lbsgirl24, good luck with building the new neighbourhood! ^^ Share some pictures with us when you have the time ^^ I would love to see more of your game.
sarahturtle1, I can't believe someone actually completed this challenge O.o I mean ... is this even possible? Because I've been playing it for ... almost two and a half years and there's no way I'm even close to its middle XD Nevertheless, you deserve everyone's congratulations ^^ Share some stories&pictures&impressions with us! ^^ We would love to hear what happened in you game ^^

I've just got a few more serfs, one noble, a merchant farmers and I've done one sub neighborhood (well enough to start playing anyway) which is a start .
Here's a picture of my rural sub neighborhood before I really started building but you can see the division of it.

Grey outline's the Duke's land
Red the other Noble
Blue is the knight
Black is the church's land
Pink is the land outlined for lower bourgeoisie farmers (maybe this should be outside the grey...)

I'll come back with pictures etc once I have played more than the first day in each family.

Well, seems like your neighbourhood is quite organized. My neighbourhood is another story >.> I mean ... I can't find the courage to post a picture from my game, because I think it would really spoil the fun XD There's a mansion and a castle (they belong to those two noble brothers that plan to begin a war) and other than that ... a couple of houses that stand for some fishermen's villages, some apartments in a so-called town, some farms here and there, a diamond mine that now's abandoned and some elven houses. And I only have one main neighbourhood (I actually created a sub-neighbourhood once, but it was kind of deserted, so I gave up on it and returned to Aelaesti ^^ ).
Aaand ... my game's not that well organized when it comes to its social structure. There's no King (I think I talked about that in every post I made here, on this thread), but this one aspect will be settled sometime during the next two rounds (by the way, I already made my decision about who will rule, but I'm mean, and I'm not telling you XD ) and people are kind of poor ... Most of them are farmers or fishermen and make enough to live from hand to mouth. They have way too many children they can't send to school -_-' There in no regulation system and I'm also considering some convents or monasteries, because right now religions doesn't play any role in those people's lives. But all those things will come in time.

Right now ... to war, my friends! Round 9 is over!

Sorry for the double post, but ... XD I'm so excited! I finally began the 10th rotation! ^^ Aaand ... I uploaded a new chapter ^^ Here it is!


I was only 20 years old when I understood what beeing humiliated truly meant. But now, looking back to it, I understand that in a way, it was my fault. I was too young, too blind and I knew nothing of temptation and lust.
Read more ✙

Lady Scarlet , your new chapter is very interesting! I m waiting your new stories!

Thank you very much for reading ^^ I'm glad you like it ^^ I already have two or three new chapter written, I just have to take the pictures from the game. And play, of course XD That might take some time >.>

I'm in the process of creating my neighborhood and creating a story in my head. I have played until the heirs of the first generation have gone to college. Then, I ran across your challenge. It's very interesting and very in depth with plenty of wiggle room.

But I do have one question. I originally created the monarch and nobles (the original counsel that started the community). But your challenge only calls for 3. Can I make 2 lesser nobles? Or do I have to move them to the merchant class?

Thanks! And thank you for creating such an interesting an informative challenge!

Celticlass,
Welcome to Warwickshire! I am glad you are enjoying the challenge so far. You may certainly make two lesser nobles to nest within your larger fief--that will work nicely. You will find when version 3.0 comes out that there is the potential for alliances to form, and for some fiefs to become vassal states of other fiefs, so you may even want to make these lesser nobles outside of your larger existing fief. The choice is up to you.

Hi, All,
Just a quick post to announce the arrival of the 3.0 Teaser version--now finally available!!! Enjoy!

*Fails and squeals* OMG, Just what I've been waiting for.

Your work - it's something wonderful, especially third volume of the challenge and i began to write new stories for my blog

I love the new changes, especially the disease/healer stuff, but I do have one question about the healers. Do the stats stack? As in, do they get points for a bronze and a silver badge, or just for the silver? If the latter, I don't see how a healer can get above title 16?

Glad to hear you're enjoying it! Lady Anna, I can't wait to see your new stories!
MattieOReilly--the points do stack, so healers should be able to get up to 24 points, and doctors should be able to have up to 26--if they complete all three levels of the career paths (teen, adult, and elder).

Wonderful, thanks for the clarification.

Hi there :D

I love the new edition, most of all the THS. In V2 it was always like “Oh no, my heir died out of the blue... this can't be! I`m sure the dice was stopped by something...” but now I can see the health decline and “get used” to the idea of losing the heir. Great job, makes the game a lot more interesting.

I found some parts in V3 that confused me and listed them (I apologize in advanced, I'm not a native speaker and therefore might have missed things that would clear the questions asked)

Useful Hacks (page 6): Do you know dickhurt's „df_no_inheritance_after_elder_dies“ (by dickhurt/dumbfool/nobody) hack? I use it with the other recommended hacks without problems. I'm not too sure to leave it in the game for the challenge, since it might be very difficult to gain enough money for titles without it, but the inheritance makes it (mho) too easy to advance in the first stages (serfs, freeman)

Social Hierarchy (page 8): Level 15: “All other titles below Grand Duke, held by Royal Family Members” Does that mean that a RFM Duke gets a higher ranking than a non-RFM Duke? And do two RFM members of different position below Grand Duke have the same Level (15)?

Social Hierarchy (page 9): Gentry: ”Manor Houses (Apartments) will have serfs living there to work the farm” and a little lower “Gentry may not hold indentured serfs” → are there still non-indentured serfs left in the system, despite the description on page 10?

Social Hierarchy (page 10): For my personal understanding: “Merchant Farmer” is a farmer who sells his own crops in his shop? “Cottage Industrie” sells own goods (toys, etc) in his shop? Or others' (cottars') too? And Cottars of the peasant-class may only sell to the merchants, right?

Social Hierarchy (page 10): Income of Serfs (how to play): In the second edition, I transferred my serfs to the lord's land to work the field (this way the crop-money gets directly to the Gentry's pocket). While playing the years in the serf-household, I sent them on long-hour-low-income-jobs with them only being able to tend a small part of land for themselves. This seems to conflict with the new Indenture-System, because the amount of money earned by my serfs wont add up to the required fee + the Gentry-Class isn't allowed to hold “indentured serfs” → see question above.

There are a few questions regarding the fiefs, but they will most likely be cleared with the future chapter about “War”

Transferring Indentures (page 14): “A patriarch […] may transfer his indenture to his heir(ess) when s/he either marries or comes of age” → Only after his death, or is it possible to transfer the indentures to a heiress, have her move out with it, and therefore free the family? Which status have the remaining family members?

Leaving Home: Younger Sons (page 14): “Example #1 […] If he [Arnold] does so, the number of children he can have will be limited by the space available on the lot” → Limitation of 8 people per lot? Is a larger-family-hack permitted for the challenge (more family members to pay of the indenture, etc)?

Table 12: Income Tax Rates: “Peasantry/Serfs Flat Tax Rate: 40%” Kinda connected to my earlier question. So, Serfs do not pay Assets Tax “because they do not own property”, but pay Income Tax on the crops they grow for their lord, on the lord's land? Or is the Income Tax for Serfs only for things like sewed items they make?

Figuring Assets Taxes (page 23): “[...] Then deduct any allowed deductions from the Total Assets Value [...]” → Is there a list, which deductions exist? Sorry, if I missed it.

Table 15: Heriot Tax Rates (page 42): (again with the Serfs...) “25% of family funds [total or available?] or assets” → again the question of Serfs possessing Assets.

After reading thoroughly through the text, I just had to get started with the game and only wrote down questions I stumbled over while using the rule-set.

Home schools (page 53): “Sims of any class station may purchase a Simlogical
Homeschool table in order to educate themselves” but then “Public Day School is the
only option for Bourgeois class […] to earn a basic education”?

Private University (page 57): “open to Gentry class males [...] graduated from a Private Boarding
School” ok, so I can sent my Bourgeoisie boys to Private Boarding School, but they can only get into the Public University, which requires only a Public Boarding School education, right?

Opening a Homebusiness:
- To open a home business, my sim does need to have a finished apprenticeship or an apprenticeship + trade school or trade school or is it possible to open a shop without any of the before mentioned educations?
-“Financial reserve in liquid assets […] not less than 20% of TFW” how do I label this reserve?

Healer/Doctor/Midwife:Can a they heal their own illnesses? Can a birthing midwife due to her expertise use her own score on the birth record? Can a male healer attend a birthing and act like a substitute midwife (maybe half-points off?)

Spacing Pregnancies (page 36): I kinda liked the class-influenced spacing better, as well as the survival-rate due to better hygiene in higher class homes. Is there a way to restore the old idea a little?

Diseases: Could you create a list, which makes it easier to calculate the risk of catching a disease (like age, zodiac sign, …) About mental illnesses: I don't understand how you get these (low aspiration level?) Sorry, the chards are quite hard to read on the pc, since they are sideways ^.^”

Courtship, Betrothal (page 69):
- Table 54: When the relationship to the father of the bride is “relative”, the charts says “-1” = impossible? I feel this is odd, since the marriage of cousins was quite common back in the days.

- Negotiations: If groom's and bride's fathers are bff, there also is a “-1” therefore no negotiation needed, or is it one less negotiation depending on the relationship of groom and bride's father?

- Just for clarification: I always go through all six points of the negotiation and need the number of needed successful points to get married. Or do I only get the number of needed negotiation-levels and need an agreement on all of them? (eg. Groom and bride's father are best friends = 3, the relationship of the fathers is friends = 0. That makes 3 needed negotiations. Do I do all six negotiations and can marry the couple if 3 points are agreed on, or do I only do negotiations 1-3 and need them all to succseed?) ← I hope this isn't too elusive

Behavious&Outcomes: The single lists only count for sims with the matching aspiration, right?

I'm very sorry for the long post, but I love your work so much that I want to truly enjoy it without wondering if I do it right or not.

Thank you in advance,
Yvi-sama

PS: Is it possible for you to include a to-do-list or check-list, what should be done at the start of each season, so nothing gets forgotten (taxes,etc)?

Hello, Yvi-sama, and welcome to Warwickshire! I am always delighted to see new faces on the forum and to meet players who are new to Warwickshire. I hope you'll consider sharing some of your stories here with us.

I will try to answer all of your questions, but bear with me since it may take a few days to get through all of them. Some of your questions will require me to look through the challenge and sort out the best way to answer them.

I was not previously aware of the "no inheritance" hack. As with so many other mods that are available in abundance, I would really encourage you to do what you think works best in your own game. Given that serfs and freemen have it so hard already, I probably wouldn't want to deprive them of inheritance too--but that is entirely up to you!



Well, now that really depends ... upon which titles you have available and which ones are conferred upon your nobles and royals. The titles are not meant to be arbitrary, but to correspond to actual land, i.e. fiefs, which exist in your game. Ruling royals could certainly create archduchies and confer these on their progeny, after which point they will become heritable fiefs and titles, even when that family no longer rules ... but of course it is equally possible that members of the royal family may hold lesser titles as well. It really depends upon how you set up the fiefs in the beginning of the game and which new ones you create as you go.



This is an oversight and one that needs to be corrected: in v3, gentry will not be able to swear the oath of bondage which indentures a serf to a fief, only titled nobility can do this. This is a change that will be made in the final edit--sorry for the confusion.



Yes. This all sounds right to me. The idea of the cottar is that peasants will be able to produce goods of all varieties and sell them to merchants, producing a supply chain of goods. This is moving toward the self-sufficient economy, so that merchants are not restocking from the EA void.



Yes. That's probably true also. I have each serf tend crops on his own land and then transfer the foodstuffs produced into an overseer's inventory. The overseer keeps a warehouse of food which he distributes to the lord's table and sells a portion of it to merchants. He is himself a merchant and rents the land he lives on from the fief-holder. In my own game, serfs generally sell their produce at 75% of market value and merchants sell the same produce at 125% of market value (if the produce is low quality then the percentage falls ...). Serfs then pay a 40% income tax on all money earned from the sale of produce. It is up to you how you decide to work it out--but it is true that your serfs will need some sort of income in order to be able to save up money to pay off their indentures. I suppose it would be possible to offset the cost of indenture by the amount of food produced ... but it is a system you will need to decide upon. Let me know what you decide to do--I'm always interested in how other people are using the challenge to fit their own play styles.



It is possible to transfer the indenture before the patriarch's death--he may transfer it to his heir(ess). However, an indentured serf cannot move out--they are tied to the land, hence the indenture. So, if an heiress marries, her husband will become the head of household (see the next line), and her indenture will remain with the family which must continue to occupy the land. The indenture ties the family to the land: they cannot leave until the terms of the indenture are satisfied.



Yes--the space available on the lot is determined by the size of the lot and/or population limits--you may have a larger-family hack. I couldn't play without one!



This might already be answered above, but yes, serfs pay income taxes on any source of income, including crops grown and sold.



You didn't miss it. On p. 22, it tells you that you should draw up your own table of allowable deductions to fit your neighborhood play style. This is because I think that the type and amount of allowable deductions would vary depending upon what stage your neighborhood was in, how many nobles you had, etc, etc. For example, a merchant might be able to declare a deduction for an apprentice he had to support in his house ... or a noble might be able to declare an education deduction if he had a son in university ... but all of this is speculative and dependent upon circumstance. As long as you don't make it too easy for yourself (what really would be the point of that? ) and you apply the deductions consistently, you're good.

That's it for now ... more later!

Hi there,

thank you so much for your (part-)answer :D

I'm kinda testing the new edition. I started the challange twice before, but it is very hard for me to play that many households. For now I follow one family and their advance and make required connections as I go ^.^"

I just wanted to say that this challenge looks amazing and super thought out. I've read the entire thread in the past few days and everyone's stories sound great! I just wish that everyone was still posting

Welcome AriTHeWise! I'm glad you've enjoyed the thread, and hope you will consider posting some stories of your own. We tend to have swells and lulls of activity round here, and I, too miss everyone's stories.

Yvi-sama ... I will be sure to keep working on your questions! (I haven't forgotten!)

I don't really post, because, well, I am lazy. I follow the challenge, but all the period CC collecting is too much for me, and I don't have an adequate story as to why my modern sims are living like 1600's peasants. Plus, I went perhaps a tad over the top creating sims, it takes me so long to get around the hood playing each family everyone would have forgotten what happened last time anyway.

Yep! I'm building a rig now (really waiting for the parts) and when that's done I'm going to get right down to writing. I've got the intro all set up and the website looks alright for now. I've mentioned your challenge, the Royal Kingdom Challenge, and the Medieval Charter Challenge as huge inspirations, but I won't be directly following them.

Welcome here, AriTheWise! It's great to see new people around and I can't wait to see your website, so share the link with us when it's ready ^^ I'm sure you will get lots of fans.
As for my ... idleness ... well, I don't exactly have an excuse ^^" I'm very sorry I've been so absent, especially because I've promised new chapters and updates to my story ^^" I've kind of been suffering from a form of writer's block, but I blame it on the weather and the whole atmosphere in my town ^^" It's a little drepressing, because it's mid-February, but there are around 59 degrees during the day XD It feels like spring, yet I can't hope but be a little suspicious and hope for the best but expect the worst XD And then ... there's my neighbourhood too ^^" The war that I've been anticipating suddenly doesn't look so ... alluring ^^" I have a couple of chapters ready, but I simply can't take the pictures for them >.> I tried two or three times, but I'm not pleased with how they turned >.> I'll try again this weekend and maybe I'll finally play&post ^^

Thanks for the welcome, Lady Scarlet I'd post the website now (I want to) but since there's no story or pictures even of the Sims (Since my computer isn't set up) I feel like it's pointless.

I'm sorry to hear about your writer's block I haven't quite gotten to your story yet but it is on my list! Right now I'm perusing the archives of The Kingdom of Mhalwae and The Kingdom of Naroni.

59 F? That sounds balmy! Right now we're hovering between -5 C and +2 C. It's practically summer here!

Hello everyone, long time no post Glad to see some new people have shown up while I was gone, and aaaaaaah how did it take me this long to notice there's a 3.0 teaser! Super excited to test out the new rules :D

As for what's been going on in my game: Normandy is now under control of Bohavia, the minor kingdom ruled by Prince Johannes (well, King Johannes now. and I know I said last time King Baoshan would try for it but Bohavia is a lot closer to Normandy and Johannes's wife was Lord Henry's cousin, so he actually had more right to Normandy), but after Ranland has had time to recuperate from all the fighting there will definitely be attempts to reclaim it. After all, Duke Edward, the rightful Duke of Normandy from Ranland's point of view, was a father figure and regent for the king and remains his closest adviser. For now though, Ranland has been trying to make peace with its old enemies since King James finally came of age and started ruling himself; for instance, Duke Edward's eldest living son, Henry, married a princess from the far east. Although since Princess Zhengqi died in my last play-session giving birth to her first child, that may not have had the peace-making effects King James was hoping for!

Also, I started incorporating some fantasy elements into my game; the Marquis of Kent has for two generations now been a scientist of some sort, and the current Marquis's wife died in childbirth shortly before the last available wet nurse at the time died (I've been working on expanding the lower classes, but well...), but I let his son, Hans, live anyway off of bottles; now I have the excuse that Marquis Oliver in his astrological research was abducted by fae, and made a deal with them; if they gave him a way to feed his son until he could eat solid food, he would birth and raise a fae child. Anyway the fae finally came to make good on his promise, and now he has a daughter, Titania. I threw in a servo, Anne, as well, a product of the Marquis's dabbling in the magical arts as well as a convenient servant.

Other than that I've added a few merchant and peasant families, and one knight family rose up to the rank of baronet with a bit of RFP and money- the same one with Sir Athos and Sir Grimaud actually. Speaking of Grimaud, Alianore was acquitted for witchcraft and burned at the stake, and then the war over Normandy began so Grimaud went to fight and died in battle. Catherine ran away yet again, this time to be with a pirate captain, and died from miscarriage. Her son Richard had died before she left from a disease, but she did leave her daughter with Grimaud, Elizabeth, with Grimaud's living cousins.

Also, I have a few pics this time:


Left to right: Empress Runqi of Westria (the mountain vacation destination, originally born in the Kingdom of Western Na), Queen Phillipa of Bohavia (a smaller kingdom near the mountain vacation destination, originally born in Normandy), Queen Margaret of Ranland, and Queen Blanche of Western Na (a smaller kingdom near the far east vacation destination)

Empress Dowager Josephine of Westria (originally born in Bohavia)

Dame Anne, daughter and heiress of a knight and wife of Sir Athos's heir, Sir Planchet, and Princess Zhengqi, princess of Dongguo (the far east vacation destination)

Sister Jane, the daughter of Sir Athos who since this picture has become a nun, and Lady Lucinda, the heiress to both the Duchy of Albany and the Duchy of Cornwall (also Lady Marie's daughter, if you remember me talking about her)

Next time I'll remember to take pictures of the guys (and some story-related ones instead of just staged pictures)! And wow, this post is longer than I expected- I should probably get to work on a website so I can just link you guys there instead of rambling like this .

@Radium: Your pictures look great! From the first picture, could you tell me where you got the brunnette's hair and croawn and the raven haired girl's crown? They look amazing! I'm looking forward to your website

@M3gte: Speaking of 3.0, when is that coming out. I understand real life being a big factor but is there any potential release date?