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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 2nd Sep 2009 at 10:52 PM
Default The 'Colony' Challenge - beta version
This is a challenge I kicked around in Sims 2 but was never able to fully implement the way I wanted due to the necessity of playing every single household to keep them on the same timeline. It is similar in some ways to the Royal Kingdom challenge, only it serves more as a prologue to it. The goal is to take a small group of settlers and grow your colony to a thriving, self-sustaining city/small town over 5 generations. Originally, class distinctions don't matter much but over time some families will rise to the aristocracy while others fall. I appreciate any feedback on this - it is in beta test mode right now.

Premise: A small group of settlers crash lands on a deserted planet (or island if you want to play historically). Can they survive the challenges to come or will they be wiped out by circumstance and shallow genes?

Setup: Start with 12 families - you need a good variety in order to keep the gene pool propagating. Use the prosperity method to determine initial members. Households MUST be genetically sustainable – i.e. no all-elder families. Additionally, there must be enough diversity within the community that any unmarried heirs have a non-heir marriage prospect. Finally, if playing with patriarchy/matriarchy rules a founding member of the family must be the appropriate sex and of an age to have children.

You can control the clothing and look of the founding Sims as well as the relationships between them. You may also select one trait that serves as a ‘family trait’. All members of the direct bloodline born to that household must be given that trait as soon as it becomes available. All other traits for both founding Sims and born Sims must be randomly selected.

You can use either Riverview or Sunset Valley for your neighborhood. Since this is a colony, some careers/services are not immediately available. More will be added each generation. Delete all homes and everything except the School, Science Lab, Military Base, City Hall, Cemetery, and Grocery Store. If playing Riverview, keep the fish hatchery as well (I *think* this is needed to get saltwater fish. If I am wrong then delete it too).

General Notes on Game Play: This challenge works best if using a story mod like Indie Stone or Awesomestory. You will need them in order to control Emigration/Immigration and some aspects of certain households as they rise in status. By default, however, story progression should stay on. Since you are deleting community lots, you may also want to download a set of cloned harvestable nodes for ensuring a supply of bugs, rocks, and seeds.

When you first put in your families, you will want to turn off story progression and aging. If using a mod, globally turn of emigration and immigration as well. Play each family for roughly one Sim day to get them a house, a few basic skills, and setup in your chosen careers. You may place your family in any lot you choose. This becomes the family homestead and cannot be moved.

Once starting families are placed, turn story progression and aging on. You may play any household for any length of time – however you need to make sure all your houses follow the rules below so you will need to frequently pop in to monitor everyone. If using a mod, you may selectively turn off the ‘marriage’ progression for your base families and set ‘move lot’ to off.

In order to let families rise and fall up and down the social ladder, I had to create three temporary classes – professional, trading, and farming. Each generation some members of these classes will move up or down to the next class and others will become fixed within that social sphere and be known by the more conventional class labels of noble, merchant, and peasant. By the end of the game you will have one Royal family, four Nobles, three Merchants, and four Peasants which you can then use for playing a Royal Kingdom.

General Rules:
  • Heirs must be born on the lot and may never move off it
  • No adoption allowed unless it is to bring back into the game a member of one of the founding households
  • Children take the ‘class’ of the household they are born into
  • “Spin-off” households take the class of the primary parent for Nobles and below. Any household founded by a member of the Royal family is considered Noble.
  • No money cheats can be used
  • No eating fruit to determine sex of children
  • Birth control is allowed but not encouraged - remember that genepool!
  • A generation starts when the Royal family’s heir for that generation reaches young adulthood. All siblings of an heir are considered to be part of that heir’s generation.
  • All status change rules for families go into effect as soon as that generation starts.
  • Status changes only affect that generation’s heir and his/her children.
  • You may only buy community lots that your class is allowed to hold a career in. Peasants and Farmers, however, cannot own any lots.
  • All children must go to school. Peasant/Farming family teens may not attend High School.
  • Career limitations (not all careers will be available initially, adapt as needed to the generation)
    • Royal family – heir must go into politics. Non-heirs may also go into Science, Military, Medical, Criminal (Emperor of Evil track) or cemetery
    • Noble families – heirs limited to Politics, Science, Military, and Medical. Non-heirs may also go into Criminal (Emperor of Evil track) or cemetery
    • Merchant families – heirs limited to Business, Culinary, and Journalism. Non-heirs may go into any full or part-time job.
    • Peasant families – heirs limited to Criminal (Thief track), Culinary or Grocery Store. Non-heirs limited to grocery store. Only one person per household.
    • Professional families – heir limited to Noble family careers. Non-heirs may go into any full-time job or cemetery.
    • Trading families – heir limited to Merchant family careers. Siblings of heir limited to careers based on class of their parents.
    • Farming families – one person per household may work part-time
    • Only Merchant and Trading family teens may take part-time jobs.

Founding Generation:
  • Children and teens created in CAS are considered part of the founding generation
  • Select one founder/heir to hold the ‘political’ career. All heirs from here on out must go into that career. This is your Royal family.
  • Select one founder/heir to hold the ‘medical’ career. This is your first Noble family.
  • Of the remaining households, select 5 to be your professional class and 5 to be your farming class
  • You may optionally have one founding professional family with an heir working part-time at the cemetery if you wish to play a multi-generational priest/pastor household. Treat them as part of the professional class. In this household only heirs may work at the cemetery.
  • All founders are created equal and anyone may marry anyone
  • No painting or writing for profit allowed (only for fun)
  • You can earn money playing the guitar – all colonies need a good party now and then.

First Generation: Now that the colony is established, a steady food source is assured, and the surrounding area explored and secured it is time to focus on creating a thriving economy. Add in corporate towers and restaurants.
  • Select your wealthiest/most successful Professional family. This is now your 2nd Noble family
  • Select your wealthiest/most successful Farming family and send the heir into either Business/Culinary career. This is your first Merchant family.
  • Select your two least successful Professional families and send the heirs into either Business or Culinary careers. These are Trading class families.
  • The Royal heir must marry within the nobility, all others can marry anyone
  • In order to preserve the history of the Colony, you may begin writing non-fiction books and auto/biographies for profit
  • All other rules from the founding generation apply

Second Generation: Your colony is getting bigger and need has arisen to keep up to date on current events, all those historians need a way to get their books read, and with the rise of commerce comes exploitation – add in a newspaper, library, and criminal warehouse.
  • Select your wealthiest/most successful Professional family. This is now your 3rd aristocratic family
  • Select your least successful Farming family and send the heir into the Criminal career. This is your first Peasant family.
  • Select your least successful Professional family and send the heir into Business, Culinary, or Journalism. This is your 2nd middle class family.
  • Compare your least successful Trading family with your must successful Farming family. Swap them if necessary so the most successful family is in Trade. Send the heir into Business, Culinary, or Journalism for the Trading family.
  • All members of the Royal family and heirs of Noble families must marry nobility or above. Non-heir nobles may marry merchants. Everyone else can marry whoever.
  • All other rules from the first generation apply

Third Generation: An active criminal element requires law enforcement to stop it, expanding commerce means more shops, and the passing on of the founding generation creates a desire for documenting their exploits – add in a police station, bookstore, and art/history museum.
  • Select your wealthiest/most successful Trading family. This is now your 4th Noble family.
  • Compare your least successful Trading family with your must successful Farming family. Swap them if necessary so the most successful family is Trading class.
  • Fix all classes. All Professional families are now Noble, Trading families are now Merchants, and all Farming families are now Peasants.
  • Marriage Rules:
    • Royal family – may only marry nobility.
    • Nobility – heir must marry nobility or above. Others may only marry merchant class or above
    • Merchant class – heir must marry merchant class or above.
    • All others may marry anybody.
  • Now that there is a place to sell them, books of any type may be written for profit
  • Now that there is a place to display them, paintings may be sold for profit
  • All other rules from the second generation apply

Fourth Generation: Your colony is secure, financially stable, and running along at a nice place. Finally folks have time (and money) for leisure activities. Add in the stadium, movie theatre, and spa. There are no additional rules for this generation but make sure to check career limitations for the different classes.

Fifth Generation: Congratulations – you have survived and should now have a bustling, thriving community. At this point for added challenge you could continue to play using the Royal Kingdom rules or similar. Time to add up points:

+ 1 for every founding household still in existence with an heir who is able to continue the line
+1 for every heir of a founding household born on the planet
+1 for every additional household
+1 for every painting of an heir or founder hanging in the history museum
+1 for every auto/biography written of an heir or founder in the library
+1 for every unique LTW achieved per founding household
+1 for every unique skill challenge achieved per founding household
+1 for every founding family the Royal heir is descended from
+5 for any founding families who made it from farmer class in the beginning to nobility

Hope you enjoy.
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Test Subject
#2 Old 4th Sep 2009 at 3:15 AM
I had an idea similar to this, and was actually going to call it the Colony Challenge as well. Our ideas are different, but yours does seem good. I'll have to go think of another name now...
Lab Assistant
#3 Old 4th Sep 2009 at 3:23 AM
I thought of an idea like this but it was settlers(Sims in this case) who found a new country (HUGE plot of land in this case) but I couldn't get it to work in my head.Yes, I was in the beginning of 8th grade history at the time XD
Test Subject
#4 Old 8th Oct 2009 at 6:31 PM
Has anyone attempted this challenge and have pictures to show for it? I'm planning to start up my own version, but would love some inspiration to go on.
Test Subject
#5 Old 18th Oct 2009 at 5:49 AM
how do you get a new planet or island
Test Subject
#6 Old 18th Oct 2009 at 5:51 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Legendary Bard
I had an idea similar to this, and was actually going to call it the Colony Challenge as well. Our ideas are different, but yours does seem good. I'll have to go think of another name now...


wat about the adam and eve theroy
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