Regarding the miracles and disasters some of them look like they'll go on for a really long time or/and have an astonishing death rate. I think they all sound great but they might need some tweaking.

In particular: famine and Angered the god of the heavens might be tricky to play with.

no, Greece is an optional module to play between Neanderthal and Rome. The rules for it are on the ToT website that SwallowTail made. ~VP

Yep, I noticed that after I sent the post. I've started a Greek hood now. *shakes her head*

Lauri

I really like that idea! I think that there was a lot of stuff humans could do and build long before they used metals, so the crafting stations like pottery make sense. My plan goes like this:

* In the first stone age generation they are sort of just settling down and starting to grow food instead of just gathering it where they find it --> fishing and gardening.

* first-generation households are still part-time gatherers, so each Sim can dig for treasure five times a day. This is important because:
- the digging is used to make garden beds - for each time someone digs for treasure, a piece of ground on the lot can be levelled (easier building) or a garden plot can be bought
- bones and stones are building material - walls can only be built if the necessary money is "earned" by selling bones and stones.
- Various treasures they find are donated to a proto-tax collector and used to buy community lots (and, in later areas, maybe colleges, shopping districts or the likes).

* the second generation grew up in fixed homes, so they had enough time in one place to collect and store stuff, try things out and come up with pottery, medicines, fabric technology, simple tools... so they can be witches, use the pottery station and some CC crafting items like a ball of yarn that allows to knit clothing, a simple loom, a water fetching station - oh dear CC-creators, I love you to bits.

* third generation will probably use a mining station or maybe keep farm animals - there is some CC content, though I haven't quite seen farm animals that I like. Have you seen any? I guess either in the 2nd or 3rd generation I'll unlock aspiration rewards for good. Or allow some more skill-building objects? I miss books.

I'm sure I'll incoporate some of your stuff; the idea about the telescope = calendar = dates of festivities = parties is just amazing. And I like the animist / polytheistic / monotheistic idea, too! Do you have any ideas how it might effect the game play?

Come to think of it, I'm using a sort of alternative family system: in stone ages, sister & brother start a household, the sister is having dates to get pregnant, and she brings up the children with her brother. It's called visiting mariage (see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrilocal_residence). Maybe for the animist tribes?

I thought you might have shortened it, but I wasn't sure! How was/ is the challenge that way? Because I considered my first couples to be 'gen 1', which is the only real shortening I did, and that probably contributed to my needing to add CAS sims three gens later.

And thank you very much- the gladiator building I found and can get the info for if you like. The creator of that is great, as I didn't realize I could do things like that open floor plan (there's not even a roof over the middle but it works somehow), and the overly-patterned walls and things really did come out looking Roman. I definitely do tweak everything though and I love the way patterns can be changed in TS3, I think I may play it forever. The Emperor's house I made, and if I have any other decent examples I'll try to post them.

One thing I love about this challenge is that some of the slaves still live out of the original ancestral (one hovel and a garden space + pond) homes that everyone started out with, the other homes I used that base and I'm changing when everyone gets more money to the new era designs- so everything is evolving authentically.

Oh yeah! I just realized I have a home that took forever to get right as it has 4 stories in split level which was really hard to do that I did make myself. It's modeled after the TAOS Pueblo, which is a gorgeous old community home with over a dozen rooms. Next time I'm in the game I'll takes pictures and post it up. And yes, it's Sims 3, turns out the challenge isn't so bad when using the NRAAS mods- you can even change the aging to TS2 style if you like, and that was my biggest issue.

Thanks again for the encouragement!

Jail sounds like a better idea as a home- I was wondering about that too when I read the rules.

The idea of guards based on King relationship is nice, but won't that make most guards his family members? Not a bad idea but you could go based on type of sim or athletic ability. There could be a level for general issues like public drunkeness ( a sobering up cell or two), and then down to a lower level where things get real and lives are on the line.
-There could be a dice roll for in favor/ or of favor, a few days after and inmate is incarcerated, so that they can either potentially die there and never get out or move up to the sobering cells for eventual release.
-A dungeon with proper torture devices, or simply starve the prisoner for a certain amount of game time based on their crime so they forfeit their lives if they've been bad enough.
-One last visit allowed from the wife or family (conjugal visit if the wife is a romance sim, chance of breaking out of jail if the wife is a knowledge sim etc).
-Diseases and illness is more likely every day they are there (I think somebody said something similar to this?)
-Do you have a way to publicly embarrass the prisoners for minor infractions?
-You could tattoo thieves or make them wear something that marks them as a thief after they are released as a warning to others.
-A way to bribe the guard- that always could work if the guard is a 'fortune' sim
-Put a sewing machine in a long term cell and make the women prisoners work for a living (or the men can make toys etc). Make a shop out of it that way and give the proceeds towards paying off the prisoner's debt.
-Good prisoners are allowed outside to garden or fish. Nobody else can see the light of day.

Very interesting!

I'd say, the inmates either get locked away for a given time like xy seasons, or until their relationship with the king is better - maybe he could visit so they have a chance to do some apologizing?

But historically speaking, I'd say their families have the ball in their court - they'll have to pay for the prisoners to get food, protection, comfort in the prison. (Some prisoners lived rather luxuriously in the Bastille, with pets, personal cooks and the likes. The "chained to a filthy wall with rats crawling over you" so beloved by Hollywood was for the poor sods who had no families to pay for their upkeep.) Even visiting prisoners could cost money, so this could really pull a family down financially.

For getting them out of prison: more bribes and / or a good relationship with the king.

And lots of hard labor for the prisoners, like digging for treasure?

I'm on the Dark Ages and I like the miracle and diaster ideas. I think I will come up with some for the next round since I already started this round. I'm thinking maybe something about the plague and maybe something about books too. I'm also thinking of having something that would make the government a Matriarchy. I might also have each neighborhood (there are two, but I'm thinking of giving Vikings there own) have their own diaster or miracle.

Speaking of Medieval times. Should the college and finishing school actually be the one the game has built into University or should it just be a lot?

One of my households keeps getting sprayed by a skunk (not a glitch, just dumb luck) during my round 7. i have an idea of making like a "year of the skunk" celebration, probably every 7 rounds, or every round that ends in a 7 (17, 27, etc) and i was just wondering what i could use for this "celebration", and if there are other celebrations i could use in the future, like maybe ancient festivals that took place (honoring gods, deaths of important rulers, stuff like that). also if i should have these "festivals" take place in each household separately or design some community lot specifically for neighborhood-wide celebrations/holidays

For the year of the skunk everyone camps out and doesn't shower?

Is that too real? ;}

Everyone should drink tomato juice, and pray (meditate) to the gods/God that the "Black and White Cat of Pure Evil" does not return. Maybe they think by doing that it'll stay away for 7/10 years. :D

I decided to model my university and finishing schools after Oxford and have been building some of the colleges in a custom university neighborhood. For my noble and royal men, I built The Queen's College front quad. For the baron and merchant sons I built St. Edmund Hall's quad. For my noble and royal girls, I build St. Hugh's College the old hall. For the baron's and merchant's daughter's I build Lady Margaret Hall's - Talbot Hall and wings. The men's majors are restricted by the TOT rules. Women can major in Art, Education and Music. While not historically accurate, I enjoyed modeling after the colleges. My one community lot so far is Queen's Lane Coffeehouse. I will probably build a few other High Street shops later. Universities

I heart your university buildings. How are you going to manage the round time then?

hey all, just wanted to drop in and see what all suggestions you have for my sims' first ice age, like whether or not they're allowed to prepare for it, things like that. keep up with it on my blog: westeriatestoftime.wordpress.com

I've not played an ice-age yet, but you may want to either create a lot they can still fish at (the idea being a natural underground heat source?) or let them stock up a bit.

People were alive before the ice age, so I'd assume it's fair to let them just live for a while first, even if they aren't too prepared for it? You could even make Gen 2 go through it, and leave Gen 1 to set up their lands etc. That way, the ice age could shape their development and you'd see signs of it later? I know I still have Roman houses built on their old Neanderthal footprint or with old neanderthal decorations and I LOVE the reminder of it!

It's been ages since I played an ice age but it all depends on how you want to play as to how prepared you want them to be. Whatever you do if you're doing a long iceage make sure to distribute the fish evenly. I did an ice age for like four seasons once and I lost like all my gen 1 sims and most of my older gen 2 sims (I just installed realistic sickness and that hood had a lot of fights). This wouldn't have been a problem except these were the only sims who actually had fish in their inventories. My sims barely made it to summer.

Thanks. I really enjoyed trying to match the Oxford college as I imagined they might have been in their earliest years. For rounds - I made a daily activity sheet to track the behaviors for each university as if it was one of the home lots. I play two semesters (6 days) in each university lot in each round for one season (5 days) on a home lot. It doesn't match exactly, but it is close. I am in the earliest days on campus so I don't have much to report.

Hi everybody!
I've started to document my Challenge in video form- here is the Intro/ catch up video. Not sure if I can make an entire Let's Play out of it, but I'm having fun for now. :D

(This is probably just another way for me to stall killing sims in the Colosseum, though...)

Test of Time Challenge Intro on Youtube

Video covers the ruling family, the Gladiator family, and the castes.

Finally someone doing test of time on YouTube it's just to good of a challenge to not do on YouTube

Frog Snack - You are awesome. It was so much fun to see your game, home, and Sims. I feel bad about Demetrios - I know how it feels to have to kill off a favorite Sim because of the fate of a die roll.

Now I will have to go and try my hand at videos so I can showcase my lots!

Thanks! I realized that for all the pictures I was taking and putting up here I could just make a video, lol. Although I'm sure I can find happy medium. The videos so far also seem to be a useful way to show off good community-made content, as that's what sometimes is the toughest to find and get just right.

It would be so great to see a Let's Play of this in it's original format too (TS2)- If you upload, let me know and we can cross-promote or have a community there too!

This challenge is most likely the reason I still play the Sims, it's always shifting and fun and so easy for the player to be surprised in it, as they say with books, 'I can't put it down'!

But I know how much care you put into your blog now, so i think your videos would be a joy to watch.

Have you ever watched Bonnie Laurel's Videos - They are like movies - more than I ever can aspire to, but delightful to watch. Bonnie Laurel

I'll check it out! I happen to be trolling on the youtubes as we type!

Posted an episode 2 of this, too. Emperor family focus.
Sims 3 Test of Time Ep 02

How are you recording your video so you can talk while you scan the screen? I haven't found a way to do that yet. It was fun to see how the challenge looks in Sims 3. I am still using Sims 2.

I'm using a program called Fraps to record, it's simple to use but creates huge save files. At the same time i use fraps for the gameplay (it creates a counter in game of your frame-rate that changes color if you're actively recording), I also use Audacity (a free recording and audio converter). Audacity is great so far- super easy to use.

I have a decent mike too, that I bought after looking up other LP'ers online to see what they use- it's a blue Yeti mike, and was about $100 (but my husband got it for me as a birthday gift, so I've been blessed).

After recording, I'll pop the fraps .avi and the converted audacity .mpg file into a free video editor (I'm using VSDC Free Video Editor now), and create a new .avi file from that. Thankfully, then end video is not too large and I can keep them.

Hope that isn't too much detail, but things tend to seem more difficult to start up than they actually are. :D