem to have had run both at the same time. In fact I'm running a slightly modified version of Inteen right now (since I'm using Chris Hatch's unofficial stuff pack, i need to use his version of inteen) and they're both running alright so far. But back when I had the full inteen from simbology I'm pretty sure i ran them together with no issues. The same person created both of them so I'd suggest checking his site and notes on compatibility. ~VP

edit to add: i was re-reading posts and saw what lizz was also asking about MATY mods. I have almost the entire Directors Cut, plus several other mods from the site, and several mods from other sites, and none so far have conflicted with the sim blender. For something that changes so much, it seems to conflict with very little. I assume its b/c most everything it does is done on command. Change this, check that, make Suzy pregnant with Johnny's baby, see how long she's been pregnant... The list really goes on and on. I use it to do a lot of things and nothing yet (that I can remember) has conflicted to the point of error. And since i tend to play with testing cheats enabled, I'd know pretty quick. Things may conflict in the background, but its not anything that I've noticed, so as far as I know, the sim blender conflicts with very little.

speaking of errors, i need to go check the logs for the random error that keeps happening on those bunk beds. I can't seem to artificially recreate it, but when I leave my sims alone they try to do something to the top bunk and it errors. ~VP

[SandyJS]

Let me tell you folks, it feels so Weird having stairs again! I'm having to get used to tracking who's on what floor all over again. I'm still working on my first family, but here's a quick updated. My emporer has grown up from a child to a teen, and his father has aged into elderhood. His mother will be aging in just a day. I'm trying to decide whether to move the twins out now or wait for next round. Then there's the question of who the twins are going to marry!

[cespencer7]

Let me clarify my question. I am nearing the stage with my 1st generation of Romans where I will have adult males who are not heirs. When I move them out to start their own homes, how much money do I give them to start their new life?

[Tga Kiwi]

Ahaaaa...thankyou for that info VP. Never thought to try the roundabout way. Thanks again. ('',)

Congrats Sandy. I am nearing the age transitions for my first roman born to become teens, I haven't even begun thinking of marriages yet..eek.

[SandyJS]

Congrats Sandy. I am nearing the age transitions for my first roman born to become teens, I haven't even begun thinking of marriages yet..eek.

Actually these are teens from the last Neanderthal generation. All of my patrician families are related too closely for marriage still. I'm thinking that I may set them up with Plebian males to increase that group. I also need to increase the number of slave families. Aahh such is life in TOT! :rofl:

[rachelwielinga]

It's been a while since I've been working on my Test of Time neighbourhood, but I finally managed to start getting back into it. The Roman Era had been getting a bit stale by this point, now that I'm several rounds in, so I needed something to spice it up.

I've decided to start using random occurence scenarios as a way to make it more exciting. Every time a family is up, I roll some dice and have to work a random event into the storyline. I can see that making it fit with the story might be the challenging part for some events, like plastic surgery, stock market crash, etc. It could be a neat challenge to come up with some themed events for each time period. (e.g. move up/down a social class, sentenced to fight in the coliseum, etc).

The list I'm primarily using was found here: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=12374.0

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My Test of Time story: http://culturecove.weebly.com/

[kittcat92]

It's been a while since I've been working on my Test of Time neighbourhood, but I finally managed to start getting back into it. The Roman Era had been getting a bit stale by this point, now that I'm several rounds in, so I needed something to spice it up.

I've decided to start using random occurence scenarios as a way to make it more exciting. Every time a family is up, I roll some dice and have to work a random event into the storyline. I can see that making it fit with the story might be the challenging part for some events, like plastic surgery, stock market crash, etc. It could be a neat challenge to come up with some themed events for each time period. (e.g. move up/down a social class, sentenced to fight in the coliseum, etc).

The list I'm primarily using was found here: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=12374.0

------------------------------------------------
My Test of Time story: http://culturecove.weebly.com/

I really like that idea my ToT challenge is on hold at the moment since I might have completely lost everything and my game is not working. Hopefully the people over at the help forums can help me figure it out, if I do end up completely losing all my neighborhoods I probably won't be restarting my ToT. I'm not nearly as far as some of you guys but I already restarted once I don't think I could do all that again. (although now that I think of it I did have all the genetics for each person written down)

[lizz2034]

Let me clarify my question. I am nearing the stage with my 1st generation of Romans where I will have adult males who are not heirs. When I move them out to start their own homes, how much money do I give them to start their new life?

Well, the rule's say to enter in the Roman Era as soon as the first gen 3 child grows up to adulthood. In my case, that child was the Emperor. So, when you add the bonus' for each patrician family, I would say it depends on the number of households you have at that time. That means that most of your other gen 3's would still be teens, so you may or may not have gen 3 households already.
After that, when your non-heirs move out they would follow the rule about how much money to give children moving out onto their own lots. I think she said set their value to $3,000 after moving onto their own lot. But I have just started using the no $20 K Handouts mod from MATY, which gives the sims money based on a ratio of family's funds and number of people in the entire household.
I would say only give the heirs that bonus. I never really thought of this as an issue when I switched era's because all of my heirs still lived at home with their parents and it never occurred to me that I could give a bonus to those moving out later.

[SandyJS]

Let me clarify my question. I am nearing the stage with my 1st generation of Romans where I will have adult males who are not heirs. When I move them out to start their own homes, how much money do I give them to start their new life?

My take on that question is that they should be sent off with the 20K plus a 5k gift. At least that's what I'm planning to do. :lol:

[lizz2034]

My take on that question is that they should be sent off with the 20K plus a 5k gift. At least that's what I'm planning to do. :lol:

Yeah, I think its totally okay to do that. I'm glad I didn't do though because I have way too many rich families and I wish I had more families struggling.

[SandyJS]

Yeah, I think its totally okay to do that. I'm glad I didn't do though because I have way too many rich families and I wish I had more families struggling.

A number of my patrician girls are going to be marrying below their status to spread the genes out more.

[anna220]

hahahaa I swear I should take the time to read. I dont know where I came up with it but I must have confused the final scoring with moving out because I was giving the kids the same amount of money as the parents ! But the rules say §3000 to start with. Oh well I will continue on as I have been but with the start of the next round I think I will read the rules :

Each additional spare child of the Emperor must be sent away upon marriage with a $5,000 gift

as thats what they start with.

[lizz2034]

I had to share my favorite find of the day!! :bunny:
There's a Toddler Creativity Blanket on TSR! http://www.thesimsresource.com/themes/medieval/downloads/details/category/sims2-sets-objects/title/medievalcreativityblanket/id/460355/
I don't support paysites whatsoever, but here's an awesome creation if you haven't alreayd found it.
http://images.thesimsresource.netdna-cdn.com/scaled/164/w-563h-450-164856.jpg

[SandyJS]

What a great find, thanks!

[VioletPadfoot]

Normally I boycott TSR at almost all costs (unless I really need a mesh or set piece or I'm getting stuff from the Booty) but I think i need that blanket. My biggest hope is that it won't raise music and dance enthusiasm so that my child sims will hopefully stop "Dance Together"-ing with their older family members. I wouldn't mind the interaction if the children's laughter wasn't so obnoxious... I'm off to either a) play round eight or b) update round seven on my website. I'm leaning toward the first one :) ~VP

[anna220]

I didnt see a cost for that blanket. Did I miss that it was a pay item? Did you see the straw bed ??!!! Now that would be perfect for so many ages ! http://www.thesimsresource.com/themes/medieval/downloads/details/category/sims2-sets-objects/title/happy-in-the-hay--strawbed/id/722877/ http://images.thesimsresource.netdna-cdn.com/scaled/66/w-563h-450-66980.jpg

[lizz2034]

I didnt see a cost for that blanket. Did I miss that it was a pay item? Did you see the straw bed ??!!! Now that would be perfect for so many ages !

It's not a pay item. It should be free (was when I got it last night.) I did see that bed and I thought it was great. I also saw leaf beds that would be great for neaderthal beds, too. I wish I had seen those things before I started the challenge. Oh well, not going back. :)

[VioletPadfoot]

I just updated my website for Round Seven. Playing Round Eight right now, and all of my first-borns should be becoming Adults near the end of this round. I think when I start Round Nine (and start getting these guys married) I'll redecorate using some of the more themed stuff I've accumulated over the last few rounds (including the bed anna linked to!). I'll probably end of evicting everyone from their current lots and moving them into the newly decorated lots. Mostly b/c if i don't have a base that everyone gets, I'll forget something in one of the later houses or remember something there and give the later families an advantage over the earlier families. Have to keep things fair you know. Especially before they all change classes and I get to let some have "unfair" advantages due to higher class. However I'm a long ways away from that.

On a side note, I think I'm getting burned out on ToT. I think I might take a break for a while and get back to creating. Several people have asked me if I can make something, and several more have been promised stuff. But ToT was just too much fun to work on any of that. ~VP

[SandyJS]

On a side note, I think I'm getting burned out on ToT. I think I might take a break for a while. ~VP

I'm kinda in the same boat. I pushed myself to get to the Roman era and now I'm finding difficult to get up any enthusiasm for playing. I will be back, though! :beer:

[cespencer7]

I'm kinda in the same boat. I pushed myself to get to the Roman era and now I'm finding difficult to get up any enthusiasm for playing. I will be back, though! :beer:

I have to balance playing each family with some building activities. As my first born generation of Romans are becoming adults, I decided that they would expand their family plebian shops (which had been out of a small room in the front of their house) to a community lot based shop in the "shopping district". As I play each plebian family, I build their equivalent home business in the new shopping district. So my current round of play (still in Roman Gen 1) goes Patriarch, Plebian, build a small business shop, Slave, repeat). I figure this means that I will build 5 small shops in my shopping district: Pottery Shop, Fabric Shop (custom content dye set and sewing machines), Blacksmith (custom content toy bench), Bakery, Florist/Farmer. The oldest son in each family is running the new shop in the village and his father is maintaining a small home shop. This has been challenging as each family seems to lose money the first week of operations in the new shop and some have had to sell things around their house to pay the servants. I hire some of the slaves and plebians as workers as my shops grow.

I also discovered that while I had been playing the neanderthals, I missed hearing the music, so I found a custom content music box that had some "medieval" music. I figure while the music isn't Roman, the strings and flutes would have been around in the Roman age. I found that adding music back into the game made me happier. :lovestruc

[anna220]

Dont go to far away girls ! Now that summer is coming ( unlike Game of Thrones and winter lol ) I am spending more time in my real garden so I havent had much time to play lately. But Im still ahead enough to have some updates left. Cespencer that music sounds lovely !

[nesxya]

I just wanted to say a quick hello and thank Anna for posting this thread here at MTS. I have also been a long time lurker and in fact, this is my first post! When I stumbled across this challenge it rekindled a desire to try something new with my Sims 2 games. Since, I have always worked too much in the past ... I never did get around to doing a challenge or legacy. Now that I am able to stay home and hubby encouraging me to enjoy my time (he even bought me a new computer to play my games!). I am excited to try this challenge. It looks like so much fun and everyone has inspired me with their blogs and updates. So for the last two weeks I have been testing the waters so to speak and have decided to go for it! I am playing for fun and have of course adjusted some rules to suit my game play. I have a weebly Sims 2 site and have now updated it to include The Test of Time Challenge. Please check it out. The site is still under development and hopefully it will continue to grow. It is called Nesxya's Moodlets and is located @http://nesxyasmoodlets.weebly.com . Happy Simming everyone! :bunny:

[SandyJS]

Nice storyline you have going nesxya!

[nesxya]

Thank you Sandy! I am glad you enjoyed it. You have been a great help in fact!!! I learned a lot about heat stroke, having a tub, and toddler care from you. I at first tried to have the two pee bushes and one rock shower, which went into over drive!!!. There was lots of sun burned Sims (which I am horrible at remembering to take pictures of!). I ended up creating latrine areas in my Beta Group. I figured my SimStones had to have the basics to keep their needs at least manageable. As a Communal Cave I didn't worry about the furniture limitations, but in the individual Clan Caves I will probably use the limitations. But it would have not been a success with out your knowledge and others here! So thank you, I hope you don't mind I have a link to your web site on my sidebar. :luff:

[YukiShine]

I just wanted to tell you I have to take a break from TS2 for some time now. My RL is getting a little busy, I have to move to another town, so... ^^
See you all in a few weeks or so.
... And I'm just a few sims days away from the transition to Rome, too. I'm already playing my last household of the round... >.< Well, at least when I come back I can read your transition stories and learn from your experience. :P

[SandyJS]

Thank you Sandy! I am glad you enjoyed it. You have been a great help in fact!!! I learned a lot about heat stroke, having a tub, and toddler care from you. I at first tried to have the two pee bushes and one rock shower, which went into over drive!!!. There was lots of sun burned Sims (which I am horrible at remembering to take pictures of!). I ended up creating latrine areas in my Beta Group. I figured my SimStones had to have the basics to keep their needs at least manageable. As a Communal Cave I didn't worry about the furniture limitations, but in the individual Clan Caves I will probably use the limitations. But it would have not been a success with out your knowledge and others here! So thank you, I hope you don't mind I have a link to your web site on my sidebar. :luff:

Glad to be of some help! And dear, link away! :beer:

[cespencer7]

I just wanted to say a quick hello and thank Anna for posting this thread here at MTS. I have also been a long time lurker and in fact, this is my first post! When I stumbled across this challenge it rekindled a desire to try something new with my Sims 2 games. Since, I have always worked too much in the past ... I never did get around to doing a challenge or legacy. Now that I am able to stay home and hubby encouraging me to enjoy my time (he even bought me a new computer to play my games!). I am excited to try this challenge. It looks like so much fun and everyone has inspired me with their blogs and updates. So for the last two weeks I have been testing the waters so to speak and have decided to go for it! I am playing for fun and have of course adjusted some rules to suit my game play. I have a weebly Sims 2 site and have now updated it to include The Test of Time Challenge. Please check it out. The site is still under development and hopefully it will continue to grow. It is called Nesxya's Moodlets and is located @http://nesxyasmoodlets.weebly.com . Happy Simming everyone! :bunny:

I enjoyed the weebly site. I like the way you built your caves. Can't wait to hear more about the clans. :gjob:

[nesxya]

Yuki good luck on your move, hang in there. I know the challenge has been a challenge for you. I look for seeing you in the near future.

Sandi, most happy to link away!

Ooo thank you Cespencer! I just love how you tell your Test of Time story from an Archeologist point of view and your site! You were a complete inspiration for my SimCity Herald Post with Cassandra Goth the famous Simthropologist. It was a complete tribute to you! I also have a link to your site, I have it worded in the style of the site's title. If you would like it changed, please let me know. :report:

In fact, I scoured this thread and have everyone's site linked in my sidebar. If anyone wants anything changed to their link, or have missed someone ... please let me know. Thank you.

[anna220]

Welcome nesxya !! I just love when new people come on board to rejuvenate us. Your site is great and I too love your story line. Will be interesting to see how the more males than females. Yuki good luck with your move. If you are like me once I got settled I was able to devote much more times to the sims. I look forward to your return :)

[nesxya]

Thank you Anna, I am so happy you like my site and story! You are so awesome and I love your site! I am also interested to see how the gender ratios turn out, along with the slow introduction of genetics. I have just finished playing the current round and have been updating my weebly page. (Plugin: http://nesxyasmoodlets.weebly.com , since I need more posts to have a signature!) Hopeful I will be finished with updated posts tonight or tomorrow. The last few Sim days felt like they would take forever to finish and I only have three households! I can't imagine how long it takes everyone to finish a rotation of households in the Roman stage! My hats off to you. Happy Simming everyone and talk to you soon. :lovestruc

[anna220]

You are too sweet ! If you play heavy handed then it takes forever LOL When I finally moved teens out on lots with their mates the turns just flew by with only 2 of them ! Now of course everyone is having babies again and Im slowing down but then the original family lots are dwindling with kids moving out and elder dying so its 6 of one and half dozen of the other. Summer has taken over my life lately and I have been spending more time in my garden than in my sims garden so Ive not played for awhile. Once everything gets planted and starting to sprout hopefully I should be able to get back at it. Take care !

[SandyJS]

Folks, I'm here to tell you that you don't know what scared is until your laptop goes down and your friendly IT tech neighbor uses that compound word that all computer owners fear, "Motherboard!" :help: Luckily when he checked into things further, he discovered that because my battery is basically shot, Windows 7 kept putting my laptop in "Hibernate"! :faceslap: By disabling that, he not only got my laptop back working, but was able to fix 4 other laptops at the VA Medical Center where he works! :beer:

[Tga Kiwi]

Glad to hear your laptop is in good health again Sandy. :D
I just updated my signature because I didn't realise it was directing everyone to a '404 Page not found'. :faceslap:
The link should work now.

[taliahneth]

Hey all~ *waves*

I'm excited to see so many people in the Roman Era now and to see the different takes on it. Not a lot has been said about family lots, I'm curious - to those in the Roman Era, or just transitioning, how many family lots did you start out the Roman Era with?

I also see some people are adding a heap of new sims, I've added very few new sims but that's possibly because I had so many sims, despite the close relationships, that I've been fairly lucky to get most of them matched up still, and as each generation goes along they're quite happy to be married to their grandfather's brother, or their second cousin etc.

AND is anyone killing off their slaves? ^_^ I remember someone saying they were following that ages ago but I can't remember who, sorry >_< and from what I can see a lot of other people are worried about over population - well there ya go! I was going to stem the baby flow but putting that rule into play makes me want to have more - that's a lot of sims getting the chop in just a few generations! >.<

taliah~

[SandyJS]

:rolleyes: Remember my laptop troubles of just a few days ago?? Well it struck again and this time nothing would bring it back up. So DH and I are sharing the one laptop for the time being. Soooo, I need to restart my neighborhood from the beginning. I've installed up to Seasons, minus Pets. That's the point at which the game starts to lag. I plan to spend the next few days redownloading CC and planning my neighborhood. I'll post status reports as soon as I start playing again! :report:

[VioletPadfoot]

I haven't hit roman times yet (and i really want to), my first generation is just starting to pair up (as in the first kids are reaching adult and getting married and such) But once I (finally) get there, I've decided on a Hunger Games inspired system for the required deaths.

The system is this:
1) Upon entering child stage, your name is entered once.
2) Every Sunday, your name is entered again even if you aged to child on Saturday. Those who age on a Sunday only go in once.
3) A child or teen aged sim can put his/her name in once a week in exchange for 1000 simoleans.
4) Adult aged sims can put their name in 10 times to raise their immediate family (household) one social class. Orly once per family (can only jump one class) and you can't do it if your parent or grandparent did. Those two rules are my tessare.
5) On Monday morning in the first house of the rotation, the "winner" will be drawn, upon reaching Monday on the "winner's" lot, the "winner" will be killed in the Colosseum. All winner's graves remain on the Colosseum lot. On any lots played before the "winner's" lot, sims may not interact with the winner should he/she walk by if the day is Monday or later.
6) When the "winner" is chosen i will roll a die and if i roll a 4 an older family member (randomly chosen from parents/grandparents/older siblings) will volunteer to take the "winner's" place. The volunteer dies instead and cannot be saved by any means (unless SimGoddess (me) is much too attached to the sim in question. Then another volunteer will be selected)

Rule three will probably get a lot of use in the lower class families (especially if I stop selling off their fish from inventory and instead make them sell it (for really cheap) to the higher classes, who will then sell it at higher prices...) For rule number four, I'll roll a die at the beginning of turn to see if a parent will risk so many entries to make their family's life better. I'll decide on the random number when I actually get to the roman era. For now I should stop fulfilling my Sailor Moon addiction, and stop playing around in my TestHood and get back to playing ToT. Two families to go before the round ends! (Rounds are going to be so long when I have more than just five families. And that's going to happen soon since I'm pretty sure a non eldest is getting married soon. But not 'til next round I think (unless he/she is marrying an eldest. But it has to be an eldest male for them to stay on lot) Let's see, looking at my list Vaughn and Cari, Emerson and Taisha, Gale and Evalista, Ahmed and Joella, and Milo and Jacinda are paired and not yet married. Only Joella is about to be an adult. Ahmed is still a teen (but I have inteen so marrying them whenever is alright) So I either a) marry them at the end of Joella's round and move them out to their own house starting round 9 b) wait until I get to the Marroquin's on round 9, marry them b4 6 pm and move them into their own lot and play it in round 9 or c) wait for the Marroquin's turn, marry them b4 6pm (since that's my own rules to keep ages perfectly in sync) and play them in the Marroquin household for the duration of the round and move them (and any children) to their own house at the end of the round, making a new household for round 10. Decisions decisions.) Well I'm off to sleep. Maybe I'll get some playtime in before I go to work tonight. ~VP

[Tga Kiwi]

Oh dear, I truly sympathise with you Sandy.
I have just returned home to find *hubby* performed a complete system restore because of a 'viral attack' which prevented the opening of any applications.
He wiped everything,my files, photos... everything! I could have wiped him clean but chose to have a bawling session while giving him the evil eyes :cry:
So I am back to square one AGAIN!!

[popper345]

Umm, what expansions are abosolutely REQUIRED to play this challenge?

[SandyJS]

Oh dear, I truly sympathise with you Sandy.
I have just returned home to find *hubby* performed a complete system restore because of a 'viral attack' which prevented the opening of any applications.
He wiped everything,my files, photos... everything! I could have wiped him clean but chose to have a bawling session while giving him the evil eyes :cry:
So I am back to square one AGAIN!!

So look at this the way I am, it gives me the chance to truly download the CC I need before I even start again. Plus, I can attempt to do more planning!

[taliahneth]

Umm, what expansions are abosolutely REQUIRED to play this challenge?

I would say you definitely need Seasons, and highly recommend Open for Business otherwise some eras could get boring, unless you're incredibly imaginative ^_^

@VP that sounds amazing! Totally fits the era I reckon. I'm not going to be killing off a slave sim every 7 days, because with 21 families that could end up wiping out the slave population in one Round! XD I'm going to do the recommended, pop all slave names in a bin and pull one out once a "month" in sim world. I've worked it into the "story" I have ongoing; it's quite funny how I had tried to get one family to become the Emperor all through the Neanderthal Era, ended up being overruled by my own sims, and now it's turned out much more interesting.

Sympathies to the poor souls having to start all over again; I did that once by my own choice, and another thanks to a nasty virus that ate everything on my harddrive and seemed to start with the sims stuff first! Grr! But it's turned out well - 3rd time the charm! I did better starting over, after a few practice runs, and even if I had to start over again now I'd do better still, but it's just half the fun trying to work stuff out. I love the era changes especially, makes everything so very interesting.

taliah~

[cespencer7]

Sympathies to the poor souls having to start all over again; I did that once by my own choice, and another thanks to a nasty virus that ate everything on my harddrive and seemed to start with the sims stuff first! Grr! But it's turned out well - 3rd time the charm! I did better starting over, after a few practice runs, and even if I had to start over again now I'd do better still, but it's just half the fun trying to work stuff out. I love the era changes especially, makes everything so very interesting.
taliah~

Taliah - I agree with you about the era changes. I love building the new homes, finding CC clothing and decor and researching the history of the era. Right now I am in the middle of my second generation of Romans getting married so it may be awhile before my next era change. The rules say 4 generations of Romans, but I don't think I can last that long. It is taking me about 2 "real life" months to go through one round with my families. I fear it will get too boring for me if I don't go into the middle ages by the time the third generation has become adults. :wtf:

[SandyJS]

I got it! :beer: The perfect theme for this challenge! The SimStones! :faceslap: I came across this complete set while downloading things for the Neanderthal age and it started me thinking how I could keep this going through all the eras. So stand by for further developments! :jest:

[YukiShine]

Alright, I'm back. :) And I'm right in the middle of the transition right now. It's fun (but I'm afraid my laptop disagrees sometimes ^^;; ).
So, I have a total of 15 households at the end of stone age and the beginning of the Roman stage: 1 Emperor's Family, 3 Patricians, 5 Plebians (3 shops, 2 farms) and 6 Slaves.
For now, I won't kill slaves regularly. The slave families are all still very young: Young couples without children, or with very small children. I'm lucky I got those two single teenage slaves the Emperor's family must have according to the rules. Once these families get a little more established and I can spare a few sims, I'm going to send slaves to the coloseum, though.

Suddenly my sims are allowed - or even expected - to take jobs. oO That's so weird. *gg*

Oh, by the way: What do we do if a playable is beaten in a fight by a townie? I was having one of my sims shop for clothes when Lynx Fire came to the lot and started to fight with some random townie. Lynx lost. So would you kill him, or ignore this?

[Tga Kiwi]

Yuss! :) I have my weebly back up and running again.


Oh, by the way: What do we do if a playable is beaten in a fight by a townie? I was having one of my sims shop for clothes when Lynx Fire came to the lot and started to fight with some random townie. Lynx lost. So would you kill him, or ignore this?
I don' have that problem as I have a mod that allows me to ban NPC's and sims from lots, but in answer to your question, for me personally, I would roll a die.

[anna220]

My 2 cents - Since you cant kill an NPC if they lost I wouldnt kill my playable in this situation.

[VioletPadfoot]

I'm with Anna. Don't kill Lynx. IMO for this challenge townies are NPCs thus you are not responsible for anything they do, including winning fights against your playables. ~VP

[YukiShine]

Great. Thanks for your opinions. So I'll write it off as some kind of nightmare he had. :P However, Tga Kiwi's suggestion to roll a die when in doubt is clever, too. I'll keep that in mind.

[cespencer7]

Great. Thanks for your opinions. So I'll write it off as some kind of nightmare he had. :P However, Tga Kiwi's suggestion to roll a die when in doubt is clever, too. I'll keep that in mind.

I love the idea of the nightmare. That way the memory remains, but you don't have to kill anyone off. I might have to save that for a time when one of my favorite Sims would have to die otherwise. :beer:

[taliahneth]

Taliah - I agree with you about the era changes. I love building the new homes, finding CC clothing and decor and researching the history of the era. Right now I am in the middle of my second generation of Romans getting married so it may be awhile before my next era change. The rules say 4 generations of Romans, but I don't think I can last that long. It is taking me about 2 "real life" months to go through one round with my families. I fear it will get too boring for me if I don't go into the middle ages by the time the third generation has become adults. :wtf:

I never liked building until this challenge; and I'm guessing that's because of the history inspiration, makes it a lot of fun. :D I wish it only took me 2 months per round >.< though I probably shouldn't wish away the challenge I know what you mean! At the moment I'm doing a super run, almost finished one round in 2 weeks O.O but that's not leaving me much else to do LoL I'm on holiday.

I was having a good think about the next era - the Dark Ages oooh broody Vikings are going to be so much fun XD! - I thought I might cut it short too but after all this effort to put in the buildings I'm not too keen to get rid of them either, and as I get further into the Roman Era I'm getting quite attached! >.< I guess I'll just see what happens by the time I reach Gen6.

On the subject of NPCs and Townies - is there a way to kill them off? I'm so over seeing the SAME faces for the last 4 generations; I've aged some of the townies up to make them look different, but I don't want an entire population of Elder townies shuffling around! XD

taliah~

[VioletPadfoot]

You can kill off all the townies if you can summon them to a lot. Find some way of summoning the townies to whatever lot you want to kill them on. There are several ways to do this, I just can't think of them right now. Then kill them with your method of choice. If you don't have pescado's notownieregen the game will provide you with all new townies, if you do have it, they'll be no pesky townies to bug you anymore. (or in Yuki's case to try and kill out poor playables) ~VP

[nesxya]

Good luck Sandy and everyone starting anew, I have in the past blown up many computers! Luckily my husband makes back ups of all my files and has taught me to scan every download before opening. Just by right clicking and scanning before I even unzip, I haven't had problems in over a year! Also investing in a good software has been a life saver. Currently he has gotten me a new computer and I am loving it, especially since my laptop needs repair (darn charger wont charge ... connectors need replacing!) First thing I did was load up a fresh install of Sims and started this challenge!

Sometimes starting over can be stressful, but sometimes it can be rejuvenating. The excitement of building a'fresh with new content. And like Sandy, I love the SimStones content! I cant wait to see what everyone does!!!

VP I love the hunger game mechanics you have devised, bloody brilliant I say!

I have been building some new caves for a plot twist in my ToT hood, so I haven't been playing much the last week. But I do have updates and will be playing in the next few days.

Wow Talia, two months average for a round! Amazing. I hope you are having fun in your Sims spurt! I know I always do, when I go on a tear. lol. I can't wait to see how your hood develops!

I just wanted to check in and say hello everyone. I look forward to peeking in on everyone's websites and updates! Off to do some chores, check in on ToT sites, and play some Sims. Talk to you later and many hugs. :giggler:

[cespencer7]

I never liked building until this challenge; and I'm guessing that's because of the history inspiration, makes it a lot of fun. :D I wish it only took me 2 months per round >.< though I probably shouldn't wish away the challenge I know what you mean! At the moment I'm doing a super run, almost finished one round in 2 weeks O.O but that's not leaving me much else to do LoL I'm on holiday.
taliah~

If each generation takes about 6 rounds to complete, at the rate I am going it will take me a year to finish each generation since I am getting more and more family lots in each generation. If the full legacy test of time challenge is 20 generations, I will be in my old age before I finish the challenge and likely the computer will stop working by that time. I may need to start using "boolprop testingcheatsenabled true" and then the "tombstone of life and death" to age up my teens after each generations' fourth round so that as adults they can fall in love and marry sooner. That may help to shorten up each generation by about 2 rounds.

I've also decided to shorten up each historic era by one generation. So neanderthal was two generations, and the third generation became the first Roman generation. Then the roman age will be two more generations and the third generations will become the first generation of the dark ages. Feels like cheating, but I think it will make it more likely that I will make it to the end of the challenge. :faceslap:

Does anyone know of a person who actually finished the complete challenge? How long did it take them? :blink:

[taliahneth]

Oh no now I worked it out at the speed IM going and it's pretty much DOOMED LoL! >.< 3 rounds in the last year makes 2 years per generation, which is... *doesn't have enough fingers to count on* 32-ish years? (will be retired by then) O.O I already have inteenimater which means my teens pretty much are getting jiggy with it already - I'm trying to behave with the upper classes just to mix it up a bit, but one of my Gen4 slave teens is going to have the first Gen5 baby next round - she's naughty >_> Niklaus IS hard to resist though >.<...I had nothing to do with it....honest! *liar* And I just discovered something next to the tombstone of life and death called....*should write this stuff down* Rodney's death chooser? Or something - omg SO funny! It's probably doing irreversable damage to my game, right? =/ anyone want to give me the good news? ^_^ I use it to kill off sims at the Colosseum.

I'm currently 3 families from the end of Round 15 with 22 families and 117 sims with at least 2 known babies on the way O.O how did this happen? I had 95 last round! Crazy. The Colosseum HAS come in to play and as tempting as the Hunger Games idea was *just brilliant* I'm going with one slave sim every 4th family of the round, so that's 5 a round...and the families just keep increasing! I've also added a new lot, plus next round there will be a Harem associated with the Emperor's palace but on it's own lot, and I still want to put in a temple if I can work it somehow.

I remember seeing waaaay back someone mentioning sims in the Medieval & Renaissance era? O.O seriously... that takes dedication in just a few months! Surely they would have finished by now if they'd kept it up. It would be interesting to know if anyone else is even past the Roman Era yet (sorry if I missed that somewhere!).

Must end rambling - I've a round to finish possibly today! *whoosh!*

taliah~

ps: *waves and hugs to nesxya* I'm having a blast! ^_^ It's too much fun! I just hope it's as enjoyable to view as it was to play >.<

[lbsgirl24]

I really love this challenge. Probably why I'm neglecting my study to play it. I've never had the attention span to complete any challenge before so starting this was probably a really bad idea but at least the changing themes every few generations should keep me entertained. I have way more girls than boys though and the habit of the little girls to murder their elder brothers isn't helping.

[SandyJS]

Taliah, I think you're the furthest along. I'm surprised that since this challenge's beginning that noone has finished. Where are they losing interest at? I'm currently installing all the SimStone content I downloaded, then I can restart my neighborhood!

[taliahneth]

LoL lbsgirl! those poor boys XD I am so on the same page with you challenge wise, nothing else I've ever started, no matter how interesting it seems at the start, has gone on for more than a month or two, this one though just keeps giving!

Good luck with your new neighbourhood Sandy!

It's sometimes hard to tell just exactly where people are at any given time, unless they have websites you can peek in on and they keep that up to date; how about a show of hands? Just for curiosity's sake - what Gen/Era is everyone up to? I'm in the Roman Era, dead centre of Gen3 and 4 (excusing that early Gen5 baby *cough!*).

How much do I love this game?! I had the most interesting development today! There I was with the Braun4 family, amusing myself with my special skin3 sim Eduard who is so apathetic he's pretty much been forced (not that he cares) into marriage by the new girl Cristiana, and the next minute she's calling on the fates to help her catch her man and they're whisked away to a new land to start a whole new arc to the story! WHAT?! XD LoL! And THEN just when I thought the rest of the family would be a breeze - 3 of them die in a fire that took out half the block! Leaving poor little knocked up Elsa half dead on her own! I don't know how this happened but it was FUN! XD

taliah~

[VioletPadfoot]

*raises hand* I'm in Neanderthal still. I decided my ten starting sims were Gen 0, not Gen 1 so that I'd have a bigger pool come roman times, and Gen 1 is just beginning to reach adulthood.

[YukiShine]

Right in the middle of the transition to Rome. I've got 3 generations so far.

Actually, I've never seen anyone get past the Roman stage. Have you?
Maybe there are just too many sims after 7 generations, who knows...

[Tga Kiwi]

*waves* I've one foot in the door to reaching the Roman era, my gen3 teens are 2 days away from reaching adulthood.

[taliahneth]

You are all so awesome! XD It's fun to see where everyone is up to. Transitioning eras is always exciting, and I'd have to say even seeing each generation reach adulthood to start the next is exciting too.

I'm very intrigued to see how large your Roman starting round is VP :blink: with an extra generation I can't imagine... *enormous!*

Good luck to everyone! I'm determined to finish the round today :| *got distracted yesterday*

taliah~

[SandyJS]

You are all so awesome! XD It's fun to see where everyone is up to. Transitioning eras is always exciting, and I'd have to say even seeing each generation reach adulthood to start the next is exciting too.

I'm very intrigued to see how large your Roman starting round is VP :blink: with an extra generation I can't imagine... *enormous!*

Good luck to everyone! I'm determined to finish the round today :| *got distracted yesterday*

taliah~

Look at it this way, the extra generation gives you more choices for marriage without needing to bring in CAS sims. :sheep:

[cespencer7]

*raises hand* I'm in Neanderthal still. I decided my ten starting sims were Gen 0, not Gen 1 so that I'd have a bigger pool come roman times, and Gen 1 is just beginning to reach adulthood.

Raising hand. In the early stages of my Roman Gen 2 marriages and Gen 3 births. (cough, maybe cause I cheated) I don't think I can last 20 generations as the original rules outline, so I am shortening each era so I can move more quickly. :deal: So here is my plan....

Founders - Gen 1
Gen 2 Neanderthal
Gen 3 Neanderthal - they became Roman Gen 1 (as they became adults I started making the architecture changes and determined emperor)

Romans Gen 2
Romans Gen 3 - they will become Dark Ages Gen 1 (when this generation becomes adults I will begin "destroying Rome" and building viking and early Dark Ages home lots - actually plan to move all community lots to my lot bin so I can use later. :giggler:

Dark Ages Gen 2
Dark Ages Gen 3 - they will become Middle Age Gen 1 (may go the extra few Gens, love the medieval CC here at MTS)

Early Middle Age Gen 2
Early Middle Age Gen 3

Renaissance Gen 2
Rennaisance Gen 3

and so on....

[anna220]

Im still in neanderthral stage ! I havent been spending as much time gaming now that the weather is good. I am not sure how I will ever make 20 gens either lol so I might look at altering the time line as so many of you are doing.

[VioletPadfoot]

I'm very intrigued to see how large your Roman starting round is VP :blink: with an extra generation I can't imagine... *enormous!*

taliah~Um yeah, it's going to be enormous. I may have forgotten to pull out my anti SoWo hack, so no kids have been lost to that particular tribe.... And this means there's already a huge population. Each of the five families has at least six kids (most of the time more) and my population according to the SimTacker is sitting at 62. Only one of which is dead b/c one of my kids hit aspiration failure and attacked her sister. So the loosing sister is now deceased. If i ever get around to finishing the current round i'll update my website with that news. So yeah, Gen1 has 52 sims, one of which is dead and six (i believe, it might be only five and I'm to lazy to load the Tracker again) of which at plantsims spawns so don't entirely count.

I"m still undecided about letting my plantsim couples breed. I might just let them spawn a plantbaby or two b/c I've discovered that plantsims make the best fishermen in the world. And since I'm selling off all fish but bass since no one is getting enough cooking skill to cook anything else, the more plantsims in a family, the richer they become. My Tavares family is looking to become the richest family around. They've two spawned plantsims, plus one that recelty married in, and if that couple produces two plantbabies... plus the fact that my two elders on that lot (Jae and Santo of Gen0) are plantsims... Yeah the Tavares' look to be well on their way to becoming the ruling family. You know i should probably start keeping track of funds and household worth now. Especially seeing how I'm about to be starting a lot of new households soon... ~VP

[SandyJS]

You know, I keep hearing about plantsims but I've never had one crop up. How do you get one?

[Peni Griffin]

Excessive use of pesticide. If you use ladybug houses you'll never see them.

Since pesticide wasn't available to the earliest farmers I don't know how so many neanderthals turn into them. :)

[VioletPadfoot]

Excessive use of pesticide. If you use ladybug houses you'll never see them.

Since pesticide wasn't available to the earliest farmers I don't know how so many neanderthals turn into them. :)Sim-magic? Mine didn't have ladybug houses for quite a few rounds so several of my founders became one with nature in order to not lose their crops. Two of my females got cures, one immediately and the other after she gave birth as plantsim pregnancies are so much easier to deal with. ~VP

[YukiShine]

A Wizard Dit It (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AWizardDidIt). ^^
But honestly, in RL we also use self-made aphid repellants. The smell of nettles that have incubated in water for several days is quite likely to turn me green... ;)
Or maybe our cave sims had some nice shamanic ritual at their hands? Where are our sims archeologists?

On another note, I just had my first appearance of Squiggly Lines of Doom. -.- It's not even been 4 generations and I followed the anti-BFBVFS rules from the beginning: clean template, no deleted sims etc. I do have backups, but who knows when the corruption occurred?

[taliahneth]

I want to say I never had a plantsim but that makes me think I have =/ and the more I think about it, I'm pretty sure I had at least one; often I just ignored the bugs or got the kids/teens to deal with them since they don't turn. It wasn't until the Roman Era I started using ladybug houses, seems more realistic than spray >.< why I didn't use them before I do not know *shaking head at self*

I'm curious - what are the squiggly lines of doom? O.O

taliah~

[YukiShine]

I'm curious - what are the squiggly lines of doom? O.O
Ah, you know, these strange vertical lines in speech bubbles or thought bubbles that sometimes are shown instead of an actual image. It's a sign of neighborhood corruption.

[Peni Griffin]

Not always. Most of the time it just means the topic doesn't have an associated icon. This can easily happen without neighborhood corruption. Relax.

[taliahneth]

Oooh so YukiShine's sims are talking about naughty things not fit for viewing ;)

Can't recall just now ever having such a thing, unless it's something like my poor postman going white with weird black and red text all over him, but I know that was just a minor glitch and he lives to deliver mail another day!

Hopefully it rights itself all good Yuki :D

taliah~

[snow-destiny]

What expansion packs are essential to this challenge? I've got Seasons, University and Freetime.

[SandyJS]

You would also need to add Open for Business.

[YukiShine]

Right. I initially thought maybe it was possible without OfB, but in Medieval & Rennaissance there's a class that cannot have income from anything except shops.
The other must-have expansion pack for this challenge is, of course, Seasons. Everything else is optional.

@ Peni: Well, if a speech bubble topic can't be associated with an icon, I'd take that as a "Something's wrong here..." ^^ But a few squiggly bubbles won't make me give up on such an awesome challenge. Meh, I remember my very first neighborhood I ever played: In the end everyone was gossiping about nothing but squiggly lines. It was pretty annoying, yes, but still playable. :)
As for my ToT neighborhood Elmekia: I've had the HoodChecker remove a few invalid relations and I've fixed a few memories myself in SimPE. That should slow down whatever corruption there might be. My sims are getting used to their new names and outfits in the meantime. I'm so looking forward to actually play in my brand new Roman setup. ^^

[anna220]

Hello everyone ! I actually managed to play a sim day last night. That brings me to the end of this round so now I just have to find the desire to do an update and I will be back on track. It looks like you are all moving along nicely with most people in the Roman era now? snow-destiny since it takes a few rounds to get back the beginning stage you could easily start the challenge without OFB. Seasons would be the most important EP I would think since you need the fishing and farming at the start. I hope you will give it a go and let us know how you make out. ST has sent me an update to the rules so when I get some time I will be updating the main post. I believe she mentioned something about money changes but I havent read thru them yet.

PS - I have updated the rules per ST :deal:

[VioletPadfoot]

Question? Does anyone think my neighborhood may have corrupted itself if one of my founding mothers (now an elder) had an "affair" with her teenaged son? She cuddled up to him in bed (and that's all that happened. She had been asleep until her husband's entrance woke her up) and her husband found them. I have Inteen, but i don't think i have anything that would allow incest b/c although they are only pixels, that's just yucky. ~VP

[anna220]

:wtf: Thats just wrong even in caveman days ! I couldnt imagine a hack would allow that but I dont play with hacks so maybe it could ! Does she have Alzheimer's? Maybe she thinks her son is her husband as a young man?

[VioletPadfoot]

I have no idea. I used the SimBlender to check relationships and she still has "set as child" (or whatever that says) greyed out for him which means that's the one set. I'm going to make it a rule now that anyone teen and over sharing a bed with another teen and over must be of the same gender. then this won't ever happen again. I've never had anything like this happen before, but then usually my teens have their own bed (and room) to sleep in instead of a one room hut where beds are first come, first served,~VP

[anna220]

I always got annoyed when kids would choose the adults bed to sleep in when they had a perfectly useable single bed for themselves and they would get so pissy when the parent would even SIT on the bed while they were in it lol maybe it wasnt such a bad thing now that I think about it.

[Frogsnack]

I LOVE the idea of this challenge and have been building a world for my starting sims for the last week or so, only to discover today that this whole time it was a SIMS 2 challenge, not SIMS 3! :blink:

Does anyone know of a similar challenge for 3? If not, I'm sure it can be adapted easily enough...


Also- if enough people like the idea, I'll have no problems sharing the island world I'm creating once it's done)

And, any ideas on where specific jobs would fit into the ages? I'm thinking nobody was babysitting each other's children or styling each other until Roman...

[Peni Griffin]

Babysitting would be ubiquitous - leave the smallest kids with grandma while you go out gathering with your sisters-in-law and the big kids. And there's evidence of personal adornment all the way back to the Neanderthals.

[cespencer7]

I LOVE the idea of this challenge and have been building a world for my starting sims for the last week or so, only to discover today that this whole time it was a SIMS 2 challenge, not SIMS 3! :blink:

Does anyone know of a similar challenge for 3? If not, I'm sure it can be adapted easily enough...


Also- if enough people like the idea, I'll have no problems sharing the island world I'm creating once it's done)

And, any ideas on where specific jobs would fit into the ages? I'm thinking nobody was babysitting each other's children or styling each other until Roman...

I love the idea :luff: that someone using Sims3 is joining the challenge. Most of us have made some adaptations to the rules. We just "justify" our decisions by researching the age we are in. I agree with Peni :up: that jewelry and babysitting and other things probably started with the earliest cave families. The original challenge rules limited the cave people from having any jobs. The only thing most of us did was farming and fishing until the Roman age. But, it's up to you if you find a job that would make sense for cave people.

[taliahneth]

Question? Does anyone think my neighborhood may have corrupted itself if one of my founding mothers (now an elder) had an "affair" with her teenaged son? She cuddled up to him in bed (and that's all that happened. She had been asleep until her husband's entrance woke her up) and her husband found them. I have Inteen, but i don't think i have anything that would allow incest b/c although they are only pixels, that's just yucky. ~VP

Oedipus comes to mind :king: :p My sims do this all the time, I have Inteen too and ACR, nothing comes of it, it generally happens when my sims woohoo thanks to ACR and then one leaves the bed, and if anyone else gets into bed with the other still sleeping sim they curl up together, regardless of age or relationship. The first time it happened to me was with a father and teenage son that hated each other and I was like O___o what the...?!

I do wonder why the kids are SO against sleeping with their parents (platonically I mean =/ ) like Anna says, the parent just has to sit on the bed and the kid grumbles and gets up regardless of how much they are friends with them =_= *shaking head at them* and then the teens don't care either way >_> Sims are most amusing ^__^

taliah~

[VioletPadfoot]

Oedipus comes to mind :king: :p My sims do this all the time, I have Inteen too and ACR, nothing comes of it, it generally happens when my sims woohoo thanks to ACR and then one leaves the bed, and if anyone else gets into bed with the other still sleeping sim they curl up together, regardless of age or relationship. The first time it happened to me was with a father and teenage son that hated each other and I was like O___o what the...?!

I do wonder why the kids are SO against sleeping with their parents (platonically I mean =/ ) like Anna says, the parent just has to sit on the bed and the kid grumbles and gets up regardless of how much they are friends with them =_= *shaking head at them* and then the teens don't care either way >_> Sims are most amusing ^__^

taliah~ Ok so it is a ACR/Inteen combo thing then? 'Cause I have both and Alaine was sleeping after having had woohooed by ACR with Devon. Devon had gotten up b/c he's a plantsim thus needs no sleep and Roscoe filled his spot. At least I know it's not my game going completely bonkers.

On a side note, I finally got around to finishing the round and have tried several times to start Round Nine (of which I've changed the length of again. I'm doing a long five day round again 'cause that will put all but four of the kids to age teen or higher thus enabling me to get them paired off and started on the next generation. There's going to be alot of weddings in rounds nine and ten). My problem is that I'm trying to get Adah Tavares married to Giovanni Marroquin. By my own rules to keep ages consistent, Adah needs to marry Giovanni by six pm on the first day of the round. So Ahmed, whom she's friends with, invites her over, she and Giovanni spend the morning getting to the engaged point (and I've cheated their relationship up to do this. I'll put it back down to merely friends after the marriage. I consider this to be an arranged marriage due to Adah already being an adult and I'm not letting her waste five days in which she could have (conceivably) almost two pregnancies done with.) The problem comes around noon when I send her home and invite her back with her household so they can witness the wedding. i think I'm inviting too many sims over for my computer to handle. I think this time around (this will be try three) I'll invite over Adah, her parents, Teresia, Reuben, and the twins Celeste and Carson. The reasoning for those guys: well obviously Adah's the bride; her parents should be able to "see her off"; Teresia gets to come b/c Giovanni is her brother, and Reuben b/c he's married to Teresia; and the twins (who age to teen near the beginning of round ten) b/c I'm matchmaking Celeste and Mervin Marroquin (who ages to teen on the last day of round nine). I figure they can meet now and I can be sure i won't have to do the arrange thing like I'm dong now. And yeah the Marroquins and the Tavares' are doing a lot of swapping for spouses. I only just now realized that.

I'm going to stop babbling now and go either a) get my pictures ready to put on my website then do so, or b) try to get Adah and Giovanni married again. Hopefully third time's the charm. ~VP

[Frogsnack]

Babysitting would be ubiquitous - leave the smallest kids with grandma while you go out gathering with your sisters-in-law and the big kids. And there's evidence of personal adornment all the way back to the Neanderthals.

I guess that means I could technically have an architect too, lol...

But I think that's a bit much.

Babysitting it is, then!

[VioletPadfoot]

So haven't played yet, so I haven't attempted to marry off Adah and Giovanni for the third time. I did however update my website with Round Eight. I also got rid of the annoying picture on the side that I never get around to changing. The only one left is on the home page b/c i will change that one eventually. Now I'm going to go play my game. Which shall be made that much more fun by the fact that I should be working right now, but called off tonight. ~VP

[cespencer7]

So haven't played yet, so I haven't attempted to marry off Adah and Giovanni for the third time. I did however update my website with Round Eight. I also got rid of the annoying picture on the side that I never get around to changing. The only one left is on the home page b/c i will change that one eventually. Now I'm going to go play my game. Which shall be made that much more fun by the fact that I should be working right now, but called off tonight. ~VP

Just checked out your site. I love that you let the sims have what they wanted even if it wasn't what you planned. It created a little drama in everyone's lives, didn't it? :cool:

[cespencer7]

Click Here for Roman Gen 2 - Rounds 5-6 HIghlights (https://sites.google.com/site/asimstestoftime/the-roman-age/roman-gen-1-rounds-5-6)
I spent some time this morning adding my Roman Gen 2 - Round 6 highlights. I notice that the Romance sims are causing a little drama of their own.

Still need to create the Gen 3 family pages for my photos and more detailed highlights. Hope to sit out on the balcony today and do that while I soak up some of that glorious sunshine. :report:

[Frogsnack]

cespencer7- your notes are awesome!

How great to see Sims being used in a way the game was truly designed for- playing out all of history!

It's not too late for me to take my own field note, a very exciting thought!

[Shebly]

I'm back after being distracted by other games for a while, and I have something I want y'all's opinion on.

To start things off, one of my sims accidently died. By 'accidently' I mean I forgot to puase the game and went afk, and when I got back she had died of hunger. She was 5 hours away from giving birth at the time. DX Being the type of person that I am, I decided NOT to exit without saving. Her husband went on to marry one of the Gen 2 plantbabies.

Cut to a few rotations later. One of my other families recieved a genie lamp from the gypsy. Lo and behold I notice the resuurect sim option and the previously mentioned dead sim's name is there. In a moment of...well I dont know, I decided to ressurect her.

Here's my question, was I bad for doing this? I didn't see anything about the lamp in the rules... Also, should I try to set her up again with her previous husband? Strangely, she has no memory of him or their son; only their daughters. Her lifebar is reset as well, but I feel too weird about marrying her to one of the Gen 2 boys. Though I do have a SERIOUS girl shortage (As a side note, the baby she had was a girl, which made not regret rezzing her at all). Should I suck it up and marry her to one of the Gen 2 boys, get her back with her husband or what? I'd really like some opinions. :)

[taliahneth]

LoL Shebly I've done that, except no sims died, they just did BETTER without my influence! Am I a bad god-hand? :(

It's more fun when "accidental" things happen so no stress! From what I've read nobody here seems to be following the rules "exactly" they're more of a "guideline" so however you want to interpret/twist/mutilate beyond recognition is entirely up to you. Which includes setting the sim up with her previous husband, since it's obvious she's suffering amnesia from her time in the other world. And as for girl shortages - have the men fight to the death! mwahaha :cool: ...ok so >_> that might be extreme for some... not for me! :giggler: fight fight! *adjusting crooked halo*

I just finished updating my super round 15 where I actually lost count of how many sims died =/ I think it was 7.... maybe... and I also have an extraordinary amount of girls (fight! fight!) But it was so much fun! XD On to round 16, which is round 4 for the Roman Era *_* it's so exciting!

taliah~

[VioletPadfoot]

LoL Shebly I've done that, except no sims died, they just did BETTER without my influence! Am I a bad god-hand? :( Bad god-hand? Any of us? No of course not. *ignores the fact that during normal play, any sim who annoys me too much soon meets with the Grim Reaper* As long as our pixel-y creations still worship us (and they should since we control what items they can use, who they get to marry and other stuff) how can we be bad? *straightens halo upon the devil horns that keep it from falling down* ~VP

[Shebly]

Well, the problem ended up resolving itself, lol. I moved the rezzed sim, River, and her new baby back into the house with her former husband, Thom, and his new wife, Niphredil(at least I think that's how I spelled it :x). River immedeately went to interact with Thom, and their relationship went from nothing straight to 90/90 besties with one interaction. She then flirted with Thom in front of Niphredil, which led to a slap fest. DX I decided to move Niphredil and her children out before things got too out of hand; but before she could even get to the paper she gave birth to twins! I could not make that sht up sims are so great that way. Thom and River are happily married again with their 5th child on the way. So far Niphredil hasn't been over to kick the trashcan but I figure its only a matter of time...

Lol, Taliahneth, quit giving me ideas! You're making me want to have the remaining boys all have a death match for the last remaining girl, lol. BTW, I love the buildings your sims use, can I get them for download anywhere?

[taliahneth]

Thank you Shebly ^_^ Unfortunately I can't seem to get the buildings uploaded anywhere (sims either =/) my game doesn't want to connect, and I'm not really savvy enough to get technical so they'll have to remain admired from afar. The best I can offer is on my website there is a "Collections" tab and the first link on that page is to pictures of the Roman Buildings; it might help you build them yourself...? A lot of the wall patterns I use that aren't maxis are from Parsimonious. Omg @_@ I remember getting lost in that website for 3 days *_* cc downloading heaven.

I'm glad your problem sims righted themselves! They do tend to do that on occasion, good little simmies.

taliah~

PS: death match death match death match LoL ^_^

[Shebly]

Omg I love Parsimonious too. I rediscovered the furniture section the other day...and that's all I'm going to say about it lol.

I'm possibly the worst builder there is :x. My sims live in boxes or things that vaguely resemble trailors. Those pics might be able to help me tho if I can't find any buildings to download. The building of yours I like the most is the colliseum, it's so cool.

[lbsgirl24]

I had far too many girls at one point but since most of them died my only problem now is that one of my larger families has several children who lost potential spouses and there's no one left but each other so I may have to kill them off but I can't be bothered. When it comes to killing sims when they loose a fight do you kill them with or without excess cheating? I generally just kill them off.
I have a slight problem though as I'm still in Neanderthal but my richest family is my favorite skin 1 family (not on purpose), and my other skin one family is my poorest family. So the richer family has two sons one of which will become emperor later.One is at this point the heir and my best looking male sim in his generation, he's already married to a skin 3 girl. They have a few kids. His younger brother is my ugliest sim this generation so I don't want him to be emperor but he's betrothed to the only available skin 1 girl who likes him. I'm considering getting the older brother married to the skin 1 girl so I can keep to my policy of having the eldest be the heir and keep my direct lines pretty but I'd have to deal with his wife first what would you guys do?

[Shebly]

I use moderate cheating to kill my fight losers off (I've had 2). I put them in a doorless room and surround them with fire jets and flammable objects; none of which would have been around in caveman days lol.

I'd keep him married to the s3 girl. Who says she can't be emperess? :)

[VioletPadfoot]

I spawn Rodney's Death Creator to kill off sims.

As to the s1/s3 couple. I agree with Shebly. Let them stay together and make your oldest emperor. You can always breed the s3 out of the line. ~VP

[taliahneth]

I cheat big time to kill my sims off :cool: *total cheater* there used to be a serious fly problem (tombstone of life and death) until I discovered Rodneys Death Creator *_* oh the joys... and just in time for my Colosseum Death Matchs too. *super fun* with over 100 sims floating around the neighbourhood I don't have the patience or the space to watch them die slowly =_= it always struck me how easily sims die... until you want them to, and then suddenly it takes them DAYS! Ha! No more slacking on dying for my simmies.

I feel your pain lbsgirl! At the end of the Neanderthal Era I was quite partial to my first Skin1 family but then they were so cheerful and merry and (basically boring) that they were beaten out of the post by the other S1 family who kept having deaths which resulted in large amounts of money =/ I decided to go with the second family anyway, and I'm glad I did as they're turning out heaps of fun! (and I'm slowly killing them off accidentally on purpose) :| Although I'm partial to a few "pretty" sims, especially the boys XD they're so cute! "Ugly" (and I use that term generally coz it's up to the individual to decide if their sims are ugly or not) sims make things interesting, as the Face1 thing can get dull and confusing after a while =/ my favourite face at the moment is Thorbin (Faulkner2 if you wanna go find him on the website under Families) - he's just got this NOSE right?! I love it! I'm paying close attention to see how many generations it lasts; it's just so unique.

The colosseum was the first thing I built Shebly :) I like how it turned out too. Until this challenge I never really tried at building, the houses just never seemed to come out right so I did the whole box/trailer thing too, I used historical websites with building plans from Ancient Rome for inspiration, and though most of the buildings took me HOURS it was well worth the effort to see my sims frolicking around their playgrounds~

I'm only on the 4th round in the Roman Era but they go so long now it feels like I've been here forever! Last month I didn't want to rush it because then I'd have to build a whole new neighbourhood, but now I'm excited to get to the next era; I was thinking I might cut it down to 2 generations per round so that it doesn't take me 20 years to get through. I'm on Gen 3 now, which means Gen 5 will be the starters for the next era, but as I already have a Gen 5 baby on the way (I know I know I'm one sick puppy) I think I might go by "rounds" as each generation is about six rounds; I'm in Round 16 now, Round 19 would be the official start for Gen 4, and Round 25 for Gen 5.

O.O ...ya'll got a cuppa tea before sitting down to read this, didn't ya? XD I better go play some sims now.

taliah~

[YukiShine]

I think I might go by "rounds" as each generation is about six rounds; I'm in Round 16 now, Round 19 would be the official start for Gen 4, and Round 25 for Gen 5.
Excellent idea! :D Yay, I'll do that to.
Counting generations is getting a bit ineffective with time. I don't even do inter-generation marriages (yet :D), but the generations themselves spread so far now... Counting rounds instead should make things easier. Thanks!

[lbsgirl24]

I'm making sure to have plenty of early babies at the moment, those are the only ones I'm fond of as they're the ones who let me get into the next round. For example my oldest gen three baby is almost a teen but she'd be no where close if she wasn't born too early. I know I really shouldn't be trying to rig the Emperor next round but I have realized that I actually have four candidates, the one I didn't realize I had before is a moderately wealthy sink 1/2 couple with a few sons already their one of my funnest families to play and their sons are old enough to be teens when the era changes. This challenge is now officially the one I've stuck to the longest! Since my gen 3 are almost adults I've spent more time on this than it should take to complete a legacy!

Also I've recently found this wedding arch that lets sims marry regardless of relationships its really good and its really affected how I play this challenge. Those poor sims who were killed by their would be spouses :)

[pioneer_gal]

This is my first real challenge and post!

I have some spare time, so I thought I'd give this challenge a try. I have made all my couples and downloaded the flintstone collection to add some realness to my game.

I have got the 1st couple with child (day 1)

I am rubbish at taking photos etc and haven't got a web- site but am going to try to set that up so I can post you all pictures.

I don't know if its in the rules but I am going to play each family for a week (sim time) to give each one a fair opportunity....

I dont have seasons so am not fishing but downloaded Echo's farming stuff and making money from that
Lets see what happens.
SJ

[Frogsnack]

I'm a few teens growing up from starting the Roman rounds... how do you all determine the length of a 'round'? I have one adult who is from the original starting generation- but he was born last and so is the same age as the gen 3 kids even though he's technically gen 2.

Being that I'm using sims 3 for this challenge, all the stupid simmies keep living while I'm not playing them, so they spend their money, end up with cars and random expensive books in their inventory that they could never afford- thank goodness for the familyfunds cheat, or they'd all be independently wealthy for no reason! It is handy to be able to design items in-game though, so everyone is currently wearing tweed and leather, no bright fabrics, etc...

They also never harvest their gardens on their own- so I've been playing a different family every day to make them learn things. Did have one anomaly where I sim I hadn't played for a few days ended up with the inventing skill... but I built my own world for this and there's nowhere she could have learned it!

[Shebly]

Frogsnack, I can't even imagine trying this challenge with The Sims 3, kudos to you! I had to laugh at your sims ending up with cars and random stuff tho lol. Is there any way to make it to where they don't keep living when you arent there? Are they still having kids even tho you're gone?

My challenge is going...well its going lol. I had another death due to afk without pausing the game, this time by fire. No idea how the other sim on the lot survived, but her aspiration is completely bottomed out which makes her a danger to all the other teens in the hood. I've already had 2 fight deaths don't want any more this early!

I'm already up to 20 households, and the first member of gen 3 is just a toddler. I somehow managed the avoid the bear/Sowo tribe despite numerous close calls. The 'so and so is skin and bones' and 'so and so is too hot' pop ups aren't even cause for concern any more lol.

[taliahneth]

This challenge is now officially the one I've stuck to the longest! Since my gen 3 are almost adults I've spent more time on this than it should take to complete a legacy!

I hear ya *shaking head at self* to think I could have completed a simple legacy already, when I have one going and it's not even Gen 2! XD I've never managed one - why is that? There is something with this ATOT challenge that I can't even find the word for it! Some sort of sim-hypnosis?! :wtf: I have other things I should be doing... really... no really... *continues playing atot*

Good going pioneer_gal! I hope it goes well for you. This challenge is lots of fun XD

I don't know how you're managing with TS3 Frogsnack O.O I tried a while ago, starting with just one family, but when the kids moved out it just got chaotic, though that in itself is a lot of fun, frustrating when they whiz around in cars they got from WHERE exactly?! LoL. :rolleyes: I can't even think what it is now =/ there are neighbourhood options under settings where you can turn things like - advancement and stuff off *yeah sounds real technical here* XD not that it stops them really, at least I found they still got cars and jobs. I guess the easiest option would be to play each family for a week? Because I'm playing in sims2 with seasons my "round" for each family is "one season".

taliah~

PS: ahh I kind of miss the bear :lovestruc

[lbsgirl24]

Honestly I've lost so many children to the social worker that although i had fairly few deaths and each family had 6+ kids I now only have 8 families even though all gen 2 kids are adults. I must admit I've started saving and exiting especially when it gives me the warning five game minutes before the kids get taken but I suppose its good to not have many families.

I'm tempted to download a no social worker mod but the Neanderthal era really should have an infant morality rate and I don't want too big a population.

I think the reason this challenge can captivate me for such a long time is the diversity it offers. You can play it like the normal game without jobs or modern technology and there is always building and stuff to do. Since I only recently started playing sims 2 again, the addition of another expansion pack every now and again helps too.

[Frogsnack]

taliah... yea I tried the 'suppress opportunities' and other whatchamacallit from the option panel and they still end up with the books (maybe because there's no bookshelves yet? But they end up with foreign novels worth 1 or 2k each like The 'Chalice of Nectar')..Should be interesting when I hit Roman and some of them aren't allowed to go to school- I would think while I'm not playing them they'll still go.

Shelby- I have a definite handicap when it comes to childbearing (I'm considering lengthening the baby or toddler lifespan to be really long so that a generation of kids can be born the same age- I have 4 male children and 1 female- but 5 young adult women and only 2 men... Finally had to introduce a CAS variable to have someone who wasn't related too... All the sims that have enough happiness points are getting 'fertility treatment' right away (Which is 2 people so far lol)

Pioneer- pics of the Flintstones collection would be funny. Too bad you have to start there though and it can't just be an early civilization (I guess one could swap out Egyptian or Chinese for Roman if it really mattered).

It is pretty funny that even neandrethals get to slack off. With nothing fun in the house they end up looking out the window. Too bad no EPs have the sewing machine from TS2, I'd have a house full of potholders...

Ibsgirl- can't you readopt all those kiddies into other families? Or you could start a peter pan story later and have all the lost boys you'd ever need. (And diversity is why I like it too)


Below; Edward and Holly Fahadeen (first couple of Gen 2 to marry), pictures of Sandsteps Isle (So far it seems too small for this challenge, and has only 3 community lots (set to no visitors until Roman), but if it proves itself in TOT I'll upload it), and last is the death of a Progenitor... may flowers ever grow on him.

[anna220]

Pioneer_gal welcome to the challenge. I play each family for one "season" and then move onto the next family. It works well since I can easily see when I have to move.
VP thank you for Rodneys death creator !!! I just downloaded it last nite. It is awesome ! I am one of those who really stays away from boolprop tho I am sure it is fine if you know what you are doing - I dont lol.
cespencer7 you are moving along nicely ! I think I must play too slowly :turtle:
Frogsnack it is so neat to see the sims3 pics. I havent and probably wont make the leap to that game so I have no idea about it!

[SandyJS]

I lost quite a few kids to SoWo until I learned that as soon as the "too hot" warning popped up, I could use the SimBlender to reset their temperature and avoid loosing them. I try to keep them cool other ways and only use that in emergency.

Frogsnack, you've just shown me why I'm not getting TS3 or TSM. I don't want things progressing without me seeing it!

TTFN! :rofl:

[VioletPadfoot]

anna: I didn't realize there was download for it... So i had to check that out. Usually i just spawn one with boolprop when needed since i play with testing cheats enabled. However if I didn't, that would be at the top of my download list. And boolprop isn't all too scary. Play around with it in a testhood for a while before using it in a neighborhood that matters though until you know what things do. It's insanely handy for its ability to let you alter a sim's mood by dragging the needs bars up and down and to alter sim relationships so that two sims can get married w/o a hacked wedding arch (not that that was done recently in my hood *coughGiovanniAndAdahcough*) or other relationship related stuffs. I cheat constantly when not in challenges. I try not to do so while playing a challenge but obviously I do it on occasion anyway. ~VP

[Shebly]

Any of y'all have a link to that hacked wedding arch? It sounds like something I would be interested in having. :)

Sandy, I used the Sim Blender for that reason once as well lol. The other times I made them drink water and lay on the bench till they cooled down, that always seems to do the trick as long as you catch it before they have a heat stroke. If that happens the Sowo comes no matter what...that;s when it's good to have all family sim parents with the 'plead for child' perk unlocked. It has saved my sorry butt countless times. Not sure if it would be considered cheating, but I made all my founders family sims and gave them that perk. Plus, having them all be family sims made it much easier when it came to the 'have a million babies' part. Some of the contrary idiots still had break downs from fears of having babies...then would actually roll a want for a baby after their break down! Not that I blame them for getting sick of it all, all my families had at least seven pregnancies (one managed to squeeze in an 8th and one couple is still going cuz the wife's life bar was reset when she was brought back to life).

[VioletPadfoot]

Shebly here's the link. It should take you to the right post (Inge edited the original one after marhis gave up on it, or sims not sure which right now) All the info you need is on the first page of the thread.

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,8196.msg349456.html#msg349456

[jacknewall]

oooh nice challenge

[moonlight_frog]

Hi, peeps! I've been taking a very long break from the Sims in general since I've been busy with my studies and other really time-consuming stuff... Summer break's finally come up for me, but I'm having a hard time getting back into the groove of this challenge (it's so epic-ly long).
Does anyone have tips on how to re-immerse myself/ make it more fun? I don't want to permanently quit on this challenge since I've already invested a lot of time on it.

[Peni Griffin]

Have you been using the storytelling tool to keep track of what went on in each hood? If so, read through them; if not, go back and read your blog entries.

If doing that doesn't get you interested again, you're probably not ready to come back and should do something else for awhile.

[grammapat]

In the spirit of Cave-Man days, I've used some CC; hope this isn't cheating TOO much.
No phones, but a community lot where they can meet, throw axes, eat bananas, ond jump on each other without my permission! I've made my own "rule" that children from these illicit romps can't be heirs. Again via CC: they sit on rocks, sleep on leaves, bath in a waterfall, & pee in the bushes. The "frig" is a root celler, & they cook in a stone oven. Wish there was a mod that allowed cooking really filling "stew" in a pot over an open fire. And does anyone know of some cc where they can get together & make music (primative people DO that) - a drum set that looks primative is probably the only thing possible, as there is no script for wind instuments

[anna220]

Hi moonlight, great to see you again. Well when I am feeling much the way you are I just commit myself to playing a family until 6pm and they age 1 day. Then I quit the game. It seems like having that goal in mind keeps me going and before I know it a) I have moved onto a more interesting family or 2) I get one day close to the end of the round :rofl:

Hi grammapat ! I think we have all downloaded some cc for this challenge and the way we are going it sounds like we happily bend the rules. I forget which one of the players who did a whole storyline about music and stuff. She used bongos or something and I thought they came with one of the EP's - but I could be wrong. Anyway she did a great job of it ! You could check out the links on my blog to see how it was done. Good luck !

[SandyJS]

I knew I should have copied my restarted neighborhood before I put Pets and AL on this laptop! Oh well, I'm rebuilding my neighborhood for the Simstones. This time, I plan to run the cost of the homestead up to 17,000 so that after each family moves in, I won't have to adjust their funds. My thought is that Gen 1 parents just has beds undercover, Gen 2 parents will have moved the table, chairs and sofa in the house, but cooking and outhouse is still outside. Gen 3 will of course, start the Roman era.

[Shebly]

After all my gloating, I got a bear visit. It was for the stupidest reason ever, too. It happened in my 'plant sim' house. It's the house where the Tulip plantsim twins, Niphredil and Elanor began their adult lives. Niphredil moved out, but Elanor and her plantsim line have continued to live there. Elanor eventually married her great great grandson, Dado(they got together autonomously and I decided to just let the plantsims be icky like that) and they had twins Lemon and Orange and then toddler Apple (my naming creativity is gone, sorry). Dado's grandson, Ohno, had twin plantsim daughters Smile and Yaya. Smile was an absolute monster. I play this family mostly hands off just for lulz, and all Smile wanted to do was play in the toilet then splash in the puddles. Whenever anyone tried to interact with her, she would throw a massive hissy. Eventually it got to the point where her social bottomed and and lo and behold, the Sowo came! DX She took Yaya, Apple and Smile. I don't know why she spared Lemon and Orange, but they were at school at the time so that may have had something to do with it. Part of me wants to try and adopt Yaya back, but there's the chance I could get Apple (I already have enough boys) or Smile (Satan incarnate).

In other news, my first gen 3 sim is a teen! I'm so excited to get to the Roman era, tho there seems to be a lack of cc clothing for that period! DX Any of y'all been able to find any aside from what's here or on Parasimonious?

@ Moonlight Frog- Imagining how fun the Roman era is going to be is what keeps me going, lol. I also like making sims have oodles of kids so that could ba another reason why I've stck with it lol.

@Sandy- Man that sucks you lost your hood again! I hope everything works out this time.

@grammapat- I know there are bongos in the Castaway stuff Pescado extracted on MATY. Go there and you should be able to find them.

[VioletPadfoot]

@shebly: on the clothing front there will be some awesome stuff someday in the near future. When exactly I can't tell you. I need to get through all my other requests then I can get to work on an awesome idea I had regarding togas. I want a sense of uniformity but everyone wearing the same thing gets kinda old after a while. So I was going to make a few togas for myself to use. And then i decided these togas needed to be made a separates so that I could mix and match top styles with different length bottoms and shoes. So essentially once I hit Roman Era I'm stopping my playing of ToT b/c I really want these togas in my pictures. If i weren't so obsessed with playing you'd probably see a bunch of uploads by me on the Downloads page as I work through my backlog of requests. ~VP

[Frogsnack]

Moonlight_Frog- all I can say is that the Roman era is WORTH IT!

(Evil laughter as I just completed my coliseum)

I have a b*tchsim that I hate playing who just got into the first fight on her own (she is an 'evil' sim and keeps wanting to steal candy from babies...), and I was in the middle of trying to find her a suitor and worrying that no one likes her when she got into a fight and took care of all my problems for me!

Now she has 3 days to live... :D


And I did figure out some of my frusteration with simmies living while I'm away- I've been turning aging off every two game days so I can handle the families I haven't played in a while (otherwise no babies would be born as the other families seem to progress without having them)

I also uninstalled Pets... now no stupid deer hop through my yard every afternoon- and there's a current glitch where you can't play a family who adopted a pet while you were away? No thank you!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pics; The women of the house don't make a lot of money when they paint like THIS, the first modestly Roman bathroom, and and lot I created that was slightly underwater allowed a premade house to be underwater, then the simmies that lived there decided to start a kitchen fire! :lol:

[VioletPadfoot]

I made an update to my website. Not a summary of my latest round, since I still have a household and a half to go on that, but I changed the pages titles "Generation 0 and 1" and "Generation 2" (that second one IS new) to provide a list of who is in each generation, as well as a picture of each sim in each age group. That's a lot of pictures, but if I keep up with the picture cropping (which i will do so that my tracker stays updated. It bugs me when my tracker shows a picture of one age, but it says the sim is a different age) it won't take but a second to update the page. You can also see some of the progress I've made this round such as the existence of Gen2 and some of the females have name changes. I'm off to bed now in hopes that I wake up early enough to be able to play so I can finish out the round in the Farrar household. ~VP

[cespencer7]

I hear ya *shaking head at self* to think I could have completed a simple legacy already, when I have one going and it's not even Gen 2! XD I've never managed one - why is that? There is something with this ATOT challenge that I can't even find the word for it! Some sort of sim-hypnosis?! :wtf: I have other things I should be doing... really... no really... *continues playing atot*

Good going pioneer_gal! I hope it goes well for you. This challenge is lots of fun XD
taliah~
:lovestruc

Think of the TOT challenge as multiple legacies. Each era is a legacy. So I think of myself as having successfully completed the Neanderthal legacy and am approaching the end of the roman legacy.

[Frogsnack]

New issue- everyone's related!

In TS3 apparently the game remembers everyone's families differently, so that when someone's child is married, the person who should become their 'son-in-law' for example, becomes their 'son'.

This means that four generations in the two or so people who aren't related and could marry aren't of the right classes, and everyone else is a cousin or aunt etc! I'm thinking of injecting a few more CAS sims into it, but I'd rather use everyone I've already made, and I don't know what's to stop the game from having the same issues with the next generation.

I did hear that if sims don't marry, the issue is taken care of, but the whole point is to create families, so I'm not sure what to do.

[Shebly]

Woah Frogsnack, that's freaky. I don't play TS3, but I know there has to be a fix for that somewhere. I hope, anyways.

I'd probably just interject more CAS sims...

[cespencer7]

New issue- everyone's related!

In TS3 apparently the game remembers everyone's families differently, so that when someone's child is married, the person who should become their 'son-in-law' for example, becomes their 'son'.

This means that four generations in the two or so people who aren't related and could marry aren't of the right classes, and everyone else is a cousin or aunt etc! I'm thinking of injecting a few more CAS sims into it, but I'd rather use everyone I've already made, and I don't know what's to stop the game from having the same issues with the next generation.

I did hear that if sims don't marry, the issue is taken care of, but the whole point is to create families, so I'm not sure what to do.

I added ten CAS to my first roman age (third Neanderthal) because every patriarch was related. I assumed that historically Romans captured and added new blood to their clans. Think of the Sabine women. After that I had at least 20 couples each generation who could marry. Don't think you want many more or the challenge would never finish. Singles became monks or vestal virgins or slaves. ;)

[VioletPadfoot]

Okay I finally finished Round Nine and got it up on my website. Also if you want a list of who's in each generation (and to "watch" them age) don't just skip over the pages titled "Generation 1 and 0" and "Generation 2" I swear, no matter how quickly I want to get these annoying little pixels aged up to where i can pair them off properly, I'm never doing a five day round again. Four is my limit. And i didn't realize I was breeding little Drama Queens, but apparently it's a requirement to live on the Schafer lot and its seems I chose Vaughn's bride just perfectly in that respect. Now to get him to like her again. If Cari would just leave Emerson alone... I wonder if it's a good or bad thing he's marrying Taisha this next round. Well I suppose good, if I get them off lot immediately, bad if I decided to keep them there until the end of round. And since he's not an Adult at the beginning of round, my own rules say they stay until he is... I'm off to Sim Drama Land ~VP

Edit: I remembered for once to get the amount of money each family has on hand before I started playing, and have added a new page detailing that aspect to my website. ~VP

[cespencer7]

I know I have a full generation of Romans to go before I enter the dark ages but I wanted to take a break and do some building. What do the rules mean when they say no recreational? Does that mean no bookcases? Or just the hobby things like pottery wheels and florist benches? How do the sims develop any skills? I see a lot of cooking deaths in their futures. :cry:

[Frogsnack]

I know I have a full generation of Romans to go before I enter the dark ages but I wanted to take a break and do some building. What do the rules mean when they say no recreational? Does that mean no bookcases? Or just the hobby things like pottery wheels and florist benches? How do the sims develop any skills? I see a lot of cooking deaths in their futures. :cry:

Keep a sink around that they can drink from? lol.

And don't you get fun points from fishing? That may be the only recreation... It said bookcases for only the Monarchs.

[julmoo]

I am going to start this challenge in a few days with the help of Any Game Starter and loooots of CC I will download specifically for it.

A few days ago I have read Barbara Wood's historical novel "The Blessing Stone", which consists of eight stories that are set in a different era and each story involves a magical crystal.
Why do I think Barbara was playing Sims before she wrote this novel...? XD

I quite enjoyed that book and I'm going to use a lot of the ideas for this challenge. It is funny how much you can copy the game in the Sims 2.

Btw, the stone-age Sims are going to be matriarchal in my game because before humans discovered the male role in babby making they thought ghosts or the moon gave women babies. So a man could only have relatives through his sister's/mother's children.
Then once they figure it out I'll start a patriarchal society in the roman era...

This is going to be fabulous.

Btw, can't you just download a hack that prevents the social worker from showing up?
I'd rather have dead children than a social worker every day...I'm a fan of family trees and the child mortality WAS high back then.
(That sounds odd but you get my idea)

[Shebly]

I see what you mean, Julmoo, but from my experience I've seen that children can't die of hunger. I played the Hands Off challenge and one of the children got down to the lowest possible hunger. Sowo came but gave the family a break cuz one of them had the 'plead for child' perk. The child remained at the lowest possible hunger until 24 hours later when Sowo came and got him. Any teen+ sim would have died in that frame of time me thinks. So unless you have a pool or a fire starts or a rare sattelite fall I don't forsee much child death.

[julmoo]

What about heat stroke?
Can they die from that?

At least they can die in fires :D

When toying around with the mortality adjuster (InSIM) there were many options to kill them.
One can help with that for story purposes >.>

[Shebly]

Pretty sure heat stroke counts as a hunger death. I've only had sims die from heatstroke/freezing when they had low hunger.

[VioletPadfoot]

Btw, can't you just download a hack that prevents the social worker from showing up?
I'd rather have dead children than a social worker every day...I'm a fan of family trees and the child mortality WAS high back then.
(That sounds odd but you get my idea)You can, and I have it (hence my really high number of sims in my current game) Here's the link: http://dino.drealm.info/den/denforum/index.php?page=ts2downloads

[julmoo]

YAY! Thanks!

This is going to make this challenge even more awesome!
Can you still adopt kids with that hack though?
It would make for an interesting story if Roman slaves "hid" their baby and "laid it on someone's doorstep" (gave it up for adoption) to save it from slavery...

Edit: Woops I overlooked the part where it clearly says adoption is not affected. Sorry!

[YukiShine]

It would make for an interesting story if Roman slaves "hid" their baby and "laid it on someone's doorstep" (gave it up for adoption) to save it from slavery...
:up:
Aw, that's a great idea. But how do you put children into your adoption pool without the SoWo?
I'd move the foster parent in with the slave family, then move him or her out again - with the child.

I do have a SoWo in my game, though. She just appeared once during the whole stone age. That time, every adult and teen in the household had died.

[Frogsnack]

New idea!

And an update... I tried installing the awesomemod for TS3, messed something up and ended up reinstalling all my games. (I wanted that mod because it allows for TS2 style aging, but whatevs).

However, now that I'm back into the swing of things with Sims, I did some small roman research and realized that middle class type families in need of cash should be able to sell their children into slavery! (which may make sense from their viewpoint as males only can carry on the family name, and if girls are going to marry down anyways, why not) So put a price of 5k on a female sim child and 6k on a male, not sure about teens yet. Just thought this would be more realistic.

And Cspencer7, THANK YOU! You right about all the people that rome kidnapped/ defeated and incorporated, so the everyone related is much less of a concern now thanks to you.

[julmoo]

You could use Inge's Teleporter Shrub to teleport the baby into the family and then select "move in".
With Inge's Teleporter Shrub you can also give babies up for adoption.

I don't really mind if they have no memories of the adoption, as long as it will display somewhat correctly in the family tree.

@Frogsnack: That idea is really good!

Just wondering: How many slaves do you guys usually give to your families?
Do you use mods for extremely large families to they can have six children + 4 slaves?
Or do you just have 2 slaves, two adults and four kids?

[YukiShine]

I have either a mod or a userstartup cheat for larger families. The eight people limit just doesn't fit this challenge. The number of slaves per household is actually given in the rules, isn't it?

Btw, anna, didn't you say something about an update some time ago? :)

[Melibee1323]

I finaly was able to start up my challenge again.
So far (because I havent had much time to play), I have two couples from generation 1 together, but the rest of my parent generation couples are still having children, many are still teens or children
I do have the inteen thing, so I have been starting many of them off as teens for families.
I am having the issue of having too many guys and not enough girls!
I think i am going to make a website and have the familiy trees and a story of all of the families just to make it more interesting for myself! haha.
I have five families (not five households, I have 7 households because two pairs of the generation 1 kids moved out to start families) so any ideas as to what to do for there being to many guys?
Also I have actualy killed off at least one child for each family... especialy if they get sick (because techniqly in the stone age, many wouldn't make it out of a sickness) So whenever a child gets sick, I roll a dice to see it they survive and then I cause them to die from disease... (SO I kinda cheat for that part, but I feel like it makes it more realistic)

[Shebly]

I have way too many guys too, Melibee, and I have no idea what to do. I'm thinking of doing a bachelorette type challenge with the last aavailable girl or I'll just throw all the boys in a cage and have them fight it out lol.

[julmoo]

Depending on how many Sims you already have you could make some gay couples and adopt a few children (or cats).

If I had a gender surplus I'd pick a fortunate romance sim and let them live in a polygamic household with a woman having several husbands or a man having many wives :D

[cespencer7]

I have way too many guys too, Melibee, and I have no idea what to do. I'm thinking of doing a bachelorette type challenge with the last aavailable girl or I'll just throw all the boys in a cage and have them fight it out lol.

I started a few monastaries so that I could put 8 singles guys together on one lot. I focused on building up all their skills and trying to achieve their job aspirations. I am only pulling names of men in monastaries to have sent to the amphitheatre. I figure it is historically time to start to persecute the Christians.

If they meet a girl at work who wants to marry them, I let that happen since early in the church priests got married. :deal:

[Frogsnack]

I figure it is historically time to start to persecute the Christians.

:lol: :lol:


Julmoo- the how many servants thing seems more important for emperors, as all the other classes can send their kids one class up to work, so most families have a place for their kids to go. I did just set up a side residence for teen and adult children of the emperor, I figured they'd been off at a some live-in school.

[julmoo]

I'm adjusting the challenge in some parts to suit my ideas but, again, you're completely right: I didn't even think of finishing schools and monasteries :O

Thanks! :3

[jamini94]

This is the best challenge I've found so far! Great job with creating it and thanks for putting it up! I'm not technically playing the challenge because I only applied them to one family who had gotten really boring (which definitely fudges the requirements for the next phases, but I'll find a way to work around that) and the neandrathal stage fixed that right away! The whole no birth control or use of modern day appliances really makes certain life is never too boring in the household.

[anna220]

Btw, anna, didn't you say something about an update some time ago? :)

Hi everyone ! I hope you are enjoying the summer. I know I am - thus I havent loaded the sims in weeks now :cry: Yuki the last update was June 16 and I havent heard from ST lately to say there was a newer one than that. Have fun and welcome to the newbies !

[lbsgirl24]

I have two sim days to go before the roman era! So excited :) As an extra source of income for my patricians they will own some of the non live in slave and sell their children, gain whatever money the household earns and get compensation if their slave dies in the Colosseum, they can also sell their slaves to the emperor, to other patricians and any plebeians who can afford it.

I've also decided to put any sims in to the Colosseum for punishment and to let slaves volunteer. Also if more than three sims fight in one round I'm giving the sim a 50/50 chance of going free, if they loose they either return to or enter slavery.

[cespencer7]

I have two sim days to go before the roman era! So excited :) As an extra source of income for my patricians they will own some of the non live in slave and sell their children, gain whatever money the household earns and get compensation if their slave dies in the Colosseum, they can also sell their slaves to the emperor, to other patricians and any plebeians who can afford it.

I've also decided to put any sims in to the Colosseum for punishment and to let slaves volunteer. Also if more than three sims fight in one round I'm giving the sim a 50/50 chance of going free, if they loose they either return to or enter slavery.

A lot of your ideas are very "Roman" historically so I think that they are great edits to the original rules. I bet they will also keep the game really interesting. :up:

[SandyJS]

How do you plan to "sell" the kiddies?

[Starsaphire2]

Hi all. I was stuck in my office for a couple of weeks while stone masons worked on my fireplace and drywall people hung sheet rock, which gave me a great excuse to play my totm game. But...it had been awhile and I was having trouble getting back into it, so I caught up on this forum and found Moonlight Frog's question: How do y'all re-immerse yourselves? One response was to check out new CC....so I searched for the Cast Away bongos that were mentioned, and then found myself reading all of your blogs. WOW! really amazing work, all of you!. The creativity and dedication of your websites left me breathless. So that did it, and I firmed up my personal rules for Gen Two's Ice Age and whipped my own website back into shape, and then played through two seasons. (now this sounds like a lot...but I only have a handful of lots to play, so it didn't take long)

I really want to say "thank you" to everyone who not only writes on this forum, but also posts their sims stories on their websites. It has made the last couple of weeks (being stuck in my office while the sun is shining) more than bearable....it was filled drama, humor and suspense.

I'll have a flurry of shopping to do and then the floors go in.....oh darn, more time stuck in my office catching up on blogs and playing sims.

[anna220]

Welcome back Star !! I will be sure to check out your updates.

[nesxya]

Wanted to pop in and say hello to everyone! :bunny:


Originally Posted by taliahneth
ps: *waves and hugs to nesxya* I'm having a blast! ^_^ It's too much fun! I just hope it's as enjoyable to view as it was to play >.<

*Bear Hug* I love your site Tempus Temporis! It is very enjoyable to view and I love how you use the slideshow feature. It makes it clean and fun to view your families! How you setup your family trees is also very easy to check. The Faulkner families are slowly taking over and can't forget the Baby Maker ... run, run away *ROFL*!!! *Sigh* Gisela, Gisela, Gisela ... oh my, such secrets going on there! Such wonderful Sim Drama!!! Never can get enough. Gosh I'm going to have to go back reread and catchup. (Hopefully I remember correctly, its been about a few weeks since I checked in):lovestruc

In fact, I am going through and revisiting everyone's sites. :D Just finished with reviewing these three.
1.) cespencer's: A Sims Clan T.O.T. Your archeologist notes are always an inspiration! And the building expansion, wow! I'm still heart broken over so many founders deaths and lines dying out. Moment of silence for the Engis Clan and others. I also love all the historic information noted in names and places. Love this site's concept and always craving more details on the families! Love the census and stats on Rounds too!!
2.) eorienna's: Aridia Valley. Hope everything is ok, haven't seen an update in awhile and her two other story blogs are down?
3.) rachel's: Culture Cove. Which has been hotter then heck, literally. Fire, Fire, Fire! Will the Lazim family prevail? Polly and Penny who could ever forgot those gals! Overall good drama - starvation, plague, girls fighting, and Sims going bonkers. Gotta love it. I also love the slideshows and family trees, very easy and fun to view. The Roman slave lots are awesome.


Originally Posted by moonlight frog
Does anyone have tips on how to re-immerse myself/ make it more fun? I don't want to permanently quit on this challenge since I've already invested a lot of time on it.

I stay interested by rotating and rereading everyone's sites and stories. I just got to say I love this challenge and the creativity that everyone puts into it. The websites and blogs are an inspiration to me. I enjoy both the history detail and stories. Also the freedom to adapt it to your play style is wonderful. But revisiting your favorite sites could get your creative juices flowing again. Also watching the history channel or a historical drama can get you back into the mood. Try - Rome, Spartacus, or even fantasy themes like Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Ooo and welcome to all the new peeps! I'm so interest to see how Frogsnacks Sims 3 version goes!


Thoughts and Tidbits :llama: :llama: :llama:

The long Haul.
I also had the same thoughts and in my rule edits I am doing three rounds as a generation. Each round is seven Sim days (one Sim week). I have been keeping track of both time frames - standard generations and my mashed up version for a comparison. I post it on my sidebar stats and in some updates. I think with a challenge like this keeping track of generations through a standardize time frame is a great option.

Grimmie Roulette
I have worked out a mortality rate for my Neanderthal Stage, but haven't decided yet if I am going to use it. More than likely I won't use it, but I have been making the dice rolls behind the scenes. I'll post up the Mortality rules I came up for my game and post a table with the rolls. Probably be a good comparison study for anyone considering mortality rolls.

The Bear ate my Baby
On the social worker, I figure, be creative, let it work into your story or play style! I got my first social worker visit. I brainstormed an story idea and exited without saving. Then I applied my story mechanic. I also have other story ideas for more social worker visits in the future! Who says you have to stick to just one solution. Use what fits at that time.

Gender Balance
I purposefully started out with a more historical gender unbalance and limited gene pool. For the period I try and think what took place historically. Then I read up some ideas and facts. Then brainstorm ideas for stories Sim style. There are many different marriage arrangements in history and cultures that can make things very interesting!

:turtle:
I have been catching up in my posts and I must admit Round 5 and 6 kinda merged in my memory. I straighten it out the best I could. This last month I have been working on my grandfather's genealogy/ RL Family Tree and playing sporadically. It can make backtracking on posts somewhat fuzzy in the memory part.

I am also trying to plan ahead to when I reach my Ice Age period and need help finding custom content for that period. There doesn't seem to be a lot of Outwear that is Cave Sim style. I have no talent for making custom content or I should say, the patience to fiddle with it *lol*. I have the imagination but the focus to learn how to, start it, and finish it, I am lacking. Any help will be much appreciated. :help:

Also I would like some input and stories on ACR and how it has affected game play. My play style is usually slow with story driven ideas. I like my Sims to have free will and try to fullfill their wishes, but without completely destroying an overall plot. Spontaneity is nice and I always incorporate it into my stories. I think I will either love it or hate it. I am wondering if I even need it, I have such an active imagination that I flesh out my Simmies personalities and romances in detail ... but having my Sims come more independent and the surprise factor may be nice. Any thoughts? :help:

*Sorry if my post is long - lots of thoughts bouncing around!*

[rachelwielinga]

@nesxya Thank you so much for your kind comments! It is always fun to play and post, but even more rewarding when someone says something so sweet! I have a lot of fun with my neighbourhood, and ancient society certainly was filled with drama.

[Starsaphire2]

Hi Anna! It's great to be back. The twins that just aged into toddlers in your last up-date are adorable. Nesxya, your comments were right on target. Loved the websites you reviewed. I couldn't find your website address and was hoping you'd post it for me.

There's a huge lack of ice-age wear. So I'm going with simple ea made sim robes turned into everyday and outer wear. I recolored a couple of them. It's not fabulous, but it will get me through one generation. If I get bored enough of their robes, I'll look for more fur coats to download and tweak for everyday use too.

I have to say, I'm loving the whole ice-age theme. I used 'Move objects' and placed the campfire inside their caves and it adds the perfect ambiance. So far, nary a gen two sim has caught on fire. However, they have been plagued with gen one ghosts. My female cave dwellers have come up with SAAG....solidarity against angry ghosts, and they have rewritten history by coming up with the first cemetery. And the Goddess approves.

[nesxya]

*Blushes* Thank you Rachel and Starsaphire. :lovestruc

I would be honored if you took a peek at my website Star. It's Nesxya's Moodlets @www.nesxyasmoodlets.weebly.com (http://nesxyasmoodlets.weebly.com).

I guess you have to have a certain amount of posts, before you are allowed a signature? I just posted a cave and am working on family tree updates. Once that is done I'm going to finish simplifying my tags in the sidebar. So not all of them are working right now, but hopefully I will have those done in the next few days. Then there's the mortality table I want to post and then back to playing ToT!

Star that is a great idea, I'll start searching for fur robes as an option for Outerwear! I agree there is such a shortage of Ice Age custom content.

I tried having the fire pit in my Omo Kibish Cave and the only problem I came across, was I could not use the space below or above it on other levels. So I ended moving it out, but if not using the space, it does make a terrific addition to cave life!

Hugs everyone! :luff:

[oboesapien]

Found this and I'd just like to say - thank you! It's a lot of fun. I'm on my second Neanderthal generation now. I've made a couple of changes to make it feel more 'realistic' to me (I know pure realism isn't the goal).

- Sims have no Teen or Elder phases - Neanderthals didn't live very long, and matured quickly (but I feel like getting rid of Child makes it too easy).
- Gotten rid of some of the restrictions on items, such as toy box. When I was a kid, some of my favorite toys were sticks and rocks, and those are not new inventions. Children are creative.

Oh, and I've decided to name the five families after regions of Europe (Angle, Espagna, Ruskia, etc) and when their children move out I name the houses after nearby countries (Ireland, Norway, etc). The Neanderthals only passed genes on to the modern Europeans, so it makes sense. It makes the skin tone thing not work very well (my Russians are tone 4, for example) but has provided hilarity in other ways. For instance, Mr. Espagna is in love with Mrs. Angle, humorously foreshadowing Queen Elizabeth and King Phillip II. And the Germans love to clean.

[XxTylerxX52331]

This looks really fun im going to give it a try!

[zoffie]

Hey everyone.
I started this challenge a few months ago and now my 2nd generation are about to move out and start a life on their own. I'm currently taking a short break from sims since it seems like its the only thing I'm able to do cuz' of my lovly rainy country, Denmark where the sun never sets.. But boring as I am, I have been reading all of your posts in this thread and I'm really enjoying myself. You have some really interesting sims-families and I'm just trying to keep up. I don't think that I will never have the gut to start my own website with posts and stuff, but I love following yours. And you have been helping me so much and answered a lot of my questions just by letting me read through all your posts.
Anyway I just wanted to introduce myself and letting you guys know that I'm also totally caught up on this challenge. Hope everyone have an amazing summer :)

Grama-mistakes are free. English is not my 1st language.

[SandyJS]

Hey everyone.
I started this challenge a few months ago and now my 2nd generation are about to move out and start a life on their own. I'm currently taking a short break from sims since it seems like its the only thing I'm able to do cuz' of my lovly rainy country, Denmark where the sun never sets.. But boring as I am, I have been reading all of your posts in this thread and I'm really enjoying myself. You have some really interesting sims-families and I'm just trying to keep up. I don't think that I will never have the gut to start my own website with posts and stuff, but I love following yours. And you have been helping me so much and answered a lot of my questions just by letting me read through all your posts.
Anyway I just wanted to introduce myself and letting you guys know that I'm also totally caught up on this challenge. Hope everyone have an amazing summer :)

Grama-mistakes are free. English is not my 1st language.

Hi Zoffie! Welcome to the funny farm! :jest: Have you ever blogged at all? That's a good way to start. And I didn't see any grammar mistakes! :gjob:

[zoffie]

Well thank you :)
No, actually I haven't.. I tried it once but I didn't find my life interesting enough to blog about. I do have a website though. Maybe I should give it a try? But the game takes so much time in the first place - blogging about it would make it all take ages.. But it seems like you all have so much fun doing it, so I'll think about it.
Haha glad to hear! :D

[Peni Griffin]

Zoffie, do you use the storytelling tool in the game? If so, you can just transfer a lot of that stuff from the webentry file to your blog. If not, you can try using it for awhile, and if it adds to your game, you can consider blogging as an extension of it; and if it detracts, you can just stop.

Many people who blog about their games find that it enhances the game for them; but the internet is littered with people who started strong blogging about something, and then found that documentation just bogged them down, and dropped it. You should find out if you like it before committing to it in public.

[zoffie]

I actually do the storytelling in the game, but I had no idea that you could copy that down.. Must try it but don't know how it works.

Anyway where are you all in the game now? Think I'm far behind.

[Peni Griffin]

Snapshots, thumbnails, and text for the albums are stored in your neighborhood storytelling folder. The albums are all .xml files and the names begin with "webentry" followed by a random alphanumeric identifying this household. If you don't have anything that reads .xml, open the webentry for the relevant household in a web browser. This will give you a view of the code for the album, and you can copy/paste the desired text into whatever tool you use to draft your blogposts. You won't be able to see the pictures, but you'll be able to locate the correct ones by reading the image tags. If working back and forth from the storytelling folder drives you wiggy, you can copy the pictures - for which the naming convention is snapshot-household alphanumeric-random alphanumeric indicating specific shot - into a more convenient program and rename them in ways that will make them easier to locate, or view the Storytelling folder in Thumbnail view and click each snapshot to bring it up into your default picture viewer and edit it with your preferred editing tool.

If you really get into it, you'll probably want to get into screenshots and so on so your pictures are as pretty as those of other bloggers, and you'll find more intuitive tools, but for now, just to find out if you like it, the storytelling tool provides a starting point.

And I don't think there's a starting line. Everybody starts at a different point, plays at a different rate, and has different play habits.

[zoffie]

Thank you so much :-) Yeah, I will try it out..

Oh I tend to having a hard time asking the questions right - I ment how far along in the challenge are you all?

[Starsaphire2]

Nesxya, what a wonderful website you have. Love the use of your spirit totems and how well you've woven them into several story lines. I became hooked at the onset of the first raid. (Secretly I was cheering "yay new genes!) erm, I mean I was deliciously shocked and suitably horrified. Brilliant setup for tribal council of war and reasons for possible use of fisticuffs, maybe resulting in multiple visits from Grimmie. And Speaking of Grimmie....I can't wait to read what happens at 'Death's Grotto'. If you wouldn't mind, please let me know when you update your story.

Oboesapien, let us know how your challenge progresses without the teen and elder phases. I'm still smiling at your Mr. Espanga being in love with Mrs. Angle.

Welcome, Zoffie and Tyler.

Zoffie, it does not matter what generation you are playing as anything can happen. New players start, which creates a lot of first and second gen play going on at the same time. And then some people discover what a crazy long challenge this will be and they suddenly lose interest. Or you have the challenge player whose computer crashes and they have to start over. The players in Roman times, have so many families to play that we might not hear from them for months (I tend to hold Roman-Times players in awe and usually only whisper their names). It's all good.

I'm one of those that ended up starting over and decided to change up my second generation by placing them in a mini Ice Age. I wasn't going to add my sims to my website this time around as it bogs down play. But then I stopped and reconsidered what a massive challenge this is, realizing that even if I only make it through a third, I want it documented for myself. *shakes head at futility of actions* I firmly expect my computer to roll over and die before this challenge is finished. Thank goodness for back ups.

[cespencer7]

Some of you have asked how I move so quickly through the ages. Well, I adapted the rules so each age will only have 2 generations. Things will move more quickly now into each "age" since I love having an excuse to collect Custom Content and to build new buildings that match the history of the age.

So here is how my game is playing out so far.

Neanderthal - founders
First Born Neanderthal names started with A
Next Born Neanderthals with B names, as adults became Roman parents

Romans - The B names became founders of Rome
First born Romans names started with C
Next born Romans names will start with D (they will become the first Dark Age parents)

I just couldn't see myself committing to the game through 20 generations of all of the families. Each round of births increases the number of lots you have to play. It seemed as if the game would crash long before I got to the Victorian Age.

Thanks for sharing all of your ideas and blogs. I will take time today to update my website and to visit all of yours. :king:

[zoffie]

Star: Oh I couldn't imagine to start all over again. Hats off for you! The Ice-Age thing sounds really interesting.

Cespencer: I had to smile when I saw you have a certain starting letter for each generation, cuz' I do the same :-) Damn throught I were creative. But it seems like a really good idea having fewer generations

[Tga Kiwi]

First off, it's great to see new players. Yay!
Secondly, apologies for my absence, I have been bogged down with so much...HAH! No excuses!! Oh the shame!
No...really.
Anyway... I have my third generation roman adults paired, and in the process of updating.
I am in awe of those who have been doing this challenge for more than a year, and I regularly drop in to everyone's blogs to catch up and inspire me to keep at it. :beer:

[SandyJS]

Star: Oh I couldn't imagine to start all over again. Hats off for you! The Ice-Age thing sounds really interesting.

Cespencer: I had to smile when I saw you have a certain starting letter for each generation, cuz' I do the same :-) Damn throught I were creative. But it seems like a really good idea having fewer generations

I'm one of the ones having to start over due to computer crash. I had to snicker at this comment because I used Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and Echo for the last name of my starting families! First names started with the same letter as the last name! :beer:

This time I'm using names related to rocks (think Flinstones!) for my last names. :faceslap:

[zoffie]

Oh, I'm not sure what I would do if it happened to me.. But nice to see people carrying on.

Wow, that's really creative too I must stay.. Haha Flinstones =)

[cespencer7]

First off, it's great to see new players. Yay!
Secondly, apologies for my absence, I have been bogged down with so much...HAH! No excuses!! Oh the shame!
No...really.
Anyway... I have my third generation roman adults paired, and in the process of updating.
I am in awe of those who have been doing this challenge for more than a year, and I regularly drop in to everyone's blogs to catch up and inspire me to keep at it. :beer:

I know when I started this challenge in February I had no idea how addicted I would become to this challenge. I think it is because it is like mini challenges combined into one big challenge. It has been so fun to see everyone's blogs and websites. Can't wait to catch up on everyone's families and to check out the custom content and buildings so I can steal ideas. :lovestruc

[Starsaphire2]

YAY a new archeological report coming from Cespencer7 and an update coming from Tga Kiwi. I agree with Cespencer7, it's like playing several different challenges in one major on-going challenge.

Count me in on the whole alphabetical name thing -- I gave each sim a different last name (starting with Z-H) and had each clan mother have a couple kids under her maiden name before getting them married, and adding dad's last name into the mix. The original rules call for 5 couples (10 sims) So far, my starting sims' last names begin with the letters Z&Z A B C D E F G H. I figure when I've used all 26 letters for last names, not only will I will have used up my CAS sims resource, but I'll have completed my version of the alphabet challenge too.

And one or two generations per era is plenty of time spent without new Custom Content. My attention span would shrivel up and die without changing things up.

SandyJS, Hmmm my version of alphabetical rock/mineral names for your sims: Amber, Bloodstone, Cinnabar, Dolomite, Emerald, Feldspar, Geode, Heliodor. LOVE IT!

[Frogsnack]

So far in Sandsteps Isle (the name of my TOT world)...

Poor Candice Saulson (previously mentioned b*tchsim) was impossible to kill in the Colosseum!

Turns out 'unlucky' sims just get laughed at by death who tells them that their hijinks are too funny for him to remove them from the world so soon (meaning that the only way they can die is by old age). Being that this is a stupid game rule and I had no idea it was a possibility, Candice met three different fates (Fire trap, drowning, and eventually starvation) until I realized my mistake and merely deleted her (whereby went my plans for a 'mass grave' lot of executed peoples...)

Meanwhile, Candice's niece Fillie Saulson was the lucky recipient of a CAS husband who was captured by Rome in his native Mongolia. He is a soldier by the name of Mingus Dingus. His favorite activities are working out, fishing and making babies.


Side note- I love how someone in the Colosseum is in the middle of burning to death and the other people on the lot are too busy making enemies with each other to notice. :llama:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pics; Fire trap, Drowning, death laughs at Candice, starvation (yes she did also wet herself), and finally Mingus and Fillie (at least a happy ending for someone).

[Shebly]

This is probably the only challenge I've done where I didn't go for the alphabet naming theme lol. My starting families lastnames all had to do with flowers(Orchid, Lily, Tulip, Rose and Hibiscus) while first name themes were different by household (Orchid-Roman, Lily-Colors, Tulip-things having to do with the sky, Rose-things having to do with water, Hibiscus-'caveman' names). I did name a couple outside the themes tho; and those themes definately won't be sticking the whole challenge.

Frogsnack, that's super annoying about unlucky sims. Was there no way to cheat her dead by old age? Just deleting her sounds like something that could mess up the game. Then again I'm just used to sims 2....

[Starsaphire2]

Frogsnack, that is hilarious. Who knew unlucky in life, would mean lucky with grimmie. Seems to me, the sims 3 folk might have fixed the deletion of sims issue. I haven't seen as many posts about it on the sims 3 site.

[Frogsnack]

Frogsnack, that's super annoying about unlucky sims. Was there no way to cheat her dead by old age? Just deleting her sounds like something that could mess up the game. Then again I'm just used to sims 2....

LOL, OBVIOUSLY, what was I thinking?!

Oh well, too late for this one. But that saves my idea about having a mass burial ground, or even the fact that I keep missing the old timer's deaths because when aging is on, it's on for everyone, and then I've only gotten two gravestones so far!

I've been hanging around families too long because I want the gravestone for the elders (too late for most Progenitors... :/ ). Now I can (sorry guys) kill them to have something to remember them by! :heyhey:

Also, if the game remembers them long enough they could be revived once I get beyond the 'modern' age.... I am totally going to play this game into the space age! :rofl:

[nesxya]

Originally Posted by Starsaphire
Nesxya, what a wonderful website you have. Love the use of your spirit totems and how well you've woven them into several story lines. I became hooked at the onset of the first raid. (Secretly I was cheering "yay new genes!) erm, I mean I was deliciously shocked and suitably horrified. Brilliant setup for tribal council of war and reasons for possible use of fisticuffs, maybe resulting in multiple visits from Grimmie. And Speaking of Grimmie....I can't wait to read what happens at 'Death's Grotto'. If you wouldn't mind, please let me know when you update your story.

*Happy Happy Joy Joy* Thank you so much, I'm so glad you like it Star! I'm also happy you understood where I was going with that story arch. I really needed to get some genes spread around and I wanted to incorporate it into a realistic but fun plot.

I have been mulling over ideas of where different paths can lead from various conclusions. I think I have an idea where I want to go, so I will be playing the next round this week and I will be more than happy to let you know when there is an update.

One thing that I really enjoy about playing Sims is even though you have everything set up, the Sims do things that can surprise you. These events can merge into your story or you can create a story from those events, resulting in some interesting antics. Like the raid in my ToT. Rhino's character was so disliked by everyone, he was pushy and rude ... but yet all the females heart-farted and swooned for him! After a week of Real Time play their behavior gave me the raid idea. :jest:

I'm so glad to see new people, welcome everyone. I agree this is a very fun challenge! I like going through the cycles of build, make characters, play, and story telling. I can spends days thinking about ideas, researching, or looking for custom content. Doing it cycles really helps me stay focus and I don't burn out. I am in awe of the Roman Era players and I say their names with great respect. I get excited that one day I will be playing the Roman Era along with them, or hope to be. :blink:

[Frogsnack]

Cespencer7.. have you made it to the dark ages? Your blog is detailed and fun to read over, so let us know what's going on!

Nesxya, I didn't see a link to your site, do you mind reposting it?

I keep wondering how far everyone has gotten. It seems as of Roman there are a ridiculous amount of families to play. So far it's been fun just seeing how everyone reacts to the slaves that keep appearing in their households... funny how the wealthy end up learning no survival skills at all but play a mean game of chess. The nectar making skill will be awesome once I get to the point that there are merchants in the population.

Still, I'm already thinking that other cultures could be played this way... China comes to mind as they have thousands of years of recorded history.

[lbsgirl24]

While have very few possible spouses for my sims is annoying I'm glad I killed off most of my sim children before they could reproduce, if I hadn't I would have way more than the eleven odd families I'm playing currently. I love the story lines developing in my neighborhood it really makes it interesting and makes me wish I recorded my attempt. For example whenever my slaves or plebians meet a slave who works in a patrician house they immediately bring up that speech bubble with the big white house. One of my patrician children has an issue where every conversation leads to sumo wrestlers. Also one of my ugly patrician girls was discussing meeting people, marriage and then children with her parents over pancakes, like she was requesting them to set her up. As soon as she left they changed the subject to her, then roaches then marriage with a cross through it, so funny.

If I have to repeat this challenge because I loose it or anything I will either definitely choose alternate cultures to play or make new families to start in my last stage.

[SandyJS]

Okay, I've got my neighborhood up and going. I posted the happenings in the first family to my website as a slideshow in the blog. Now on to the second family!

[taliahneth]

@nesxya Thank you so much for your kind comments! It is always fun to play and post, but even more rewarding when someone says something so sweet! I have a lot of fun with my neighbourhood, and ancient society certainly was filled with drama.

Perfectly said Rachel :) and thanks for always reading, nesxya! *super bear hugs!*

Sorry for the long absence >.< that darn RL keeps rearing it's ugly head; I'm the sort that gets so immersed in sims that I ignore everything else for days and days (kinda like bear hibernation? LoL) and when I pop my head back out to the real world all chaos has broken loose, and so I must put the sims away and completely forget it's existence! :( which unfortunately includes checking posts and such, and now I'm so behind I need a day to catch up! when's my next day off ? (shouldn't even be here right now XD) now I too must re-read to remind myself what happened so I can finish updating the last few families I played a month ago *horror*

The players in Roman times, have so many families to play that we might not hear from them for months

That too Star! XD

One thing that I really enjoy about playing Sims is even though you have everything set up, the Sims do things that can surprise you. These events can merge into your story or you can create a story from those events, resulting in some interesting antics.

So true! Go with the flow I say, the sims are amusing all on their own, especially if you leave them alone long enough to make them believe their god-hand is no longer watching them - and then take their picture to torture them with their misdemeanors for the rest of their little sim lives... >_> not that I would do something so horrifically cruel!... *just posts it on websites for others to laugh at* :cool:

Now I want to play sims too DX must... resist... 48 more hours... *dies* well I shall definitely be updating this weekend; from what I remember I had a lot of trouble with killing off sims in the colosseum, every name I pulled out was a kid or a baby =_= seriously... what is up with that huh? (is that technically my fault?!) XD so a lot of families are changing, which makes it interesting, I have 2 babymakers now, the black widow is STILL alive, which to me seems like a lot of time but technically it's only Round 4 since Neanderthal Era, not even a generation! O.O that's how long the Roman Gens feel. And poor Korbl is still alive even though technically he's about 150 years by now; how long does one sim need to find a 3 bolt love huh?! (forever!) And I accidentally (sort of, nearly) wiped out the direct descendant to the Lichtenberg family before he had a boy >_> so um... yeah... there's one problem for me to find a solution to when I get back!

I'm glad the forum is alive and well and people keep posting regularly, like others have been saying it's good fun to play a challenge "with" other people, and whenever I do get stuck (when I have the time XD) I just check in here, or check other blogs/websites and I get raring to go again! :beer:

taliah~ (who really should be getting ready for work about now) XD

[cespencer7]

Too Many Sims. ahhhhhh...... :giggler:

I had to break down and actually use a genealogy website to keep track of everyone. http://www.myheritage.com/site-family-tree-191662012/test-time-sims-challenge

I don't know if you can see the family trees on the site, but the software that I downloaded from My Heritage.com lets me create all kinds of fun lists, so it is helping me to keep track of everyone. According to my site 211 sims have been born since the challenge began and there have been 65 families. WOW! And to think that somehow when I look at the photos I took I actually recognize quite a few of them.

Addicted, obsessed, in love with Sims..... :lovestruc

[cespencer7]

First off, it's great to see new players. Yay!
Secondly, apologies for my absence, I have been bogged down with so much...HAH! No excuses!! Oh the shame!
No...really.
Anyway... I have my third generation roman adults paired, and in the process of updating.
I am in awe of those who have been doing this challenge for more than a year, and I regularly drop in to everyone's blogs to catch up and inspire me to keep at it. :beer:

Tga Kiwi: I love your site, especially all of the buildings you shared. It gives me so many good ideas for my own little Romans. Thanks. Cheers. :Pint:

[SandyJS]

Too Many Sims. ahhhhhh...... :giggler:

I had to break down and actually use a genealogy website to keep track of everyone. http://www.myheritage.com/site-family-tree-191662012/test-time-sims-challenge

I don't know if you can see the family trees on the site, but the software that I downloaded from My Heritage.com lets me create all kinds of fun lists, so it is helping me to keep track of everyone. According to my site 211 sims have been born since the challenge began and there have been 65 families. WOW! And to think that somehow when I look at the photos I took I actually recognize quite a few of them.

Addicted, obsessed, in love with Sims..... :lovestruc

I love that site you found! I may use it for my sim families! :gjob:

[Starsaphire2]

Cespencer, I love your page "A Roman Empire Divided". You do such nice work.

I'm still laughing at Sandy's new family and Wilma Flintstone as a plantsim. :rofl:

*waves at Taliah* An update? Yes, please! :bunny:

[Melibee1323]

Too Many Sims. ahhhhhh...... :giggler:

I had to break down and actually use a genealogy website to keep track of everyone. http://www.myheritage.com/site-family-tree-191662012/test-time-sims-challenge

WOW that is one large family! I am still only on generation 2 because I havent had time, but I am already finding the same problem lol

[Frogsnack]

Alright Cespencer!!

I saw that awesome site and spent the entire afternoon creating my family tree, and right on time! I really appreciate you posting this, it hadn't occurred to me to make a tree online, and I've been way to lazy to write it all down by hand in case it gets lost. As the game's already forgetting relationships, this is the only way I can keep track of everything now!

I had no idea I've had 73 people in this game already! I uploaded a bunch more photos (turns out I've taken a few hundred), and 43% of the population is femaie, which means- too many apple trees (male births)!

As currently 10% of my population is deceased, I'd better get back to playing the other 63 people... :faceslap:

http://www.myheritage.com/site-photo-albums-191789592/isle?albumID=2

http://www.myheritage.com/stats-191789592-0-0/isle-web-site/Overview

http://www.myheritage.com/stats-191789592-0-0/isle-web-site/Overview

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A favorite pic I found below;

[nesxya]

Originally Posted by Frogsnack
Nesxya, I didn't see a link to your site, do you mind reposting it?

Sure can do, here it is Nesxya's Moodlets @http://nesxyasmoodlets.weebly.com Hopefully that Signature will start popping up soon.

Just finished building new caves and creating new Sim Tribes .. whew, will be playing an updating soon.

*Waves to Everybody* Updates, updates ... whoot! *Runs off to read*

[cespencer7]

Cespencer7.. have you made it to the dark ages? Your blog is detailed and fun to read over, so let us know what's going on!

Is anyone in the Dark Ages?

My C's are giving birth to my D's so the way I have edited the challenge, this is my last generation of Romans. It will be three or four rounds "game weeks" before I have any married adults who can become the first dark age parents. With 25 lots and 1-2 hrs to play a week, I figure, oh man Math....hummmm... between 75 and 150 hours of game play before I go into the Dark Ages. :faceslap: So, sometime after Thanksgiving maybe....

In the meantime, I need a building break so I am researching the Dark Ages (early middle ages) architecture and will start making the lots for the Dark Ages so when my adults are old enough for the barbarian invasions to begin I can move everyone out of the Roman homes and into their middle ages homes. https://sites.google.com/site/asimstestoftime/middle-ages I admit I am getting a little impatient.

[cespencer7]

Alright Cespencer!! I saw that awesome site and spent the entire afternoon creating my family tree, and right on time! I had no idea I've had 73 people in this game already! I uploaded a bunch more photos (turns out I've taken a few hundred), and 43% of the population is femaie, which means- too many apple trees (male births)!

Thanks for sharing your tree and photos. I love your eastern shore photo. I think that might be one of the best things about Sims 3 that I have seen. I wish Sims 2 had good scenery and better clouds, etc.

[Frogsnack]

Is anyone in the Dark Ages?

Makes me wonder about the challenge creator- did she create it after playing through it? It's very detailed.

Thanks for sharing your tree and photos. I love your eastern shore photo. I think that might be one of the best things about Sims 3 that I have seen. I wish Sims 2 had good scenery and better clouds, etc.

I really loved TS2 (and even have a great Egyptian family I'd like to keep playing), but I find it hard sacrificing the graphics and the ability to slap a pattern on anything instead of having to have a different download for each different colored sofa or shirt! (I've been able to put leather patterns on modern style clothing for most of the game, keeps it simpler). Plus, the weird smile they make in TS2 where only the sides of the mouth go up? I used to HATE that!!

The downside is that there are so many more period-true creations for TS2 than 3, and I can't find a decent toga or roman uniform to save my life.

((Sidenote- just found your monks in Rome update and you actually burned one at the stake!! lol! Great lot.))


Nesxya- Love your early names and tribal counsels, etc. Bear, Tiger, Moon & Sky are wonderful names! Also the 'Riverview Tattler', was it? Really cute magazine cover (I had to laugh at 'funeral fashion trends')

[SandyJS]

The first round with Barney and Betty Rubble is up!

[oboesapien]

Are you guys counting the adults you start with as generation 0 or 1?

[oboesapien]

Oh, I had an idea to make the Neanderthal period mode interesting. I'm giving each clan a special thing they do:
Burgundy - Animal Husbandry (they can breed cats and dogs)
Deutch - Expansive Caves
Espagna - Crafts (Painting, pottery)
Angle - Good farmers (can use fertilizer and ladybug house)

But I can't come up with one for Ruskya. Any ideas?

[Shebly]

I count the founders as Gen. 1 but that's just me.

[zoffie]

My founders are Gen. 1. too(In that way it will be a shorter period of time in the stoneage)
Cespencer: I actually used that familytree site for my real family :-) But I forgot all about it.. Maybe I'll use that in the game if I pull myself together.
I started playing again and I thought I would give a short update:
I'm currently about to end round 6 and have my 5 founding families:
Kindra(Ayla and Zoug). They have 10 children(oldest 6 are girls, youngest 4 are boys). The oldest girl got married in this round and moved to the Succos farm where she had her first son and is now pregnant again.
The Succo Family(Zas): Sadly the father died early on, so Zas is alone with her 5 children(3 boys, two twin girls). This round I had to kill of one of the twingirls because she got sick(and then there is a 1/6 chance of dying and she was picked) The oldest son together with the oldest girl in the Kindra-family and they are living with the rest of his family.
The Cael Family: The mother died early while pregnant and she left her husband with 1 boy and two girls. Two oldest are now adults.
Ignis(Yokanta and Sitka): They had 6 boys but sadly we lost two of them to the flu(had to kill them) in this round. Their oldest twinboys are adult.
Taran(Lucy): She have two boys and two girls. Her husband died of flu this round so she is just learning to live by herself. Her oldest boy moved out and the second oldest will stay and lead the farm for next generation.

-All my Gen. 1.(founders) are now elders and their kids starts to become adults. That's about it for now:-) I'm currently putting up a website so you the possibility to follow my TOT-challenge - boy, it really is a challenge - and a timekiller! But I love it!

[zoffie]

oboesapien: What about fishing as a thing for the last family?

[oboesapien]

zoffie: I'm trying to come up with things I can give them, like a pottery wheel or cats. Is there anything like that for fishing?

[taliahneth]

My C's are giving birth to my D's so the way I have edited the challenge, this is my last generation of Romans. It will be three or four rounds "game weeks" before I have any married adults who can become the first dark age parents. With 25 lots and 1-2 hrs to play a week, I figure, oh man Math....hummmm... between 75 and 150 hours of game play before I go into the Dark Ages.

@cespencer7 - You're making my brain hurt @_@ math... not my strong point. But I sure am playing chasey with you! I haven't started researching yet, too much time to go left still; all I know is that I have 8 and a half rounds left before the Dark Ages. --- oh gawd I just went and attempted to work out what that was for me and just working out the length of time for one round horrified me! Between 40 and 50 hours @_@ that's insane (just approx) so even if I play 2 hours a day (never gonna happen!) it's going to take me a year to get there.......*flops dead in defeat* I surrender :help:

Makes me wonder about the challenge creator- did she create it after playing through it? It's very detailed.

@Frogsnack - no she didn't :blink: which makes it all the more amazing how detailed it is huh! Last I saw she was in the Neanderthal Era with Plantsims XD and there was mention of how she favoured the Roman Era, but whether she made it or not I don't know - you out there ST?! *.....dust motes float through*

Speaking of plantsims, I think I'm the only person that ignored that particular type of sim, I got one ONCE and immediately fixed her, and never had it again purely because they spawn too easily and I have an itchy spawn button :jest:

I too have counted the founding couples as Gen 1

taliah~ (who is in debate about which families to kill off in her already current round of horror)

[SandyJS]

Is there anything in the rules about plantsims? Wilma turned into a plantsim and so far I'm leaving her as one. I'm half-way decided to leave them in the game and when I get to the Roman age and beyond, keep them as "indentured servants".

[oboesapien]

Figured it out - Ruskya can use spray to eliminate roaches. Less dying from plague. Speaking of which, I just lost almost a whole family - mother and three sons - to plague. Eek!

[zoffie]

zoffie: I'm trying to come up with things I can give them, like a pottery wheel or cats. Is there anything like that for fishing?

Oh then I'm not sure.. Sorry


My founding Kindra family are now down with round 7 and a loot happened: Ayla died of disease, Zoug died of old age. Bailey(April&Aaron) was born. April pregnant again, Aaron moved in, got married. Alicia moved out. Aiden=teen. Having fun :-D

[YukiShine]

@ Sandy: Yes, there is. :) You can either give them the antidote, or spawn one plant baby per plant sim. Or both, really.

Great, I finally reached Roman Age and I cannot find time to actually play the game anymore. T_T

[cespencer7]

@cespencer7 - You're making my brain hurt @_@ math... not my strong point. But I sure am playing chasey with you! I haven't started researching yet, too much time to go left still; all I know is that I have 8 and a half rounds left before the Dark Ages. --- oh gawd I just went and attempted to work out what that was for me and just working out the length of time for one round horrified me! Between 40 and 50 hours @_@ that's insane (just approx) so even if I play 2 hours a day (never gonna happen!) it's going to take me a year to get there.......*flops dead in defeat* I surrender :help:

Taliahneth - Don't give up, just adapt the game to make it fun for you. Right now I am in a building mode because I missed building things. I figure in between building lots I will play a family or two. If it takes too long I might have a few of my boring families meet an untimely death as a result of the growing tensions between the Romans and the barbarians. :rolleyes: This will make it take longer for me to finish the Roman Age, but hey, what's the hurry. The challenge is keeping my mind active and I love all the history.

[oboesapien]

cespencer7: That is an awesome way to look at it

[taliahneth]

Thanks cespencer7 ^_^ I won't give up! I enjoy the challenge too much. It's just let me never try to calculate again! LoL my poor computer is quaking at the thought of how many years it has to stay good for me yet XD it's not yet 5 years old, should be right for a bit more! *please don't die toshi!* In past rounds I've killed off entire families that were just too dull to play and going nowhere, and they take their revenge by showing up in the "family tree" section to haunt me - much like those kids eaten by bears >.< I've said before I'm going to have to keep my family lots down, and all that happens is I somehow spawn more! *no willpower* XD she'll be right! *salutes* off to play some more now instead of working like a good adult would >.<

taliah~

[Tga Kiwi]

Thank you cespencer7 for your kind words.
it's great to see everyone making progress, can't wait for updates...Yay.
I was getting into my third rotation when 3 of my emperor family succumbed to a disease, thus leaving the slave and second born child. So I had to do some quick thinking and promoted the emperors patrician brother in his place.
Already my brain hurts at the prospect of having to do a bit of re arranging and such..*brain hurt*

[Frogsnack]

Oh, I had an idea to make the Neanderthal period mode interesting. I'm giving each clan a special thing they do:
Burgundy - Animal Husbandry (they can breed cats and dogs)
Deutch - Expansive Caves
Espagna - Crafts (Painting, pottery)
Angle - Good farmers (can use fertilizer and ladybug house)

But I can't come up with one for Ruskya. Any ideas?

Do you have OFB (Open for business)? You could allow them to sell small household items and limit the dollar amount you allow. (Like rugs and curtains only, or lamps, etc...)

You can also have a restaurant with the EP, if I'm not mistaken.

OH! Or if you have Bon Voyage, have a massage parlor or spa!

[oboesapien]

Do you have OFB (Open for business)? You could allow them to sell small household items and limit the dollar amount you allow. (Like rugs and curtains only, or lamps, etc...)

You can also have a restaurant with the EP, if I'm not mistaken.

OH! Or if you have Bon Voyage, have a massage parlor or spa!

I don't have Bon Voyage - what I came up with is letting them use spray to get rid of cockroaches. It's certainly an advantage. I've lost almost a whole clan to disease (all but one girl child). Not sure how to fix that, as I'll be going into the Roman era with only four names. Oh well!

And thank you for your idea.

[Frogsnack]

I don't have Bon Voyage - what I came up with is letting them use spray to get rid of cockroaches. It's certainly an advantage. I've lost almost a whole clan to disease (all but one girl child). Not sure how to fix that, as I'll be going into the Roman era with only four names. Oh well!

And thank you for your idea.

No prob.

The cockroach spray is a much better idea and may give a serious edge to that clan... I thought sims died only of flies, so if they die from cockroaches too, that's pretty scary. I just don't remember.

And kudos to everyone who're using plantsims, I never had one for the many years I played TS2! I thought they were a cc item. hah! ;)~

[lbsgirl24]

I never had a natural plantsim other than the millions of babies and grand babies I spawned for the one premade one. I even went through most of the neanderthal stage only allowing adults to spray plants so I'd get one but no such luck. However naturally as soon as I bring in a new sim who touches the plants once she turns green.