@Talia
I'm playing by the rules posted here pretty much. I think I went so quickly be size I lost three if my starting couples very early on which cut down on the number of couples to be played later on ( which is now making pairing up pretty difficult). Also just before Roman stage, I lost a lot more to fire (my sims' first enemy in this game). So probably so fast cuz I suck. Also I crack out on the sims when my baby visits grandma. I also have a problem of living in speed 3 (which is probably why fires get out of hand so quickly) but I can't help it.
Also I did make the toddler emperor, although he was a child when the switch to Roman happened.

VT your pics are up finally ! I only posted a few of them but I hope you like them. Taliah you might have lost all your sims??!!! What am I going to do? You always had the bestest sims that I was always trying to keep up with. It looks like I will have more time to get back to my residents of Tesime. At the end of the month I am quitting the other game I play because its just taking up waaaaaaaay too much time. darkwingeddoll I :lovestruc your Sowo tribe idea ! That is fabUlous ! This is what the sims is all about - working within and around what your own game throws at you. Excellent job.

Crises over - I braved opening my Tempus neighbourhood and they all LIVE hoorah!....and then the bear visited for a snack on 4 of my girls >_>...ok, murphy, the feeling is mutual pal!

@VT - I totally understand, thankfully, after last year's virus attack that really did eat everything, when I redownloaded all my CC I saved it to a flash drive. The only thing I got slack on was backing up the game itself since the beginning of the year (should probably do that now then huh)

@DitzyEkko - not so fab that you lost families, but that's still impressive! well done on making it so far through already, and good luck with your child Emperor ^__^ I don't think the match-up pain can be avoided - I have 13 families and it doesn't make it any easier. Just remember - you can add a new family/cas sim per generation ^_^.

@Anna - you ARE still keeping an eye on things aren't you! LoL quick reply. Apart from the bear attack all sims are accounted for (in one piece too). Thanks for the compliment ^_^ I hope to see more of your sims too! Since I'm playing again I should have an update...soon *tongue in cheek* I thought I only had 2 families left but that was being overly eager, I'm only four families in...um =_= I think that makes 9 (obviously counts real well) >_> moving on...

taliah~

The bear ate 4 of your kids??? I'm a bit confused, what EP brings in bears?

I'm still plugging along with my neighborhood. Thankfully there have been no more sets of twins! I'm up to 10 kids, but only 3 of them are boys.

"The bear ate 4 of your kids??? I'm a bit confused, what EP brings in bears?"

oh that made me really LOL To keep things consistant with the time frame we are playing in, instead of saying the social worker came ( I mean really there were no social workers in caveman time ! ) Taliah called her a bear instead which sounds much more realistic. teehee nope Im never far away. That is great news Taliah !!! I look forward to your update.

Okay, i must have missed seeing where she said that.

Well rats. I've completely lost the Alpha family. I couldn't get and keep the twins cooled down so there they went. Then both parents dropped from heatstroke and passed out for 2 days. Despite everything I could do, first Alice then Andrew died as well. So I'm down to just 4 families.

Oh noes !! Do you have a shelter built Sandy? You really cannot get anywhere without one. If you have them drink 2 glasses of water when they get in the red and then send them to the shelter you should be able to reduce the heat strokes.

Yes, all the beds, crib, potty chair and stall are in a small building. I had all 4 of them in distress at the same time so I couldn't get them all to drink. Then the blessed sink broke and I couldn't get it fixed. I'm working overtime in the other families to prevent this from happening again!

ugh Ive had that happen as well. Just make sure to have a chair or bed inside and when the heat bar goes to red have the sim go sit/relax inside until it goes green again. It will save your sims :-)

That's the most frustrating thing about the sim summer, how easy it is to get heat stroke. I like to watch my sims just prancing around doing their merry thing, but nooo have to shove them all inside every other hour to keep them from keeling over - not so bad with the adults, annoying if you don't want to wipeout your population >_> Funny thing about it though, when I lost my 4 girls the other day it was from ONE kid having heat stroke for all of two mins and BOOM - out they went, yet today I was playing a family and 3 kids had heat stroke, took me ages to get them under control....no bear =_= I guess she was still snacking on the last four *grumble grumble* what?! I didn't REALLY want her to come and eat these bratty kids...maybe...*liar* On to more exciting news...

I finally sent one of my sims out to explore the new Roman Era buildings I've created so that you all can have a sneak peek - if you want! - The buildings are not in their final location and I'm still working on the community clothing store, other than that all personal houses will have to wait until I move a family in. The Colosseum, the Roman Baths, and the Workers Baths can be viewed here http://tempustemporis.weebly.com/collections.html under Roman Era - Buildings.

Yesterday I spent about four hours =_=...oh, I just killed me saying that *face flop to desk* ahem, sorting out partners - it's that whole "everyone is related so good luck finding a spouse for your men that the game will let you MARRY them to!" ever had that before? No? >_> okay just me... AND families - I am so not having 27+ families per round =_= no, just no. (at least not YET). I can't even explain how I did it because it will take forever BUT a few surprises are in store for which families are staying...*shock horror* ohhhh yeeeah and....beware! it's a spoiler! *whispers* who I thought was going to be Emperor is not going to be Emperor I'll "try" *cough* and explain as much as I can when I update...soon...

How's everyone else going? ^__^ Good? Apart from poor Sandy who seems to be suffering population wipeout so early on...keep going Sandy! you can do it!

taliah~

Has anyone chosen to move out their teens to make room in the house for more kids? I'm giving that idea so thought since I'm getting ready for my first teenager. I'm not using cheats, but I am using some hacked items and some mods.

I'm doing that ^^ And most of my families had at least 6 children (or more, without counting the misscariages).Well, because I'm not a very patient person, I also marry the teens when they have 7 or less days to age.

I am moving out the teens that I have mates for but I dont use any hacks or mods so they wont be able to marry until they turn adults. This will help cut down on the amount of decendants I have to deal with. Dont forget you have to leave the heir on the parents lot.

Taliah your buildings are excellent ! I hope you will have clean versions of them saved so they can be downloaded Im going to hold off on building any yet since Im still pretty far out from starting the next era.

Forgot to say what Ive been doing lately. I just finished off the Stonegates last night and have their pics ready to work on my blog update. There are only 2 original families left to play before I start in on the new teenagers lots. That should be exciting. I had moved out 2 sisters on one lot while I was trying to sort everyone out and the intended mate for the oldest girl dropped by. What does he do? Follows the younger sister and gets the pink hearts over his head while doing the "hot" finger sign Bloody sims and their free will !! Since I dont really play sims scandalously this might actually be an interesting story line to go with

Hi friends,

I am glad to see all of your progress. I love the SoWo tribe storyline. I used the women stealing from other tribes in my begining scenario. Hi Taliah, I am glad you are pulled back into the light from the dark side (sim3 and viruses.) The bear attack was quite cleaver as well. Such a cleaver group we all have become here. I dont know why I have not lost any Sims from heat stroak, the dreaded Sowo tribe and bears, or fires. Maybe I am not playing this challenge right? But alas, I keep plugging along and having fun with the dreaded cowplant in my Sand clan eating the townies; wonderful creation, that cowplant. Star and I came up with a thinning out plan for our next phase with the Roman/Egyptian era. It will be a blast. But that will be in the future. I decided to just have the max of family members on each lot and not move the kids out this time. Although my clan are still not married yet. I will try to have the men go astray the last few rounds to shake them up a bit in genetics. I want to fights to break out in my hood to start again. It has been to quiet and peaceful these past few rounds. 'wink'

I am currently playing Neanderthal era, Gen 2 couples, day 12 with both my Clans growing by leaps and bounds. I have 15 gen 3 in the Sea Clan and I have 16, gen 3 in the Sand Clan. All my women are expecting round # 3 now. I had a set of twins in both the Sand and Sea Clan this round. The first group in gen 3 are now child age and going to school. (wistfully wishing there was a "No school" cheat here) I would home school them in survival skills instead, or wish they had the summer days off. The sea clan are learning architecture (building sand castles) and fire dancing while the Sand clan are learning pottery and gold jewlery making. This will set up my future era storylines.

Well, keep on Simming and hope to check back with you later.
Hugs, Debs

Hey everyone, I'm still here. I just haven't been feeling too good lately and between that and having very little CC... well. This week is going to be dedicated to learning to recolour and mesh so I can make things myself. Just not today, I was up into the early hours and I need some shut-eye now.

Anna, thanks for the pictures. They really have some incredible views over there! That's an interesting potential storyline you have there. This is why I don't pre-plan who's going to marry who, by the way.

Debs - not playing right? Maybe you're just a more careful Simmer. As for the school thing, there are hacks that can keep kids at home, but if you don't trust hacks (and I can understand that, because I didn't not too long ago) you can always do what I used to do and pretend it represents something else, like they're out gathering food or learning the ancient lore of the tribe from the elders or sneaking off to play by that creepy cave their parents always say not to go near... I might go back to using that myself for one of my hoods. As for the homework, you can just sledgehammer it anyway and it counts as done, so don't worry about fitting that into your storyline.

Great to be back. But now it's time to go night-night (even though it's 8:25am over here).

- VT

VT, I see you're a night owl too. I work midnights so I'm always up all night long. As to playing, I haven't done much of that. I downloaded a unofficial expansion pack that I really love having, but it has a minor drawback of upping the toddler skilling by 10 times. And I really don't want that for this challenge (or the other one I'm playing either) So I'm waiting for the creator of the pack to get back to me with the mini fix he said he'd make for me. Until then, VP doesn't get to play her challenges

LoL @ your naughty sims Anna, they're breaking out! Sims rarely are the monogomous type aren't they; one minute they swear undying love and the next it's "ooh look at him/her!" *whoosh!* gone... >_> moving on then. On the up side, I do have a few sims that are so besotted with each other it's like they're the only two sims in the world, awww

On to more exciting news - somehow (playing every spare minute she gets) I've managed to near the end of the Neanderthal Era - hoorah! I just have one family left to play (yes really this time!) and then it's lights out for the Ooga-boogas and wrangling them into some Roman Class (mission impossible I'm sure). What I'm doing now is updating each family and then I'll be writing up a summary of what happened each round; it's going to drive me insane I'm sure, but I'll be thankful for it later on; like I'm glad I built all those buildings already - except the Roman Emperor's Palace =_= the biggest most difficult one and I have yet to build it (makes them live in a shack)

taliah~

*big wave to Debs and VT*

Hi everybody! Ok, I really like this idea. I haven't played the sims 2 in a good 3 years or so due to an insufficient computer, but have got it up and running and noticed all of these wonderful challenges. I am going to adapt upon it a bit, I don't want to make myself follow rules. Before when I was in school and played I would always play the same family, so it may be a challenge switching them often, but that's the point I guess, lol. So I am going to use the basic concept and start my own but I have a few questions for those of you who are in the Roman era/ end of Neanderthalls. I'm really picky about naming sims, yet I want them to match the time period. I'm concerned with how the names adapt to the next era? I don't want to name my sims very Caveman-ish and then that name stick when they're in the Roman period... I guess I could pick decent last names and just make the first name match their time period though. Does anyone else feel like I do, and do you think once I get close to the Roman period and start giving them Roman-ish first names during the last gen of the Neanderthalls it will make sense... Sorry if I'm confusing

You can always start by giving them "caveman" last names at the beginning and when you reach each new era change the last names with something (in-game cheat, Sim Blender, SimPE) so that they match. I don't have this particular issue b/c like VT, I've gone and made my sims non humans. Just realized I'm going to have to give the eras appropriate names when i get back to playing and start posting since Neanderthal, Roman, etc don't exactly work for my crash landed aliens... Eh, I'll do that later. Just got the fix i needed to be able to play so I'm off to do that. ~VP

cksmith, this object is my best friend when it comes to naming. One thing you could do with last names is gradually evolve them with each generation, so that over time the names will become closer to the 'flavour' of the next era. (I'm a name geek myself, but I have trouble coming up with them, so I've never actually done that myself - might work for you though)

What I do with the neighbourhood formerly known as VT's Test of Time Mashup Hood is this: since in the mashed-up version it can be hard to keep track of which Sims are the parents of which children, I give the kids the names of both parents as a last name. My five kids so far are Dragon Vortex-Wildfire, Cheetah Kelly-Snake, Stone Banshee-Scorpion, Pegasus Mist-Zip and Arrow Spark-Claw. Word names are very common in my mutant apocalypse. Of all my founders, only Kelly kept her 'human' name. She hasn't said why yet.

- VT

Welcome CKsmith ! I hope you have fun with us here as you navigate the Test of Time challenge. Your question is a valid one and I would think boolprop would solve your issue nicely. Please note I have only used boolprop once so I cannot be held responsible for any errors this causes in your game. This is what I found:


I have named my sims normal human names and plan on having them go thru the eras. Personally I think this will be so very interesting to track. Finding clothes and hairstyles to match the next era is going to be enough of a challenge for me lol and of course the fact that we will have jobs again. Ive gotten so used to doing nothing but fishing and farming for months that Im not sure how to juggle it all again

You've hit the nail on the head Anna! I didn't even think about all the new stuff they would do, I just merrily went along transforming them all into Roman sims into their new Roman world and it is SO much fun *uber excited* I've played two families already and oh my goodness @__@ trying to watch 8 sims do stuff that is suddenly so "interesting" after a year of watching them do practically "nothing"...I can't keep up! I should have my website updated over the course of today since there was just so much drama going on already; I suspect it will level out *hopefully* after the first round... =/ otherwise this era is going to take a looong time ^__^

As for the naming theme - I've done what I felt most comfortable with, and it may not be historically accurate, or even just plain weird depending on what part of the world you come from *is from OZ* but my Neanderthals I went really old school with and did mostly Ancient German, though saying that with a lot of the names it's just unusual/original spelling of modern latinized names. With my Gen3 kids I tried to keep the names fairly neutral, but just think - I have older relatives born 3/4 century ago to 1/2 century ago with what I would consider "old fashioned" names, so it's not too hard a stretch to have Neanderthal Era names overlap in Roman Era times for one generation. As for my Roman Era names, when in Rome...I'm going Italian yay ^__^

taliah~

Im not completely understanding... how do you get the ancient decor and such? is it custom? and people were talking about having a heat need? where on earth is that?

OMG Taliah !!! You are onto the Roman era already??!!! Shouldnt there have been lightning bolts from the sky, the world skip a day or something equally monumental happen? I cant WAIT to see what you come up with. Now that you all have mentioned names I guess I am going to have to consider this as well. Maybe my concession can be more suitable first names and the standard surnames. Of course dont forget we get to add new sim(s) along the way and they can have the more modern names to integrate along.

Octavia we will build our own decor to match the era we are in as well as download custom stuff that might suit. The heat stroke came with Seasons - you can freeze in the cold or overheat in the warmth. If you dont have that EP I higly recommend it.