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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 23rd Sep 2014 at 8:35 PM
Default Genetic diversity challenge ideas
I've been a'ponderin' genetic diversity extensively lately, since I've been trying to set up a hood that is designed to sustain itself genetically without introducing new sims, and I had two challenge ideas (and do let me know if these are old news!).

The Adam and Eve Challenge: Start with one male knowledge sim and one female plantsim with an aspiration of your choice. These two people must attempt to populate the world themselves, through a combination of normal sim children, plantbabies and alien abduction babies.

The Onan Challenge: Start with one male knowledge plantsim and HE must populate the world by himself!

The points system would be based on the number of natural (non-abduction, non-plantbaby) children your characters manage to produce. You could also give them both recessive hair colors and have children born with those count for points, since the pollination technician and the ideal plantsim both carry black hair.

Check out my Simblr to follow the development of the Grand Duchy of Heimlichbourg!
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The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#2 Old 23rd Sep 2014 at 9:10 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Heimlichbourger
The Onan Challenge: Start with one male knowledge plantsim and HE must populate the world by himself!

The points system would be based on the number of natural (non-abduction, non-plantbaby) children your characters manage to produce. You could also give them both recessive hair colors and have children born with those count for points, since the pollination technician and the ideal plantsim both carry black hair.

How is that going to work with the onanism version (immature sniggering)? Are you saying it's the second and later generation children that might appear normal?

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#3 Old 23rd Sep 2014 at 9:29 PM
Quote: Originally posted by maxon
How is that going to work with the onanism version (immature sniggering)? Are you saying it's the second and later generation children that might appear normal?


Well, in that version it would really be about the total number of natural childbirths achieved, since recessive genes would be impossible to maintain.

Check out my Simblr to follow the development of the Grand Duchy of Heimlichbourg!
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#4 Old 23rd Sep 2014 at 10:27 PM
If you only start with one plant sim and don't add anyone, and are not allowed to use townies then every single plant baby would be that one sim + ideal Plantsim genetics. Or that one sim + Poly Tec genetics. Which is the opposite of diverse. Good idea I just don't think it jells.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#5 Old 23rd Sep 2014 at 11:00 PM
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
If you only start with one plant sim and don't add anyone, and are not allowed to use townies then every single plant baby would be that one sim + ideal Plantsim genetics. Or that one sim + Poly Tec genetics. Which is the opposite of diverse. Good idea I just don't think it jells.


The idea is that with plantsim asexual reproduction you can rapidly spam three generations of plantsims so that the game doesn't recognize them as relatives. You could also use vampirism to keep early generations alive long enough that they can mate with their descendents. I agree that "genetic diversity challenge" is a bit misleading- "insane lack of genetic diversity challenges" might have been a better thread title

Check out my Simblr to follow the development of the Grand Duchy of Heimlichbourg!
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#6 Old 23rd Sep 2014 at 11:49 PM
Lol, I'd call that the Inbreeding Challenge. Yeah not my cup of tea lol. It would be interesting to see how far Adam and Eve could get without inbreeding.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#7 Old 24th Sep 2014 at 1:14 AM
Genetic Bottleneck Challenge: The supervolcano erupted and only your founders are left. How many generations can you keep the population going? Can you restore a diverse population from these two sims?

(You know the trick to give a CAS sim recessive genetics, right? That should probably be included in the startup instructions, and also whether you allow a multi-PT and multi-Ideal mod.)

Pics from my game: Sunbee's Simblr Sunbee's Livejournal
"English is a marvelous edged weapon if you know how to wield it." C.J. Cherryh
Lab Assistant
#8 Old 24th Sep 2014 at 9:39 AM
I have a hood going with 10 founders which given my attitude to sim monogamy is complete over kill. I could have made six CAS sims and been fine.

I think Adam and Eve would be more fun than Onanism but you'd have to ban multi-PT mods other wise it would be very easy. Onanism without alien abduction is how one of my previous hoods started out but I had a multi-ideal to give some genetic variation. It was ridiculously easy to create enough distance that sims could reproduce with each other as well as have plantbabies.

The Brooke Family Legacy - Family Tree
Mad Poster
#9 Old 24th Sep 2014 at 2:02 PM
I think they'd get hard to tell apart pretty quick.

Y'know what people running primitive sims need? A telescope recolor that looks like a simple - oh, crap, I'm blanking, that surveying instrument that lets you line up distant points accurately. (I used to work with qualified surveyors; I know what the thing is called, dammit, just can't access it.) Instead of "Stargaze" and "Look Through" the options on it would be "Establish Astronomical Alignment" and "Establish Solar Alignment." So your Neolithic sims could be planning to build Stonehenge and get abducted...

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Scholar
#10 Old 24th Sep 2014 at 3:25 PM
Perhaps a Sextant, Peni?

But yeah, the Adam and Eve challenge would be more fun, though to create a self-sufficient 'hood you don't need too many unrelated (or distantly related) sims to keep things going. Probably with some careful marriage and child number management, I'd think that once you get to the grandchildren of the founders you'd be okay.
Field Researcher
#11 Old 24th Sep 2014 at 3:31 PM
It sounds fun but I'm not good at this type of challenges, I can't even keep up a decent population in premade hoods (that are not connected in a Megahood) unless I marry in townies. Really the only way for me to have relatively few Sims to marry/reproduce with townies is to work with a HUGE number of Sims like in a Megahood. 5 or so unrelated couples simply can't do it for me, haha.
Mad Poster
#13 Old 27th Sep 2014 at 10:52 AM Last edited by lauratje86 : 27th Sep 2014 at 2:11 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by Heimlichbourger
The Adam and Eve Challenge: Start with one male knowledge sim and one female plantsim with an aspiration of your choice. These two people must attempt to populate the world themselves, through a combination of normal sim children, plantbabies and alien abduction babies

I'm totally going to try this :-) I'll be using my normal "rules" and calculations (which will make things trickier, as some of the original couple's descendants with have fertility problems) and playing the 'hood as a BACC of sorts, albeit with adapted rules. And the female sim won't be a plantsim (the way Maxis made them), she'll be a Naelf - Naelves are a supernatural species that I came up with, you can read more about them here if you're interested. I will be changing a few things about Naelves to make them work for this challenge, but I hope to keep them as more or less the same as described in the post that I linked to.

I'm excited about trying this out! :-)

**ETA** So far my couple had twin girls, one of whom is a lesbian. My male (Skye Weiss! :-D) has a gay son through abduction and is currently pregnant with twins through abduction. This is really hard!
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#14 Old 27th Sep 2014 at 6:04 PM
Quote: Originally posted by lauratje86
I'm totally going to try this :-) I'll be using my normal "rules" and calculations (which will make things trickier, as some of the original couple's descendants with have fertility problems) and playing the 'hood as a BACC of sorts, albeit with adapted rules. And the female sim won't be a plantsim (the way Maxis made them), she'll be a Naelf - Naelves are a supernatural species that I came up with, you can read more about them here if you're interested. I will be changing a few things about Naelves to make them work for this challenge, but I hope to keep them as more or less the same as described in the post that I linked to.

I'm excited about trying this out! :-)

**ETA** So far my couple had twin girls, one of whom is a lesbian. My male (Skye Weiss! :-D) has a gay son through abduction and is currently pregnant with twins through abduction. This is really hard!


Awesome! You should document this, I'd be really interested to see how it turns out!

Check out my Simblr to follow the development of the Grand Duchy of Heimlichbourg!
Mad Poster
#15 Old 27th Sep 2014 at 6:27 PM Last edited by lauratje86 : 29th Sep 2014 at 11:33 AM.
Quote: Originally posted by Heimlichbourger
Awesome! You should document this, I'd be really interested to see how it turns out!

Skye & Jasmine currently have four daughters (two sets of twins) - Azalea, Blossom, Clover and Dahlia, including one lesbian (Blossom). Skye has given birth to three children through alien abduction - gay son Rhodes followed by twins Laika and Oldan (girl and boy, in that order). So many girls, bah! I really want Skye and Jasmine to have at least one son together, preferably more, so that he/they can have abduction babies in the next generation. Both Skye and Jasmine have locked wants to have 10 babies - I think that they may both get there before they become elders/die!

This is hard! And it's definitely not helped by the fact that Skye & Jasmine haven't had any sons (yet). Their sons could have babies through abduction, and Skye's sons by alien abduction wouldn't be related to Jasmine's spawned daughters so they could have kiddies together. All these girls aren't useful for continuing the line. And the house is getting awfully crowded (two bedrooms, one shower room, nine sims) and the family is rather poor. If I restarted this I would set the house up differently at the start (and I'd hope for more sons!).

**ETA** I think that I'm going to restart this - I'm really regretting the way I set the house up to start with. I got my priorities all wrong, and as the house gets fuller and fuller it's becoming more and more of a problem. It's just annoying me now, and I don't see the point in continuing to play when it isn't fun! Also, when I restart I will try to document it properly, with pictures, on my Tumblr.

Also, question: what are the rules with regards to making money? Can sims have Maxis/custom jobs (either from the start of the challenge or at some point during the challenge)? Can they own businesses (which would require townies as customers in the early stages of the challenge)? When I tried it I didn't allow jobs and my household only made money from using the telescope, growing crops and fishing. Fishing is quite the money earner! But at the beginning it was very difficult and they were awfully poor.

I also want to build the town up from just the one household, sort of BACC style. I think that careers will need to be unlocked - by both achieving a certain skill/badge level and by buying and placing a lot where the sims in that career could (in theory, at least) be going to when they go to work. All money paid as bills will be considered taxes and kept in a communal pot, which can be used to purchase and upgrade unowned community lots. Sims will also be able to own community lots, but they won't be able to run businesses on them until there are enough households in the 'hood to make them viable. Does that sound OK to everyone? Any thoughts, suggestions, comments etc?

Here I go! :-D

Emerald Grove - Introduction
Emerald Grove - Spring, Year 1
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#16 Old 3rd Oct 2014 at 7:47 PM
@lauratje86 WOW- I'm thrilled to see how you took this idea and made it your own. I love the consistent aesthetic, especially-- a little wooden cabin in the woods with a garden, it just all fits the spirit of the challenge flawlessly- you could play up that "backwoods" flavor a lot in the future whenever you're seeking new inspiration. I think you're right on the money thinking in terms of BACC for this- if there was a whole bustling world for them to participate in through careers, there would be no need for them to populate the world themselves. SO cool, I will be following this avidly

Check out my Simblr to follow the development of the Grand Duchy of Heimlichbourg!
Mad Poster
#17 Old 5th Oct 2014 at 2:32 PM
That was something I didn't like about my first attempt - they had a proper indoor bathroom and fitted kitchen. I wanted things to be more rustic than that! I rather like their little house. Their situation has improved somewhat - they have an actual outhouse now, instead of just a spot where they had to pee outside! :-)

I have played through two more seasons:

Emerald Grove - Summer, Year 1
Emerald Grove - Autumn, Year 1


If you're interested there is also a family tree here - I try to keep it updated alongside the seasonal updates, so it shouldn't contain any spoilers.....

I hope that this thread stays active, I enjoy sharing my updates here :-) Is anyone else giving this a go or am I the only one?
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#18 Old 5th Oct 2014 at 4:10 PM
Quote: Originally posted by lauratje86
I hope that this thread stays active, I enjoy sharing my updates here :-) Is anyone else giving this a go or am I the only one?


Well, maybe it's time for me to give my own challenge a try

EDIT: By the way, what mods do you use to change the roads and mailboxes?

Check out my Simblr to follow the development of the Grand Duchy of Heimlichbourg!
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#19 Old 5th Oct 2014 at 11:21 PM
Here we go, I'm putting my money where my mouth is and building myself an Adam and Eve challenge hood, to be documented on my simblr: checkout the introduction here

Check out my Simblr to follow the development of the Grand Duchy of Heimlichbourg!
Mad Poster
#20 Old 6th Oct 2014 at 5:36 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Heimlichbourger
Well, maybe it's time for me to give my own challenge a try

Yay! :-) I love your introduction - the Zydrome is a great idea! My other thought for how to play this was some kind of space colony, but I couldn't be bothered to hunt down all the CC I'd need - I wanted to get playing straight away! I like the idea that it's an experiment. Does this mean that all of your sims will remain on one lot for the duration of the challenge?

Quote: Originally posted by Heimlichbourger
EDIT: By the way, what mods do you use to change the roads and mailboxes?

Stev84's Country Roads For Grass Neighbourhoods
Michelle's Decorative Mailbox Posts

I'm currently in the Winter of the first year and it's a bit dull - I can't wait for Spring so that gardening starts up again. At the moment everyone seems to spend most of their time skilling and it's not as interesting. That's all anyone seems to roll wants for....

I'm certainly making things difficult for myself with regards to the challenge as I haven't deviated from my usual wants/fears/autonomous actions-based gameplay - so my sims only woohoo when they both have the want to do so, and I don't use Summon Aliens unless the sim in question wants to be abducted. And plantsims don't spawn plantbabies unless they have a Have Baby want.... Fortunately Skye and Jasmine, my founders, both have the Have 10 Babies" want locked! :-) Also, not all Naelves are able to spawn plantbabies, by my rules - 20% can't. Jasmine's second Naelf son can't spawn. Boo! And only 25% are attracted to non-Naelves - neither of Jasmine's sons so far are attracted to non-Naelves. Also boo!
Mad Poster
#21 Old 6th Oct 2014 at 5:51 PM Last edited by M.M.A.A. : 6th Oct 2014 at 8:17 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by Peni Griffin
I think they'd get hard to tell apart pretty quick.

Y'know what people running primitive sims need? A telescope recolor that looks like a simple - oh, crap, I'm blanking, that surveying instrument that lets you line up distant points accurately. (I used to work with qualified surveyors; I know what the thing is called, dammit, just can't access it.) Instead of "Stargaze" and "Look Through" the options on it would be "Establish Astronomical Alignment" and "Establish Solar Alignment." So your Neolithic sims could be planning to build Stonehenge and get abducted...


I've studied a Surveying course; is 'Theodolite' the word you're looking for?

EDIT: Woop! Just noticed the date on that post! :P
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#22 Old 7th Oct 2014 at 3:51 PM
Quote: Originally posted by lauratje86
I like the idea that it's an experiment. Does this mean that all of your sims will remain on one lot for the duration of the challenge?


Yeah, that's the idea for now, at any rate. Using this handy dandy mod: http://modthesims.info/d/250640 I plan to increase the maximum family size, and the facility has a very high maximum population in terms of infrastructure and space, and I could always have the robot build some new rooms as a story event. I think all of this adds to the feeling that this is a constructed fishbowl and not necessarily a real world, and I want this challenge to have a distinctive aesthetic I've just put up my second entry, by the way, it's right here.

Also: wow, you really play wants hard, I use them more as guidelines, but you really seem to go all the way with them, I'd like to try that in future.

Check out my Simblr to follow the development of the Grand Duchy of Heimlichbourg!
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