More challenging challenge

[rohina]

I've been thinking about a new sims challenge, after reading lots of Legacy stories, and playing the email challenge myself, with mixed results. The cool thing about the email challenge is that the things that make it - er - challenging are there throughout the duration of the challenge. It seems to me that the Legacy gets a lot easier after a generation. (That is, you eventually get money, and the marrying of NPC or townies is not that big a deal.)
I'm still formulating my ideas, but I was hoping for some feedback and suggestions. Here's the basic idea.
I was thinking about a single family, multigeneration challenge, but adding in a different obstacle for each generation. To make it interesting from a storytelling standpoint, I wanted to frame the obstacles as phobias or personality quirks of the family heir. When the heir becomes an adult, he/she can impose his/her mania on the rest of the family. My ideas for handicaps included the following (they could really be played in any order):
Generation 1 - pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Heir/head of family is opposed to formal education, and prefers to learn by life experience. No bookshelves, no private school, no university.
Generation 2 - virtue is its own reward. No use of aspiration rewards at all, ever. No career rewards allowed, either.
Generation 3 - agoraphobes. No going out, no dates, no parties.
Generation 4 - morals need to be stopped from going down the drain. No personal displays of affection in public, no cheating, no dancing.
Generation 5 - controlling matriarch/partriarch. No one is allowed to move out of the house, even for college; bonus points for having 7 people living in the house at all times.
Generation 6 - we're landed gentry. No one is allowed to get a job.
Generation 7 - reaction to the gentry generation - egalitarians. No hiring of service sims at all, ever.
Generation 8 - superiority complex. No non-family friends.
Generation 9 - popular culture is evil. No electronics.

I think there would be a rule about skipping a handicap for one generation, but then you would have to play 2 handicaps in the following generation. I have some ideas about how the rules would be implemented, but I wanted to know if people thought it was interesting, first.

[Regina]

I think it's very interesting.  I doubt I would play it but I think a lot of people would.   The handicaps definitely add more challenge, like you say.

[jewels]

I really like this idea. I always lose interest in other challenges, such as the Legacy Challenge, because it becomes less difficult once the family has some money and are established. Of course, no problem here with Pescado's Email Challenge, can't seem to make it a week without losing my perfect score I really think that this more challenging challenge would be really good.

[J. M. Pescado]

You haven't even beat Email yet. You don't NEED a harder challenge.

[rohina]

I didn't think email was about winning. I thought it was about zeitgeist. Anyway, I wasn't looking for something harder than email, just emai-like in its degree of difficulty.

[rohina]

I echo the 'interesting idea' comment. I might give this challenge a shot, since I tend to get bored with the Legacy Challenge after a generation or two. I can never come up with enough enthusiasm to finish the entire challenge. From the looks of it, generation eight and nine might be the hardest to play, and generation four the easiest.

I was thinking that the scoring would offer bonus points for playing certain aspirations in particular generations. I think the perceived difficulty of each generation would depend on how you play, of course. Generation 1 would be much harder with a knowledge sim, and Gen 4 would be harder for romance sims.

[Andygal]

I was thinking if you wanted a reaaalllly evil challenge you could try doing email with a vampire in the house . Now that would be eviiil. No walls so if they phone rings they get woke up and they get toasted.

Or would that be *too* evil?

[witch]

What I like most about the idea is the variety. Most challenges are the same thing over and again.

You could also have a gay generation, one that doesn't like physical activity of any kind, one where a sim could not hold a job above a certain level - once promoted they have to change jobs, one where they all joined a cult and had to live communally - ie eat and sleep and play in the same space. I can see heaps of potential.

[rohina]

Excellent suggestions, witch. I really like the fat slob generation idea - so lifelike!

[witch]

Be interesting to see if being fat slobs makes the sims' lives shorter, I've been wondering but done nthing structured towards finding out.  Probably lots could be learned by focussing on one thing at a time.

[Zeljka]

A serious flaw I've found with the game is that you can't have real slobs. Why is it that my 5th generation of Legacy which was completely spoiled, lazy and sloppy felt compelled to tidy up dinner plates and clean the toilets? Why is it that they may begin to mop when they could be standing by idly waiting for the servant to get it?
Despite having a number of 0 neat sims, I've only seen one who completely hygeine failure sniff the green fog and sort of giggle, then unconcerned, start dancing. The others race to the nearest shower. They all whine about filth regardless of 0 neat and 0 cleaning skill. Hey, maybe someone will eventually make a slob mod? heh heh

[lindaetterlee]

I loved this idea for a challenge so I decided to play it a bit and see about personal rules I would impose based on the short descriptions of each generations handicap.

I started with a CAS sim. Picked any aspiration and any turn ons. I hate doing this as I prefer to have random Sims that seem to have their own wants not my imposed ones so the next step was to by my sim the largest log (6x5) in nightlife. From there I used TJ's college adjuster to randomize the Sims personality and aspiration. This would give the sim a chance to be some what of a mystery to play. From there I let my little knowledge sim (yeah remember saying round one sucks for a knowledge sim. well it does.) get a job and begin trying to make it. Now one rule I made for myself is every person teen or over has to have a car. Simply to take funds away from the family and make it more interesting. Next the starter sim has to wait 7 sim days before getting married or moving in another sim. If your starter is female she can get prego during that time but daddy can't move in. I also imposed the rule that the starter Sims marriage/ or marriages had to all be for love and chemistry. EX. two or more lighting bolts. Other than that you are welcome to choose any spouse. Next I imposed the rule that the sins of the father or mother will visit the child. Meaning if the parents do not allow x during there generation until there generation dies the not allowing of x is still valid. So example the first generation can not use bookcases. Therefore until they die there offspring can not use bookcases or attend college etc. Also if said first generation is resurrected their handicap goes back on everyone in the household until they die again. Now continuing with above example. Children start the second generation; the parents do not face the child's second generation handicap.

Ok so this is there I am at so far. My second generation just grew into children and toddlers. The Starter Sims is 5 days from elder hood and mother closer to 17. So I decided to make up another rule. Midlife Crisis, only one per sim, Will either occur if your Sims loses there job for the first time. Or has never lost a job but makes it to there 10 days before elder hood mark. I used TJ's college adjuster again to randomly chance aspiration. That way it spices up there lifespan and their elder wants etc. In my game the starter sim who is knowledge became a romance sim at his midlife crisis. His wife is also a knowledge sim I am dying to see what she will be.

Anyway hope everyone likes these suggestions.

Linda.

[rohina]

Wow. You made it a lot harder than I had in mind. I hate the poverty handicap, so my rule is to allow one motherlode at the start.
As far as when the handicap changes over is concerned, I wanted a bit more turnover, so my rule is that the handicap will apply to the household for the duration of the heir's adulthood. Heirs will develop their personal issues when they become teens and get aspirations, but cannot impose them on others until they are adults. If your heir turns teen and his/her parent is already an elder, perhaps there will be a power struggle in the house. Maybe both obstacles will be in place until the teen is an adult and becomes ascendant.
I also think that members of the family who are being forced to live in these regimes may rebel a little. That is, perhaps if your heir's wife during the no bookcase generation doesn't have that good a relationship with him (as happened in my house, they were living together, but not yet in love), she might be inclined to sneak out to a community lot an study mechanical. It would be okay for the spouse or children to try to get around the rules, but not the person who was the source of the obstacle. Thus, heirs may have two handicaps to deal with during their teen years, but once moved out to college (if they could, depending on the generation) they could ignore the household rules.

[lindaetterlee]

I love the poverty aspect hehe. I love imagining that my started sim is a imagrant with only enough money for land and a tiny bit left over to start his life over. I never use motherlode or kaching never have unless i am testing something in a none save lot.