hey, okay.. I love challenges. My most favorite is playing the castaway challenge - tribe challenge. One family alone on a tiny island trying to survive. I love going for realism, but have a hard time following most of the challenge rules/point counting.

Sooo.. I kinda changed up the challenge. I really dont understand the concept of selling items - winning the game by the amount of money you've collected etc...

This is my first stab at this kind of thing, but perhaps together we can all brainstorm something that works well... okay here goes!

CRAFT ABLE SIM-LIFE CHALLENGE

CHALLENGE:
First off... forget money.. you really dont need it living on an island.
2nd - forget things like walls, doors, beds, counters, fridges?!! (like really?) stoves. no way!


Start off with your favorite couple. Dress them up appropriately. Place them on a empty lot.If you have pets expansion this makes it alot easier.

Make them gender specific.
Females = cooking, wanting families, gardening, clean, nurturing, scared of the dark, etc..
Men = fisher, brave, daredevil, logic, handy (these help later on) etc..


Getting started:
Easy = buy yourself 1 of every veggie from the store to get started
Hard = You must first find seeds before you can plant anything.

Rules: You can give yourself a fire pit (castaway mods/theme are perfect for this realism)
BUT:
EASY = Only sims with the brave trait can light the fire for meals/night time
HARD = Only MALES can tend the fire AND they must have the brave trait in order to do this.
children born later without this trait CAN NOT touch the fire, can not relight/put it out
Fire Rules = must be lit by brave sim before family can sit down to eat it. Must be relit during the night. This is to (protect family/group from wild animals and provide warmth)

-if the fire goes out during the night - you must wake up your brave sim and have them relight it.
Family sims must sleep within close proximity of the fire place in order to benefit from the listed reason stated above (you want the fire is nice mood let)




Okay so you have your pit. Men with fishing trait can begin fishing for meals. Women can starting hunting for seeds - or easy version get to planting.

PETS EXPANSION RULES
FOOD/MATERIALS
your sim Can not change their clothes, buy rugs/curtains (later) blankets for beds (later) or even sleeping bags WITHOUT acquiring fur.
So those wild animals running around become even more important
Wild animals can only be used once. So chose carefully what you want to use them for and keep track.
Use mods to delete them immediately after you have harvested them. (without mods not sure how to get rid of them - maybe someone else will know)

Wildlife harvested will give you either Fur or "meat"
1 raccoon = fur size of small rugs, small curtains, baby clothes, baby crib blanket (inside crib) etc..
OR 1 meal (hotdogs/stu surprise)

Easy mode = can be group meal
Hard mode = meal for only 1

DEER = medium size skins (2 sleeping bags or 1 small tent) or 1-2 group meals (you decide easy or hard) (steaks/burgers/roasts/shwarma etc)

HORSES = large (carpets/blankets for double beds/large rugs/ large tents or 2 small tents etc) 4+ group meals
What this simply means is - you can not make these meals without having the ingredients, and you can only get the ingredients by "harvesting" them.
And you can not make skins/leather/fur items (anything soft or necessary to complete an item) before acquiring it. A bed can not be made without (wood + 1-2 size equivalent animals skins)

Keep track somewhere each time you harvested your item and how much.
If you are harvesting meat then you can have your sim "go the store" and buy it)

(of course you can chose to have your sim only eat veggies and fish - and just use the animals for fur)


BUILDING RULES: Sims CAN NOT build anything WITHOUT acquiring either the materials AND the skills necessary.

What this means is:
Trees planted - once fully grown your planted trees can be used to either harvest from OR chopped down for materials (wood) One fully grown tree = 1 bundle of firewood. (if you have the bundled wood decorations these are perfect. Delete a tree (or sell it) and give yourself 1 bundle of wood from your deco to help you keep track.
Easy mode: 1 tree = 2 bundles of wood
Hard mode: 1 tree = 1 bundles of wood.
1 bundle of wood = small sized objects (1 chair/1 building arch/1 baby crib etc)
2 bundles = 2 chairs/small table/shelves 2 or more/ etc)

In order to build a worthy sim male must level up his sculpting. Every sculpting session works as the equivalent to 1 building session. The level of the sculptor will determine how much your sims can build in 1 day, and the material they use determines what object your sim is will build from.

Examples = Sims sculpts wood level 2 + 2 bundle of harvested wood = 2 chairs or 1 small wood table, or 1 small baby crib or 2 wood arches
Get the idea? Use your best judgement to determine how much each item would require in order to make the item.
A bed would probably require 2-3 bundles of wood depending on the style/difficultly (is it a bunk bed? Is it a single or double bed) etc..
You must replant trees in order to chop them down to use for materials.

Clay building = level 1 sculpting = 1 square of floor or wall or 1 arch (must be decorated to resemble the material used) Clay structure = rock looking
Level 2 sculpting = 2 squares unlocked, or 2 squares of wall or 2 arches etc.. or 2 squares of roof
(clay gathering is something I am still trying to figure out - I usually just place a large rock on the lot and go by sculpt level) Ideas?

Upgrading your sims life:
logic and sculpting go together
Increase your logic level in order to "learn" how to build other most useful items.
(counters/tables/chairs/beds)
again use your own discretion
or:
Logic level 2 = sinks/very basic bathtub
Logic level 4 and up = unlocks counters / fridges (think no electricity more for just storing food/fish)
Logic level 5 = beds
Logic level 6 = stove
Logic level 7 = stairs
Logic level 8 =
Logic level 9 hot tub
(if anyone wants to help out with this ...)

Some other ideas Im playing with - could use some feedback with

Painting + logic = writing unlocked
Logic + handy =


Tips:
castaway has a box toilet thing that looks perfect
Showers can not be unlocked until logic and building skill has reached at least level 5
Mod to open sponge bath from sink is really useful
Or: if you using testcheatsenabled true I think you can increase your hygiene level on your own after your sim takes a swim. (perfect if you build a pool and decorate it to resemble the ocean - Or increase slightly after brush teeth/wash hands etc)

This challenge might work well using the same concept as the going through history challenge, where each generation born becomes smarter and therefore can build more and more logic inspired objects. (hot tubs/pools/stairs/double stories homes/) as well as unlock things like (inventing table = which would then with logic unlock things like instruments / nectar making / bars / language = writing)

Extra challenge:
Each sim when sitting down to eat must have 1 piece of fish and 1-2 pieces of veggies
So sharing is necessary (can click and drag object - or give as gifts)


Anyways! This is my first challenge.. and I know it probably seems really ridiculous, but I have attempted this challenge and I did find it enjoyable and hard at times. I'm hopeful that with everyone that is interested brain storming together, perhaps we can come up with some good craft able sim-life experiences.

Be nice plz!

reserving

Really? nobody?? Aww.... **sad face**

I like your ideas; I don't have the pets EP so it wouldn't work the same way for me. I have been working off and on at building a small island world for this sort of challenge, though, so it makes me want to go back and work on that. I honestly like the idea of using skills to gain items, though, and not using a point system. I just couldn't follow your rules since I don't have pets.

I keep coming back and looking at this challenge. I like the concept, but it's not very clear. You should really have a list of what is acceptable for the very beginning. It says for there to be a fire pit, is there anything else we can start off with? Can we have a couple of sleeping bags, or do we just wait for the sims to pass out and hope they do so by the fire? The rules imply that a sculpting station is allowed, but not what other skilling items can be used. For logic, as an example, what's allowed? Books, chemistry set, chess, dominoes? Just some things to think about.

You're right, It is kinda jumbled and all over the place. Lots of things need to be thought out completely, thanks!
I will work on it

Looking forward to it. :D

I love this challenge!

http://tarascastaways.blogspot.com/

I really like this.

This is actually really ironic - I had created a similar challenge for my own enjoyment way before I ever saw this thread. I had also thought about the whole concept of 'building' furniture only if the sims had the resources and only if they had unlocked the appropriate level in sculpting. However, the whole idea about the fur is a really good idea - it never even crossed my mind, so I'm going to try incorporating it into my game. Something I did put in my game that you don't have is the usage of minerals and gems. I sent out my male sims to collect gems where they could (using a horse as transport of course) and only when they had collected gems/minerals the worth of the furniture they wanted were they allowed to 'create' it - provided they had the skill in sculpting. You might eant to use that idea in your challenge - it'll explain where the rocks and clays come from .

So starting this challenge right now and seeing where it goes since I have all the EPs and seasons is going to of course make it really interesting.

A note from my head, I know you are attempting to make the meat/skins portion difficult BUT at the same time, you can take both from an animal since they are two different parts.

I'm in the midst of playing with something in regards to inventing and logic when it comes to some of the basic electronics like radios as I've created a very small junkyard on one of the many beaches on the otherwise pristine island my couple have for themselves on.

I've noticed Seasons adds an interesting twist to this challenge since for the first week on the island, it's summer and they are pretty much constantly so hot that they can't do anything outside of gather for large chunks of time. Each has gotten the 'Immune to Hot' lifetime reward which seems to be speeding up the hut building.

interesting though it might be good to post links to island worlds people could use for this challenge ------>especially ones which do not require every freaking expansion pack...... (can you tell im frustrated with worlds i love with too many eps......)

I really want to try this challenge, and don't like keeping score either. I want my sims to survive long enough to be able to be "rescued" to move to another world. I picked a small custom world with nothing on it, and it's missing a lot of spawners. Can anyone give me tips on how to set up this castaway island to fit this challenge?

Good challenge, but a bit hard to understand. Now, I understand if English isn't your first language, but if it is you should use proper grammar and punctuation.