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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 6th Mar 2012 at 11:59 PM Last edited by Phaenoh : 7th Feb 2014 at 4:09 PM.
Default Sims 2 International
Challenge Basic:

In a complicated world of different countries, customs, and governments, what fate will befall your Sims?

Sections of Rules:


1. General Rules
2. Country Rules
3. Family Life
4. Country Points
5. Waging War
6. Colonizing
7. Revolts and Other Interactions
8. Checklist

General Rules:

1. Begin with five countries: an Autocracy, Theocracy, Democracy, Communist nation, and Anarchy. These may be in separate shopping districts, downtowns, etc, as long as they are in the same neighborhood.
2. Create three families for each country. They may be of any skin tone or appearance. They are to consist of a married adult male and female Sim. The lower class begins with $10,000, middle with $15,000, upper with $20,000, and tribes with $5,000. This applies to any children moving away from their house as well.
3. During the first five generations, townies may be married in, but they must marry someone of CAS descent. After five generations, townies may no longer marry in.
4. ONLY five families must be continually played per country throughout the challenge. There may be more if you wish. These families may be rotated or switched at the change of a generation (when all kids become adults). However, no family, even if un-played, may be placed in the Sim bin.
5. Non-played families still have their money counted towards the country’s funds, and are still part of the total number of families in each class, etc. They act as normal families but just remain un-played.
6. Rotation between families occurs after one Sim week, and rotation between countries occurs after each family is played once.
7. Seasons may be set as seen fit.
8. Upper class adults may earn any salary.
9. Middle class adults must earn a salary below $700. If a middle classman obtains a promotion through any means to a salary of over the limit, then they must quit their job and take a new one.
10. Lower class adults must earn a salary below $400 (If the career is military, the limit is $500), and have unlimited kids. If a lower classman obtains a promotion through any means to a salary of over the limit, then they must quit their job and take a new one.
11. For Sims marrying out of their class, roll a dice or flip a coin to decide whether the spouses both take the higher or lower class. There is a fifty percent chance of each possibility. Does not apply to the Communist nation.
12. Countries are to keep a running total of their international relationships. Each starts off as neutral (0).
13. Unless colonizing, Sims may not move from country to country. See International Marriage for marriage restrictions.

Country Rules:

Autocracy: Rule with an Iron Fist
1. Begin with one lower class, one middle class, and one upper class families.
2. The upper class family is to assume position as dictator. They act as sole leader of the country. The power is to remain in their direct descendants. You may choose the heir.

Theocracy: Rule with Religion
1. Begin with two lower and one upper class families.
2. The upper class controls the government based on their “beliefs”, which must be decided prior to beginning the game. This is done by selecting three interests (Ex. Politics, Toys, Fashion). These become the central beliefs of the nation. Any member of the middle or lower class who does not retain at least a five in one of these three topics must be killed.

Democracy: Rule for the Majority
1. Begin with three middle class families.
2. Unlike other nations, politics career track is available to the middle class, but does not promote people to the upper class.

Communist: Rule for Equal Distribution
1. Begin with two lower and one upper class families.
2. In this country only, there is no middle class. In order to marry from the lower to upper class, the lower-class adult must meet two lower-class-promotion requirements. Entire families may not be promoted between classes. See the Family Life section for class promotion rules.

Anarchy: Rule for No One
1. Begin with three tribal families.
2. They may own only the cheapest furniture from each section. Ex. cheapest fridge, cheapest sofa, cheapest dining chairs, etc. Certain items do not have a specified section, such as cribs. If this is the case, just purchase the cheapest version available if the item is absolutely necessary. Keep in mind, these are tribes, not luxury resorts.
3. They may only earn a living through fishing or farming.
4. This country may not perform any “government actions”, such as following the point system, revolting, building an army, holding international relations, etc.
5. Every time Sims woohoo, they must try for baby. Unlimited kids for all families.

Family Life:

Happiness Calculation (calculated at the END of the family’s rotation):
• Average aspiration points ÷ 100,000. (Add all Sims’ aspiration points together, then divide by the number of Sims to find the average. Then divide this number by 100,000.)
• One adult’s salary ÷ 500; OR If both adults have a salary, add the two amounts together, then divide by 700.
• Number of community lots ÷ 20
Take the sum of these amounts. If they are less than 1, the family is deemed unhappy.
**If the country is at war, you also subtract ½ the number of family members who died fighting from the total family’s happiness.

Class Promotions (Must meet two requirements):

Middle to Upper Class:
• A house worth at least $200,000
• A salary of at least $600 in one adult for at least thirty days
• Ten upper class family friends

Lower to Middle Class:
• A salary of at least $300 for at least twenty days
• A house worth at least $100,000
• An army position in both adults (military career)
• Seven middle class family friends

Class Demotions (Must meet three requirements):
*Demotions only apply to families who are more than seven days old, to protect new families from getting demoted immediately.

Upper to Middle:
• A house worth less than $50,000
• Neither spouse is in a “respectable career”, such as Doctor, Scientist, etc. These are careers that normally you would need a college degree for. Also included in the “respectable” category are politics and military.
• A salary of less than $600
• Less than four upper class family friends

Middle to Lower:
• A house worth less than $30,000
• A salary of less than $400
• Less than two upper or middle class family friends

Political and Military Careers:
Politics is available to those only in the upper class, the only exception being the Democracy, in which politics is available to middle. Military is available to those in every class, regardless of nation. Both careers are also available with the cost of Nation Points.

Nation Points (may be spent once per country rotation):
Nation Points are points the country may spend on different Actions. Actions dictate global relations between countries. Points are tallied at the beginning of each rotation, and if there are any leftover after a country’s rotation or purchasing an Action, then they may be carried over until the next time the country is played. Only one Action may be purchased per rotation.

Tallying Country Points:
• Number of upper class families x 7
• Number of middle class families x 5
• Number of community lots x 1
• Country funds (sum of all house values) ÷ 100,000
Add all these values together to find the total number of points you may add.

Actions:
• Wage War: 1,000
See Waging War restrictions
• Colonize: 400
Sends two adult, unrelated Sims or one family to a foreign country. Increases the relationship with this country by 5. See Colonizing restrictions
• Create Population: 300
Adds three CAS Sims to the country. They may be related or not.
• Increase Government Officers: 300
Allows two middle or upper class adult a career in Politics. This promotes middle class citizens to the upper class.
• Build Army: 200
Allows three adults of any class a career in Military.
• Create Community: 200
Adds one new community lot.
• Crack Down: 600
Shuts down Protests by killing half of protesters. See Protests restrictions
• Loosen Up: 800
Stops Protests peacefully. See Protests restrictions
• Negotiate: 500
Two countries negotiate. Raises relationship by 15.
• Intimidate: 500
Threatens another country. Lowers relationship by 15.
• Form Alliance: 400
Increases the relationship with one country to 50.

Waging War

Requirements:
• One country must dislike the other at least -50, or both must dislike each other -20. Then the Action “Wage War” becomes available.
• Allies are any country in which there is at least a 50 relationship

War Actions (to be used in place of regular Actions, when two countries are at war):
• Attack: 500 Points

To calculate who wins:
Divide the number of soldiers of the attacking country by four. If this number is less than 1/6, then you can only roll a one on a die to win the attack. Between 1/6 and 2/6 means you can roll a one or a two, etc. If you win, roll the dice to see how many army members you kill from the opposing nation. If you lose, roll the dice to see how many of your army members die.
• Nuke: 100,000 Points
Annihilates the other country and 4/5ths of its citizens. The remaining citizens become part of the victorious nation.
• Treaty: 100 Points
Uses one turn. The other nation may accept, decline, or modify the treaty. If modified, it is returned to your nation to accept/decline.
• Utilizing Allies: Free
With allies, the chance of winning is upped by 1/6.
• Winning (one required):
I. The other country has zero points left
II. The other army has been completely destroyed
III. 4/5 of the other nation’s people are unhappy
=The valorous nation takes over the losing country.

Colonizing
When Sims from one nation immigrate to another, those Sims become part of the new country. Their societal class, happiness, etc, are carried over. If a middle class family moves to the communist nation, they become lower class.
When Sims move to the Anarchy, until the Anarchy becomes a full-fledged nation, they remain part of the nation that sent them. They are counted in their previous nation’s happiness numbers, funds, etc.

Colonizing the Anarchy:
Requirements for making the Anarchy a country (all must be met):
• Two thirds of the residents are either tribal members or members of one colonizing nation
• All careers and furniture must be unlocked.
• 10,000 Points must be spent.
=the Anarchy is adapted into the colonizing nation

Once more than two families from one nation have colonized the Anarchy, the nation may choose to spend Points on industrializing once per turn. Industrializing unlocks all of the furniture or careers in each category. As soon as an Anarchy family takes a career, they progress to the lower class.

Furniture Categories, sorted by Room:
• Kitchen: 500
• Bathroom: 400
• Bedroom: 400
• Living Room: 500
• Dining Room: 300
• Study: 300
• Kids: 200
• Outdoor: 200

Career Packages:
• Natural Science, Science, Medical, Oceanography: 800
• Culinary, Artist, Music, Dance, Architecture: 800
• Law Enforcement, Intelligence, Criminal: 700
• Entertainment, Gamer, Slacker, Paranominal, Adventurer: 900
• Business, Law, Education: 700

Other Interactions:

Revolt (requires four):
• Half of residents are lower class
• The country has less than $300,000
• There are less than five government officials
• One third of families are unhappy
If all of these requirements are met and the nation is over three generations old, then unhappy citizens and lower class citizens begin to protest. If the protest is not fixed in two rotations, then the country splits into two new countries. Half the Sims stay with the previous country, the other half enter the new one. The new nation can choose any form of government.

College and Vacation Destinations:
There is to be one international college for upper and middle class Sims of any country to travel to. Vacations are also open to the middle and upper classes of the Anarchy, Oligarchy, and Democracy.

International Marriage:
Sims may marry internationally, but a dice must be rolled. If a one or two is rolled, then the marriage may occur. International marriages always take the class of whatever country they are moving to.

Disasters and Miracles:
Once per generation (the youngest has become an adult), a disaster or miracle will occur. Flip a coin. Heads results in miracles, tails in disasters. Roll the dice:

Disasters:
1. Nothing
2. Nothing
3. Tornado. Every family must move to a new house, and loses half their funds in the process.
4. Nuclear meltdown. Nothing electronic may be used for five weeks, and those who become sick turn into zombies. If a human interacts with any zombie, they also become a zombie.
5. Famine. Once the fridge runs out of food, you may not order groceries or purchase a new fridge for three weeks. Pizza or Chinese food must be ordered constantly.
6. Stock market crash. Half of all families will be demoted a class.

Miracles:
1. Nothing
2. Nothing
3. Increased employment. All citizens may receive two promotions in their career track, regardless of class, regardless of salary cap.
4. Love your life. Maxmotives may be used freely for one week.
5. Increased currency value. One third of all families will receive one motherlode of cash.
6. Stock market boom. Half of all families will be promoted a class.

Checklist:
Use this as a checklist to ensure you don’t miss a step.

Beginning of country rotation:
• tally and spend nation points
• check for revolt
End of each family:
• happiness calculation
• check for class promotions/demotions
End of generation:
• disaster or miracle
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Banned
#2 Old 7th Mar 2012 at 12:23 AM
Wow, SwallowTail! You are actually alive! Your Test of Time Challenge has been pretty popular lately in the ModtheSims community, so congratulate yourself for starting the awesome challenge!

I just want to say that I looooooooooove your challenge! Can I have your autograph?

This is so cool! I think I would start one! Now, I just need to think of a way to incorporate that historical neighborhood into this game challenge. (I have a historical neighborhood, though I could start a new sub-neighborhood that hosts this challenge... Hmmm... that gives me an idea.)
Test Subject
Original Poster
#3 Old 7th Mar 2012 at 12:28 AM
Quote: Originally posted by NollemD
Wow, SwallowTail! You are actually alive! Your Test of Time Challenge has been pretty popular lately in the ModtheSims community, so congratulate yourself for starting the awesome challenge!

I just want to say that I looooooooooove your challenge! Can I have your autograph?


Yes you can most certainly have my autograph, although its pretty bland. I guess that I am just still adjusted to the old Sims 2 site--haven't really given many other sites a try. I have an updated set of rules for AToT that I meant to get around to Ana with spelling edits, clarifications, etc (because let's face it, the current version is pretty messy ).
Lab Assistant
#4 Old 7th Mar 2012 at 1:17 AM
Hiya ST *waves* Glad to see you around ! I am up to my eyeballs in aToT of course so I wont be able to try this one but it looks great! When you get around to it send me your new rules for aToT and I can just update the thread with them. Unless of course you wanted to start a whole topic. Thanks again for such an awesome challenge. We are all having so much fun with it !

Follow along with the residents of Tesime on the Test of Time Challenge http://www.simslifeandtimes.blogspot.com/
Tesime Family Tree
Lab Assistant
#5 Old 7th Mar 2012 at 11:37 AM
OMG, a new ST challenge. ^^ Just like ToT it's detailed and gives an interesting setup, but leaves a lot of room for story development.
At the moment I have my hands full with ToT, though, and I'm not giving it up any time soon. But I do hope people will test this challenge, too, I'd like to read those stories.

I especially like the nation points and actions and the miracle/ desaster system. OTOH the nation setups (Country Rules) seem a little underdeveloped, so to speak. What are the functions of the rulers? When you say "rule with an iron fist/ religion/ majority etc." that sounds nice, yes, but what are the sims to do? ^^; My guess would be the ruler(s) decide(s) if/ how nation points are spent?

Maybe I just missed it, but how are international relationships calculated?

I'm also looking forward to the updated ToT rules. I think I came across something like that some time ago, but now I can't remember where it was.
...
...
Oh great. Now I'll be trying to somehow merge aspects of this challenge with ToT. XD
Test Subject
Original Poster
#6 Old 7th Mar 2012 at 11:14 PM
Quote: Originally posted by YukiShine
OMG, a new ST challenge. ^^ Just like ToT it's detailed and gives an interesting setup, but leaves a lot of room for story development.
At the moment I have my hands full with ToT, though, and I'm not giving it up any time soon. But I do hope people will test this challenge, too, I'd like to read those stories.

I especially like the nation points and actions and the miracle/ desaster system. OTOH the nation setups (Country Rules) seem a little underdeveloped, so to speak. What are the functions of the rulers? When you say "rule with an iron fist/ religion/ majority etc." that sounds nice, yes, but what are the sims to do? ^^; My guess would be the ruler(s) decide(s) if/ how nation points are spent?

Maybe I just missed it, but how are international relationships calculated?

I'm also looking forward to the updated ToT rules. I think I came across something like that some time ago, but now I can't remember where it was.
...
...
Oh great. Now I'll be trying to somehow merge aspects of this challenge with ToT. XD


I was considering trying to develop individual nation personalities, but then there comes the option of which country to direct the rules towards. I mean, Communist China today is tremendously different than the Soviet Union, and although Iran and the Vatican are both theocracies, they are incredibly different. I wanted to leave it up to the user to develop which countries they wanted to model after and how to play life out. For example, the countries I am using currently are America, USSR, North Korea, Iran, and Swaziland. Swaziland is technically a dictatorship but is still very rural, so I selected this for my anarchy, because in modern times, the only anarchies are very temporary. In Iran, I am following with Muslim customs (women fully clothed, etc.). In North Korea, electronics are not availiable to anyone of the middle or lower classes. I am developing my own rules to fit which countries I selected.
But it still does seem underdeveloped, I agree. I am torn between allowing simmers to choose their own countries, and between limiting them to a certain five nations but making the rules just how life would be.

As for the international relationships, they cannot be altered currently until Nation Points are availiable for spending. I may add in a chance of gaining or losing relationship points through roll of the dice once per rotation. Maybe. Hmm.

Let me know your opinion about the vagueness of the country rules. I am very on the fence about this issue.
Field Researcher
#7 Old 8th Mar 2012 at 7:36 AM
I say go vague in the rules and let the players fill in the blanks, but that's just me.

Hi ST! Another brilliant challenge, I'm adding this to my project list. Right underneath geneticising and townifying all my custom skins, townifying clothes, tidying up my Downloads folder, setting up VT's Test of Time II: Return to the Haunt, learning to create my own stuff....

*four and a half years later*

... and developing all my vague ideas, and setting those up, and... hey... where is everyone?

Kidding. It's probably about fourth on my to-do list now. (At least in Sim terms. You should see my room. ) But I will be trying it at some point, and I'll let you know how I get on with it.

By the way, it's not a dice, it's a die. (Sorry, but that is really irritating to the girl with the collection of over 100 dice.)

- VT

simblr
Home of my Kulo Seeri Test of Time and a lot of worldbuilder rambling. You have been warned.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#8 Old 8th Mar 2012 at 10:40 PM
Quote: Originally posted by nuidyaforever
By the way, it's not a dice, it's a die. (Sorry, but that is really irritating to the girl with the collection of over 100 dice.)

- VT


No, no! Thank you for correcting me! In real life I am a grammar nerd and I guess "dice" is one thing I've never noticed I was saying incorrectly.
Lab Assistant
#9 Old 9th Mar 2012 at 12:27 PM
Quote: Originally posted by SwallowTail 87
I was considering trying to develop individual nation personalities, but then there comes the option of which country to direct the rules towards. [...] I am torn between allowing simmers to choose their own countries, and between limiting them to a certain five nations but making the rules just how life would be.

Well, if you put it that way I have to agree with you. ^^ Sorry, it seems I completely underestimated you. I thought the challenge was about some generic state "models", not about modelling after real countries.
In that case I do prefer the way you chose. As I said, I love the space your challenges leave for individual rules and changes.

Quote:
As for the international relationships, they cannot be altered currently until Nation Points are availiable for spending.

Ah, so that's it. I really just missed it. Great idea.

Quote:
Let me know your opinion about the vagueness of the country rules. I am very on the fence about this issue.

Well... As I said, now that I know you did that on purpose, I have to say it's a good start for a setup. However, players now cannot just take your rules and start. They have to know they have to do their research first in order to get some really interesting nations. I personally still prefer it over a given set of real life countries. Maybe you could note in the first post that the rules might / should be expanded by each player. I've got the impression that a lot of challenge players play quite strictly according to the rules, so maybe they won't do that if they're not told to. Just think of all the players who startet ToT without huts. :/
Test Subject
Original Poster
#10 Old 9th Mar 2012 at 7:27 PM
Quote: Originally posted by YukiShine
Well... As I said, now that I know you did that on purpose, I have to say it's a good start for a setup. However, players now cannot just take your rules and start. They have to know they have to do their research first in order to get some really interesting nations. I personally still prefer it over a given set of real life countries. Maybe you could note in the first post that the rules might / should be expanded by each player. I've got the impression that a lot of challenge players play quite strictly according to the rules, so maybe they won't do that if they're not told to. Just think of all the players who startet ToT without huts. :/


Yeah, as soon as you mentioned it, I had the same idea.. So what I'm doing is I'm going to add an "optional" rules template using four countries I've selected. There will be a more in-depth playing style (for example I will be bringing presidents and political parties to the Democracy) for Simmers who would like a more strict set of rules. All four nations under the "optional" rules category will be based off the governments of America, Iran, USSR, and North Korea. I will not include the Anarchy under this template because, well, there isnt much development you can add to a country with zero rules whatsoever. :P
Lab Assistant
#11 Old 10th Mar 2012 at 12:41 AM
Sometimes too many choices are worse then only having a few. I too think you should have a base challenge for people so they dont have to think on it too much and then those that want to be creative can work around it.

Follow along with the residents of Tesime on the Test of Time Challenge http://www.simslifeandtimes.blogspot.com/
Tesime Family Tree
Field Researcher
#12 Old 10th Mar 2012 at 2:59 AM
I'll do this soon! Sounds to be fun... (Ill probably kick myself later for saying that....).
Test Subject
Original Poster
#13 Old 16th Mar 2012 at 7:41 PM
I have gone through one and a half (universal; all country) rotations so far. Keep me updated!
Lab Assistant
#14 Old 23rd Apr 2015 at 7:12 PM Last edited by SocialistBunny : 24th Apr 2015 at 10:04 PM.
I really wish more people were doing this! So many storytelling opportunities

I noticed you mentioned an Oligarchy. What would be the proper setup for that?
Instructor
#15 Old 5th May 2015 at 7:28 PM
Agreed -- awesome challenge with huge storytelling potential! I like how it is well-thought out and detailed enough to start, open-ended enough for individual creativity, yet not overwhelming, too long, or too prescriptive. I plan to start setting up this challenge tonight!

I would like to know more about the intention of International Relationships though -- is it the global relations between countries which develop as a result of Actions?

Find all of my Challenges in MTS Sims 2 Challenges "Ye Olde" Section:
Vllygrl's By George! Regency Play Style/Challenge; Regency/Victorian ROS;
The Medieval Charter Challenge & ROS for MCC;
The Crown of Laurels Challenge; & Besieged! New Medieval Challenge & Medieval ROS.
Lab Assistant
#16 Old 17th May 2015 at 7:43 PM
Anyone else doing this? I started and am only on my second family in the theocracy country of Brushwall. They are like omish people with an elder type that counsels them on how they are to live their life. So no electronics or modern conveniences such as sprinklers, t.v., computer etc. Men with beards and women in dresses. Their industry is producing food for the rest of the world. It is their trade. I thought each country should have one. They worship the 4 divines - (Interests) Weather, Environment, Work = all related to producing crops, and then school which is a daily discipline of practicing their religion. They commonly call upon a divine depending on what they need help in. The High Spector (elder) lives at the Oratory where all sims go when they become a teen. Until they reach teenage hood children stay home and learn the trade and about the divines. Once a teen they spend till adulthood learning about the 4 divines. When they reach adult the High Spector reads the oracle which tells them which spouse they will have and the work they are to do and even how many kids! All sims must attend "the gathering" every friday night. At anytime the divines may shine brightly on a baby and decide they are to be a Spector or High Spector and then they are taken from the parents at birth and raised to fill that role when they become an adult. This is because the Spector (council to High Spector) and High Spector devote their life to the divines so they do not marry or have offspring.

There is a strict 50% tax of all the money the household has at the end of the rotation. (basically they want the riches to be for the oratory and the sims to be broke to keep working!) If any sim tries to buck the system by withholding money, not doing what told etc and they are found out they are taken and must live the rest of their days out in the oratory as a servant who cleans and does household chores. This is explained to society as a way of saving the sim from their destructive path and righting it so they will gain entry to the resting place after death. So basically everyone thinks they are doing good to the person and don't question it. The servant is now viewed as a lower stature and brings shame to their family for seeing their family member so low. They are to wear servant garbs to always show their status.

Each season equals a divine so there is a festivity for each one. summer = work | spring = environment | winter = weather and fall = school

The country has no community works like hospital, firehall, police station etc. If someone dies from fire / sickness then it's the divines doing. The High Spector is the police.

The oratory run all community lot's and they are all geared to the 4 divines


Well that is what I have so far! I know it's crazy but I love that each country is going to have it's weird spin.
Lab Assistant
#17 Old 19th May 2015 at 1:44 AM
Okay I moved on now to the Anarchy country. Here is what I decided.

RULES - think of after an apocalypse - gang of thugs who do what they want with no society formed to stop them.
1.) there are no rules on how to live life or how to treat others. The only law in the clan is the leader but even that doesn't mean much since they only care about themselves.
2.) each clan has a leader and they are the strongest / most resourceful / smartest one of them all.
3.) if a sim wishes to overtake the leader they must prove they are tougher by declaring their intent and beating the leader in a challenge.
4.) if the challenging sim wins, old leader is put to death and all his family and belongings becomes property of the new leader. If the challenger loses, he/she dies.
5.) no plumbing, electronics or modern functions - limited housing space - crude huts, outhouses, crappy furniture
6.) no peace amongst the clans. If someone from another clan appears on the property must be captured, interrogated, killed or negotiated for exchange.
7.) townies can join a clan if only one sim is left to keep it going.

The only thing I haven't figured out is how they make money. Perhaps they don't or could dig up treasure.. hmm.
Instructor
#18 Old 20th May 2015 at 6:00 AM
Yes, I'm going to give it a whirl, too! I really like your ideas, Satrina, wow -- lots of detail!
Here's what I've done so far: I picked the Four Provinces terrain by heimskur (Plumbbob Keep); I thought it would be perfect for this challenge because it has five distinct areas where each group can settle. I like to play with a historical slant, so I have set my new hood in more or less "Georgian" times, with a backstory which essentially sets up a post-apocalyptic scenario. I have created 3 couples and their houses for all the groups except the Theocracy -- that is the last one to create, then I'm ready to play my first round. I have to be away for about 4-5 days, so I won't get anything more done on it for a few days, but I am really looking forward to seeing how this challenge plays out! Hopefully I will get some great stories out of it!

Find all of my Challenges in MTS Sims 2 Challenges "Ye Olde" Section:
Vllygrl's By George! Regency Play Style/Challenge; Regency/Victorian ROS;
The Medieval Charter Challenge & ROS for MCC;
The Crown of Laurels Challenge; & Besieged! New Medieval Challenge & Medieval ROS.
Test Subject
#19 Old 21st May 2015 at 10:41 AM Last edited by lisail : 22nd May 2015 at 4:31 PM.
I think I might give this challenge a shot as well

edit: I feel like Autocracy, Democracy, and Communist could really use a few more guidelines; like how with Theocracy you kill sims that don't have a high enough relevant interest. Anyone have any ideas?
Lab Assistant
#20 Old 27th May 2015 at 3:36 AM
Using magazines that can be sold in stores the sims can read them to gain interests points. So it's similar to christians who read the bible. The magazines are their way to keeping up with their faith. My rule is different. I don't kill them I just have them forced to live out their days at what could be seen as a convent. Pretty much it's a decision I make if I'm going to keep up their interests or not depending on my whims for that particular sim.
Instructor
#21 Old 29th May 2015 at 2:27 PM
I've finished setting up now, and I played the first 2 families in my Theocracy. I've run into a problem with them, because in the beginning, they haven't built up enough country points to earn a community lot where they can buy magazines. If they have to divide all their points by 100,000, it could be MANY MANY rounds before they earn enough country points to get a community lot. Therefore, I don't have a way to increase their interest level in the three interests I've chosen to be their "beliefs".
Since maintaining their beliefs is central to that government,I think what I might do is plop down a 1x1 lot with a magazine rack so they can buy magazines to increase their interest levels in their beliefs, because I don't know how else I can do it. Any suggestions?

Find all of my Challenges in MTS Sims 2 Challenges "Ye Olde" Section:
Vllygrl's By George! Regency Play Style/Challenge; Regency/Victorian ROS;
The Medieval Charter Challenge & ROS for MCC;
The Crown of Laurels Challenge; & Besieged! New Medieval Challenge & Medieval ROS.
Test Subject
#22 Old 30th May 2015 at 3:49 AM Last edited by lisail : 30th May 2015 at 4:55 AM.
You could give the starting families one free magazine, and that could be their family book that has been passed down. Or you could nominate one sim as a preacher for the community, and give him a magazine/s. Then you could have community gatherings (church?) where sims take turns reading the magazine (which would probably require a mod that lets you control visitors). That would also mean that there's a chance for some sims to fall through the cracks, and not be quite as faithful as others
Instructor
#23 Old 30th May 2015 at 9:16 PM Last edited by vllygrl : 30th May 2015 at 9:47 PM.
Good ideas, lisail! I am still trying various scenarios to work this one out . . . stay tuned for the results!

On another note, now that I have played through the Theocracy round (3 families) and the Communist round (3 families), I have realized there is another issue: after 7 sim days of play with each family, each country only accrued 7-8 nation points when you divide the country funds by 100,000.

By my calculations, at this rate, even taking in to consideration that the pace will increase as there are more family members to boost aspiration averages and more income to boost funds, it will take me approx. 20 -25 rounds with any given country to accumulate enough nation points to actually carry out the Action costing the lowest number of points (Build Army or Create Community, each costing 200 points).

That's a very long time, when you consider that there are 5 nations to play, so even conservatively, 5 x 20 = 100 rounds. I may not actually be alive at that point; maybe my heir will have to continue this!!!!

After mulling it over for awhile, I am considering dividing by 1000, 100, or even 10,000 instead of 100,000, as SwallowTail originally specified in the challenge. I did the math to see how soon I could access the Actions with those numbers, and if you divide by 1000 then it would take 3-4 rounds with each country to afford to buy an Action, which seems more realistic to me. Not that I want to accelerate the process uneccesarily, but I want it to be somewhat achieveable.

Find all of my Challenges in MTS Sims 2 Challenges "Ye Olde" Section:
Vllygrl's By George! Regency Play Style/Challenge; Regency/Victorian ROS;
The Medieval Charter Challenge & ROS for MCC;
The Crown of Laurels Challenge; & Besieged! New Medieval Challenge & Medieval ROS.
Scholar
#24 Old 21st Jun 2015 at 3:01 PM
I am taking advantage of the latest hood corruption incident to restart SimHampton as one of six competing nations. I've slightly modded the rules, partly because I am going to put a challenge within five of the nations* to help lend structure to the whole thing, and partly to include a multiplier for the nation points, aimed at resolving the problem vllygrl identified, that is dependent on how happy the Sims of a given nation are kept. I am assuming that a government with a bigger mandate from its people has the power to do more things.

* - The theocracy won't have a challenge incorporated, but the "progressive" (governance changes as civilisation advances) one will have a modified Test of Time in it, the monarchy a Royal Kingdom, the democracy a Build a City Challenge, the communist one an alien takeover attempt scenario and the anarchy will have a simplified version of the Hunger Games challenge in it.
Scholar
#25 Old 21st May 2016 at 6:57 PM
I'm a bit scared that it's taken me 11 months to get through 5 days (I play 1-day rotations, so that is 5 complete rotations, but still...) I'm still gently reshaping rules as I come up with more ideas.

At this point, only three of my nations (the theocracy, democracy and communism) have any action points at all. The communism has 54 action points, the theocracy 68 points and the democracy a whopping 108 points. All the nations are having trouble collecting taxes and keeping people happy, but that's reasonable as they're just starting out. The populations range from 9 (the "Test of Time" neighbourhood - one Sim had twins and then died) to 47 (the theocracy) - the population is decided by BACC rules, and there are between 9 and 14 actual Sims in each nation right now.

Everything is peaceful, except in the International Bank (which doesn't count towards any nation's population, but is there so that I can have an international financial system - that's under development), where two of the six siblings who run the bank keep fighting. This is just as well, as not a single Sim in SimHamptonWorld has worked a single day in the military! Maybe nations could send their police to attack each other with truncheons... ...though as only 4 Sims can do even that (one security guard and three prison officers), that would probably be a short scuffle too. So yes, it behooves everyone to play nicely.
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