Do people playing non modern games find wants hard to fulfill, seeing as a lot of wants can involve modern objects? e.g. buy car, play computer game, blog about hobby, stargaze, read novel, woohoo in hot tub (to pick some random ones) etc.

Well I didn't make any of them fortune. Sims don't normally roll wants for things like computer game or whoohoo in a hot tub unless they have one or went to a community lot with one. I do see buy a smoke alarm wants after a fire, but for the most they roll wants to skill, have a baby, bird watch (not happening) throw a party (not happening) talk about hobby, make friends, best friends, BFF with X sim. Those are the most common wants. I'm playing Cave Bear Tribe and I have her want a baby locked, she is due in a few hours. A bit before they were low so I gave them a date. Make out and whoohoo wants add up to a lot. Sims can be trained somewhat and will always tend to roll more of the same kind of wants that you fulfill.

Why not a party, Jo? Just because you need a phone to throw them? You can always buy the phone just long enough to throw the party and resell it.

Nail on the head there, in my opinion. I find that playing my prehistoric people as family sims is indispensable. If all your sims have family as their primary aspiration, then basic tribal cohesion and evolutionary success through mating and reproduction are the major factor in how happy they are. You can use secondary aspirations to represent their personalities. I tend to use knowledge, though, to use impart knowledge, like I mentioned. As tribes get more advanced, populations grow and life gets easier, I'll consider opening up new secondary aspirations, like romance, pleasure and popularity. No-family primary aspirations will also need to be unlocked, though. I wouldn't let my sims have fortune until there is a large economy that's really humming, other wise a lot of the fortune aspiration rewards wouldn't make much sense. I plan for fortune sims to be a major asset, since their ability to invest money is extremely valuable in a nothing-is-free hood.

Cave bear tribe founders are one Family/Knowledge and one knowledge/Family sim, Wolf Tribe founders are one Pop/Family and one Pleasure/Family sim and Sand Tribe I think are just Family. I'll have to check. I didn't want every sim to have a primary of family as that would get too boring. What I did though was use the sim manipulator to set everyone as family, knowledge or pleasure and roll LTW until I got doable ones and then changed their aspiration to something else on some of them. It wasn't just for ease of filling LTW or wants but also realism, I don't want prehistoric sims rolling wants for bowling allies. I know when Sand Tribe rolled the fire alarm wants it made me stop and go oh that looks weird. What with the amount of cc and the way I play their life feels quite real and the want looked out of place.

Pleasure sims I've found are the ones who roll lots of wants like buying electronic entertainment. Knowledge sims are a PITA with their bookcase and telescope obsession lol.

@Charity, yes, it was a whole new experience. I was used to my sims running around in platinium mood and had to adapt that green doesn´t mean the end of the world. Now I´ve come to cherish every want fulfilled.
I use suggested aspirations for each tribe, though exceptional individuals are allowed, as long as they are used sparingly.

Cromagnon - Romance and Pleasure. Pleasure was a great mistake because of the constant dating-wishes I cannot get rid of. Since they do not care about relationship scores when it comes to woohooing the 20-woohoos-LTW was never easier to fulfill.

Neander - Knowledge to represent their cerebral approach, and strive for perfection from earliest age in plus Popularity - which seems contradictory to their loner mentality, but the Popularity Sims have the lowest sexual drive, so it works for them.

Obed - Family (females) and Fortune (males).

The idea here is that the 3 races will one day merge into the Sims we know today. I think Heimlichbourger´s approach is very accurate when it comes to simulating the real process, while I tend to think in symbols and archetypes. I love your suggestion that secondary aspirations represent the individual´s character and will incorporate it in the next generation. A reasonably open mind and a certain amount of studying (befriending a sim or watching a captive) the "outlandish thinking" will be required, though.

I've been trying to come up with ideas for the different tribes in my game. It's looking like there will be four different tribes, as detailed below. Comments and suggestions are appreciated - especially with regards to names for the last two tribes! I seem to have hit a blank.... :-D As you can see, I have adopted lots of ideas from this thread, which is proving to be a very interesting read!

I know I could but I have a no phone rule. Maybe by second generation I will get them a shell phone just to 'blow' to alert other tribes to a gathering. It's only the one pop sim right now who has party wants.



See now I don't find this. Are these your prehistoric sims with no electronics available anywhere? If mine has rolled it, I've ignored it and it goes away because the more you ignore what you don't want and encourage what you do want the more you will train them to roll better wants. If you mean a regular pleasure sim who lives around electronics then yes he or she will want more of them. There is no telescope so no wants or automatic looking through one.

I'm sorry but I couldn't help but think of Meerkats when I read this. If not Meerkats, then you could consider Bison or Hyena, Just my two cents.

laura I don't know how i missed your long post there.

Your Dolphin Tribe sound very much like my Sand Tribe only I haven't given them any kind of religion. I have wondered if I should take gardening right away from them as they do have lots of fish, as well as the castaway coconuts, bananas and paw-paw.

I have my Wolf Tribe live in trees on the plains, but like yours they are mean and live off wild boar. I have thought of having sons fight for leadership but so far they are infertile (I think the gods had better intervene there) They just breed their first litter of wolf puppies, although I am unsure now what to do with the puppies.

I have my Cave Bear Tribe who are serious live in caves in the hills. I got that name from 'Clan of the Cave Bear' books. That's the only similarity. I have mine be the magic holders and at some point they will make a trek to the BV witch Dr.

I gave each tribe one of the 3 BV greetings.

How about 'The mammoth Hunters', The Plains men' or 'The Amazons'

Thanks for the suggestions! :-) In the end I opted for animal names, and I wanted them to be animals that actually exist in the 'hood - which is a shame, because I rather liked the idea of the Meerkat Tribe! So they're the Goat Tribe and the Fox Tribe (I plan to use stray fox-like dogs or cats as foxes).

None of my tribes will be magically inclined, but when someone is abducted by aliens and gives birth to a half-alien baby the baby will become a witch/warlock when they become a teen. I haven't decided yet what they will be able to do that non-magical sims can't, so suggestions would be welcome! :-) I don't want to just play them "as EA intended" - I do like to add something extra to supernaturals if I can :-) And I want their existence to really benefit the tribe that they're born into.

All of the tribes will expect "dowries" to be given when a sim moves between tribes to be married. For most tribes it will be the women who leave their birth tribe, but for the Goat Tribe it'll usually be the men. Non-firstborn sons and daughters from any tribe will move between tribes, however.


That's an awesome idea! As I have four tribes they won't have a gesture each, but the chest pound one will be perfect for the Wolf Tribe :-)

Haha yes, I gave Wolf Tribe the chest pound as it seemed the most aggressive. I find it amusing to see them do the BV greeting to other tribes and watch them go 'Err??"

And I like the idea of stray cat foxes. I should download some animals and turn them into strays. Can that be done on the simblender or simlogical teleporter?

Do you mean you want them to have an ability apart from their magic spells? Like talk to plants? I can't think of what other ability would help the tribe.

The teleporter has the option for sure (I think!) - I'm sure I've made pets into strays before. I was going to use fox-like cats as the foxes but I found a fox-like dog I really like so now I'm not sure.....

I edited above while you were posting.

I'm going to take a look at the animals on here, I seem to remember a llama and a panda.

Yes, I'd like them to be able to do something as well as their spells, as I'm not sure how many of their spells I'll actually allow them to use. In my main modern game magically inclined sims are allowed to own servos (but not make them, only true Fae can do that), money trees, and Simslice's harvestable plants and use the love potion. I'd like to have something prehistoric that my magically inclined sims could have as a bonus as well. Perhaps not an ability though, it could be an object that only they can own and/or use.

There is the voodoo doll, which I know there is a buyable version around.

I'm going to download some 'sheep' to wander around and maybe later to keep as a herd. I would like to use Rebeka's but the sound file drives me crazy. So like the pigs I will only buy one to eat. There are also Sheepoos and Lamboodles lol, now I'm not sure which I like better. The Lemurs are also adorable.

Bed time for me, but I plan to keep thinking! As all of the magically inclined sims who have the extra ability/object(s) available to them will be aliens perhaps some kind of alien technology or power might work. Shall have to consider it further! :-)

I've been rewriting my tribe descriptions and adding more details - plus altering some bits so that they fit in better with the CC I have available! :-)

Those sheepoos are cute. I use Rebecah's sheep - the sound isn't an issue as I play with the game on mute as I'm generally doing other stuff as well, like listening to music or watching TV/DVD's. I'm sure I miss out on some good stuff but it's totally worth it to me that annoying sounds don't get to bug me!

**ETA** I do have a question to add before I (finally) go to bed though - what do you all use for maternity wear for your prehistoric sims?

Wow, heaps of new stuff to think about, very exciting! The fishing based tribe being artistic and cultured seems to be a natural choice; you guys have the Sand and Dolphin tribes, and I've been playing the Wasser tribe in a similar way, lots of ornamentation, playful, artistic personalities, and so forth. It probably has to do with the fact that being open to the sea tends to make places more diverse and cultured.

The idea of using primary aspirations to represent a given tribe's cultural leanings is new to me, and seems very promising, I'd be very interested in trying it out. In fact, lots of this conversation is making me realize some of the limitations of the way I've been playing prehistoric sims. My family-only, evolution simulating approach has its merits, but it can be quite limiting; it tends to make it a numbers game, at the expense of storytelling. I tend to rush through generations, playing in high speed, not bothering to give my sims clothing that suits their culture until their elders, when I dress up their ghosts In my next iteration I'd like to play on low speed and perhaps even with free will off, to play out my sims lives in more detail.

@Enki- your idea of new cultural ideas becoming accessible through contact with other tribes or interrogating prisoners is fascinating- I tried to simulate that in my current iteration when I had a "bride capture" (the Hamlek patriarch took a shine to a Wasser tribe maid) where the bride carried copies of her tribes myths (novels) with her, representing cultural influence. I was hoping to eventually use that as another way to represent progress. Each sim is only allowed to write one myth, and generally only as a result of some kind of significant event (some is struck by lighting, their tribe domesticates their first dog, sees their first ghost, etc.), though they produce many copies. I was planning on making certain items available once a tribe accumulates a certain number of myths (maybe studying fire safety or lifetime happiness, etc.), which would reward the more open-minded cultures. By the way, that first bride capture produced new myths in both tribes

I've done two dry runs now and I'm about to start a third iteration that I hope will become my long-term hood, but this time instead of starting my five tribes simultaneously, I think I'll just start with two gorilla sims, like bnefriends mentioned on the previous page, then play out the founding of other tribes through migration, so that ultimately every single sim in my hood will come from that common wellspring, something like early humans migrating out of Africa and settling the rest of the world. I'll introduce variations in genetic features each time a migration occurs and a new tribe is founded by making mates with those traits. Actually, that idea initially came from a myth my fishing tribe had:

"Chaos slept and sang on a far reef, sat on her eggs and held them to her breast. Raptor dove and scratched and harried her, but she lashed at him with her terrible claws and nothing availed him. Then one day when the sky was black enough to hide his wings, he tore her eggs from the reef and flew away with them towards his native shores, and dashed them against the rocks, thinking to eat the flesh inside, but when he did man emerged from the egg and killed him with their bows. Man could not swim back to the reef, and Chaos wept for her children, and her imperishable tears filled the ocean."

The "tears" were the real goal of that myth- they found some sea glass and started using it for ritual purposes (each urn is decorated with a bowl of sea glass and the sea glass necklace can only be worn by high-status members of the tribe, for example) so I wanted a myth to explain their significance. However, I realized that the myth also suggested a migration across the sea, probably not under ideal circumstances, and I wanted to make events like that part of history as well.

I don't plan to keep this hood prehistoric forever, in fact, what I really have in mind is a Victorian type hood with an ENORMOUSLY deep backstory, but I'm happily experimenting with ways of playing prehistoric times, since I'll only have one chance to lay the foundations for the future

Thanks for the reminder of the beach tribe and culture. Now the babies have slowed down I will get them to start doing fire dancing rituals. It's a natural progression as they are ones who can 'make' necklaces, so art and culture naturally comes from that.

I don't know if you have it, but MATY has some castaway stuff. Sand Tribe will get the limbo and drums, Wolf Tribe will get the hot coal walking pit and Cave bear tribe the potion bench. The bench is funny as you can make a penguin potion and a whole party of dancing penguins turn up and dance with your sim, only I don't think Cave bear tribe would like anything quite so silly.

Free will all the way. Only time I have turned it off has been for posing and filming. I also use a longer age mod and only play on speed three while they sleep. It's good to slow down and learn about your sims.

Nah, a normal neighbourhood. I haven't got around to doing a prehistoric one yet. But, I find that knowledge sims roll the telescope/bookcase want straight out of CAS.

Teleportation? I always intend to add that to my alien sims, and if you have both BV and the Book of Talent, they don't have to meditate for hours to acquire it. And perhaps the ability to teleport could also give them the ability to bring something normally off-limits back to the tribe, because they can teleport to where it is.

Oooh, now I understand where all those stupid buy this do this wants come from in my Test of Time hood. I always roll a dice to determine what they get, but on second thought it would be better to only use family and knowledge.

That's not a bad idea.... :-)

Further question: What do you guys use for clothing for your prehistoric sims? So far I've hardly found anything - a few loincloths and fur/leather dresses and that's about it really. No maternity wear, as far as I can tell :-( The climate's going to be fairly warm where my sims are, so I'm considering having them go naked most of the time, with accessories like flower garlands and hair flowers for the Dolphin tribe, fur and leather cloaks for the Wolf tribe and wooden/bamboo jewellery for the Fox tribe. And something for the Goat tribe - not sure what yet though! :-) Suggestions would be appreciated!

**ETA** I posted a couple of photos of my test-Dolphin tribe couple, Caram and Talia, here.

I know I've seen mods out there that allow for pregnant women to wear any clothes. Squinge, I think, has one at Insiminator.