The 2 places to increase chances are in a woman's "pregnancy" choices. One of them increases chance of pregnancy in general, the other increases chance of pregnancy in "risky whoohoo" (when they do it by themselves).The number of "children wanted" also increases it. So you could have 50% chance of pregnancy, but only 10% chance due to risky sex - which means 10% of 50%.

Okay thanks for letting me know. Your version of the Colosseum sounds like it was really sow fear into people's hearts :O love it.

Also thanks to everybody who explained to me different ways to increase a woman's fertility. I will get cracking on that soon and hopefully it won't be such a big deal this coming round of play.

I did do a little research into roman houses for building my palace and patrician houses but I ended up building houses that fit my playstyle rather than historical accuracy. I would rather have a smaller lot with a two story house so I went for houses like that rather than big sprawling one story houses. I did build an apartment complex for my plebians but I'm a little lazy and that would stop them from having home business shops however all future plebians will be moving into the apartment complex for more variety. Try googly roman insulae if you want ideas. With slaves I'm currently working on an apartment type lot for them but I don't know if I'll ever use it. The two issues I can see with apartments is the annoying land lord and if I am not filling up all my apartments with playables there will be townies running around which might annoy me.

I have tried doing a semi self sustaining medieval hood before but it is a lot of work. The main issues I ran into was what the upper classes actually do to makje their living, I ended up just giving them jobs and saying that was how much they earned running their estates. In my mind my romans aren't the whole roman empire, just a very small part of it so I'm able to suspend my disbelief and say the real empire is sending them money when they go off to work or something like that.

Apartments really aren't ideal for this challenge, I guess, so I was thinking about an alternative and remembered a tutorial I saw some time ago about stacking lots and that's how I spend a few hours messing around with it. Sadly, the layout I had in mind, doesn't look good when stacked, but I'm not giving up yet. \o/

As regards my self sustaining hood, I've made a little more progress. That will probably end up rather long-winded, so

I'm thinking about restarting this challenge for a couple of reasons.
- I want to incorporate a lot of rules and ideas that have been posted here.
- I feel kind of disconnected with my sims, because I haven't played them for so long and I have no clue about what's going on in their lives and what my plans were with them.
- I think that I made all of my sims look like eachother (I have trouble with creating ugly sims), which kind of makes it boring to play, because they look like eachother and on top of that, their personalities are very similar too.
- If I restart, I want to make their faces more diverse and I want to add some real Neanderthals with more pronounced facial features (someone else did this before, but I can't remember who it was). I want to see how long the Neanderthal face will stick around.

But when I look at how long it took me to get to where I am now with my challenge, I'm afraid to restart.
I am still stuck at round 5 of the Neanderthal Era and it took me around 3 years to get there. (yes, I just looked it up, I started this challenge August 1st 2011)
Some people have managed to get to the Roman Era in a couple of months, but I can't even reach the second generation...

If I restart, I might change the rule that says you have to keep trying for baby. With slightly smaller families, it will be easier and faster to play I think (and I need to stop micro-managing my sims). Maybe I'll also stop doing season-long rounds and start doing 1-day rounds. Oh but the loading time will be sooo long..

P.S. I, too, think the sims 4 is kind of disappointing. The only part I really would like to have in sims 2 is the multitasking.

@floor1304 You could simply try to start playing again (if you already haven't), maybe only one day in each household. When you manage to reconnect with your sims, you might even be less bothered by the fact that a lot of them look similar. A lot of my sims actually look similar, too, but due to what they went through and how they behave they all feel different. And personalities are nothing that sticks through generations as they're mostly random as far as I can tell? Seeing as your only at round 5, I think you should be able to incorporate most idees, if you want to.
On the other side, if you can't manage to get a feeling for your sims again, it might be better to restart. A new challenge hood were you actually play is better than a more advanced challenge hood you're not playing.

Concerning my project 'Stack the Lots', I actually found a house layout that fits. The main and first floor are one lot, the second floor (+ stairs to get up there) another one. It's not perfect yet, but I'm getting there.

Can I get some input from you guys on an "issue" that just popped up in my hood? I'm mostly basing my rankings on popularity, so whichever family has the highest number of unique friends (sims only count on the friends list once. So if Kalek and Coest Boretti are both friends with Tinnack Aoki, Tinnack only counts once on the Boretti friends list) is the highest rank, and when the time comes, the new emperor/ess. Anyway, onto my issue. My sims have been adopting strays. Which obviously is not the problem, i just wasn't doing it nearly as often in my other incarnations of the challenge so I never ran into this issue. But if one sim makes friends with another sim's pet, should that pet count towards the family friend count? For example, the Aoki family adopted Rocket. I was (am) playing on the Boretti lot when Tinnack and Rocket walked by, and Kalek greeted them. But if Kalek should make friends with Rocket, should that friendship count towards the rankings? And should I count the friendships between the pets? Obviously since they're all strays they have some pre-established relationships, but since I'm going to be inviting them over to lots, they will be interacting with other pets and possibly forming friendships. Should I count those? Here I was thinking using the number of friendships was gong to be an easy way to determine ranks, then I do something that could possibly make it that much more difficult. So, thoughts? How should I go about counting friendships between/with pets? I have an idea on how I want to handle it, but I want y'all's opinions too. ~VP

@TheFlyingRaccoon the buildings look really good Your self sustaining hood ideas sound really interesting, the use of jobs without pay would make it a lot easier.

@Floor1304 if you really aren't connecting with your sims and really don't feel like playing starting over couldn't hurt. But you have plenty of time to integrate new ideas if you wanted to. If you did start over you could always shorten the neanderthal era to get yourself moving on quicker.

@VioletPadfoot if I was using friendships to determine how many alliances each family had I wouldn't include pets friendships or friendships between pets

I think I'm going to start this in the next week or so when I get back home from holidays.
I'll add a link to my blog if and when it happens.

New update on my Test of Time blog! The new part is called 'Reality Sets In' in which the teens discover surviving on their own for years isn't as much fun as it seems at first, among other things. Check out A Hitch in Time for the full story and pictures. Link is in my signature.

I restarted when the game bundle switch happened for similar reasons, and I'm happy with the results - gave me a fresh start with new, less glitchy custom content, got to implement my new rules from the start, and gave me a chance to reconnect with the story. I don't know if I'll *ever* finish this challenge, but I'm having fun with my perpetual re-starts. :P

Wow.. I really like this challenge! I might even try it.. atleast when i get the time I shall try it..

I really like the update @smantha_kathy! I can't imagine playing the start with no shelter it must be so frustrating.

I finally found time to play my hood again and I'm getting a little sad because my oldest surviving gen 2 sim (she was born in the second round) is about a day away from death in happier news the baby who's adult birthday will start the dark ages has been conceived Now I just need to keep them alive for around 4 seasons.

Ugh, the rounds are taking so much more time now. :\ I'm almost out of the Neanderthal era though, which I feel super conflicted about. I'm kind of attached to the Neanderthal stage now, lol.

I can't even imagine how long it's going to take to play through a round a couple generations from now.

I might have to go back to 4 day rounds. The 5 day rounds just take too long.

It does get that way with the eras but in my opinion I'd rather move on and alter my playstyle so while I'll be sad to see Roman go I'll be happy when I can start using my masses of medieval cc in the dark ages.

I shudder to think how long my rounds would be without realistic sickness. You could always kill more sims or limit the baby making if you're really worried.

I would like some input on a recent event in my game. In the last family I played Trean Dusk kept slapping, poking and shoving the emperor (or maybe the emperor started it I didn't quite catch who it was) they haven't actually fought yet so it's all good but I want to be prepared as to what I will do if a few situations arise. If they fight and Trean is killed I'll do nothing as I generally don't persecute based on fights.

1. What if they fight and the emperor is killed? Should I execute Trean? Throw him into the next Colosseum fight? Make him a slave? Make his whole family slaves? Make him emperor and make the emperor's family patricians? Make him emperor and make the emperor's family slaves? Make him emperor and kill the current emperor's family members he doesn't like (I can't kill the whole family because that would wipe out a family name)? I normally don't punish my sims for fighting but killing the emperor is kind of a big deal or at least I feel it should be.

2. What if by some miracle I manage to keep them both alive through the next few households and then the emperor wishes to see his ghost? Should I throw him into the next Colosseum fight or make him a slave or what?

It does get that way with the eras but in my opinion I'd rather move on and alter my playstyle so while I'll be sad to see Roman go I'll be happy when I can start using my masses of medieval cc in the dark ages.

I shudder to think how long my rounds would be without realistic sickness. You could always kill more sims or limit the baby making if you're really worried.



Base his punishment on how many friends he and his family has in the emperor's family, the patricians and higher ups. And the value of those friendships. So for example, if his family is friends with say 75 to 80 percent of the higher/ruling class, especially if he is friends or likes with the emperor's heir and those friendships are closer to BFF then he should live as before. If it is higher like 85 - 95 percent, then consider it a coup and he becomes emperor and the current emperor's family are downgraded one or two levels. If its less than 75 and there are no BFF relationships, Trean and his family should be downgraded in status accordingly. If the relationship is real low, throw Trean to the Colosseum and his family status is downgraded by one or two.

In this case, I think if the emperor wishes to see his ghost, then you should not lock in the want but roll a die everytime it comes up. Trean will live on borrowed time. Good story btw, I am enjoying it.

I am sort of getting close to the dark ages, and I'm wondering if I should kill every sim who gets sick or if I should download the realistic illness if that is even still a choice. I do like the idea of my sims actually being able to spread the diseases around, and I don't mind if some sims survive the diseases. However, I do want a significant amount of them to die. Would realistic illnesses actually kill my sims or would most of them survive?

I've been playing with realistic sickness for awhile now and it definitely kills sims. How many depends on your playstyle and how you treat sick sims. I give my sims comfort soup at the start (to cure any diseases picked up while playing other houses) and at the end (to slow the spread of illness for the next round) of each round. I also play with the slightly less deadly version of the mod (I would not recommend the original version) and I still lose lots of sims to illness. If you treat sick sims anything like I do, and still have them work and do stuff, you can pretty much count on having them drop dead within a few days. If you try to keep them sitting/lying down you can still cure them. I suppose if you didn’t already have flu everywhere when you install the mod (like I did) it might take a while to spread and you could minimise your losses but expect sick sims to die (after spreading disease) if you don’t put the effort into curing them. Funnily enough I think playing with the kill all sick sims rule would kill less sims than realistic sickness so it all depends on what you want to do and which fits your playstyle. Realistic sickness is really deadly. I think I've had at least 8 sims die from sickness so far this round and I'm only half way through.

I don't play with realistic sickness because I HATE when Sims get sick, and when it spreads I get anxious, lol. But in this particular challenge, especially in the Neanderthal era, I'm not at all opposed to killing off sick sims. It actually hasn't come up yet in my TOT hood, which is funny since sickness is spreading like wildfire in my regular hood.

I think realistic illness would be good then. Does anyone know where I can download one of the versions of it? I don't need it quite yet, but I will eventually. I know it was posted somewhere here, but I don't want to go through all eighty pages of this to find it.

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...hp?topic=8062.0
I suggest the one a few comments down. The original one kills sims too easy IMO.

In my newest update, called The Great Seperation, the teens face some though decisions and they're also pairing off! And I not only posted this new update but updated the State of the World page and added a Families page, but I recommend not looking at those until you've read The Great Seperation so as not to get spoiled for that part. You can find all of this on my blog A Hitch in Time, the link is in my signature.

The challenge is really beginning now, since they're all adults. I'm giving them one grace round, in which they have it fairly easy (no sick rolls, no need to go hunting for food yet), so I can be assured of some babies - the genetic pool really needs lots of babies! - but after that, all bets are off! As an aside, I've also added a new rule concerning glasses. Needing glasses is genetic (a base chance + added chance for each parent that needs glasses), not having glasses brings more risks to potentially deadly activities like hunting and gathering (you need to see the snakes in the grass!), but the only glasses available are those that the original eight sims have. Sims can choose to give their glasses to their children (for instance, if they're elder and no longer go on the hunt), but for most of the time, if your genes give you the need to have glasses, you're gonna have a problem.

Concerning building, furniture and clothes, I've also instilled some (silent) rules. They're not on the rules page, just something I play with. Buildings and wooden furniture need wood chopped. Wood furniture is just the very bare essentials - beds for the adults, cribs for the babies. Toddlers get sleeping mats. Surfaces that get damaged by fire may be replaced, but there's no making chairs or tables yet. There's no time for frivolities like that. There's also reed gathering and making furniture from that, but that will take skills they have to earn first. Clothes cannot be made yet, certain skills have to be added for that to happen, but they can repurpose what clothes they had + what came in the costume chest. In other words, whatever crazy outfit they grow up in is the outfit they'll stay in until such a time as they actually manage to aqcuire the skill to make clothes.

About that mod im not interested on it and ive reset my challenge again but this time i hope ill blog it or put it on youtube well see

I've been thinking a lot about the dark ages, I'm three or so rounds away and I'm toying with how to play this. I want all my sims to have lots of kids so I think having all my serfs live on the same lot as their vassals would drive me insane so I'm probably going to go with apartments. They'll be owned by the vassal and that will be their main source of income other than farming. Another thing I was thinking is that once the vassal's apartment complex is full (it'll have three or four apartments depending on how many families I start with) new serf families will have to live outside the city walls and they'll be at an extra risk of vikings. If a viking walks past one of these outside houses they'll have a chance of attacking anyone outside, a lower chance of attacking people inside, a low chance of attacking other serf households and a slim chance of going on to attack their vassal. If they attack the Vassal I might take inspiration from Cespencer and start a seige. I'm still thinking through it.

With sickness I don't want to lose all my sims so I'll probably be building a locked room on each lot to put sick sims in. If they manage to cure themselves they can live, if not they'll die. As a catch they'll be on free will so the chances of them surviving are very slim.

I really like the apartment idea. I might have to do that myself even though I have never built one before.