Proposed Challenges

[Schipperke]

Twenty-one challenges next year?  Wow, we are all going to be very busy, particularly you, Metro.  Looks great.  I'd like to suggest that one of the 21 challenges be an idea that someone posted here some time back - a hobo challenge.  I don't remember the details of the original suggestion, but it started with a single sim buying the big expensive lot near the Altos and a small tent from buydebug.  Until the sim had achieved their lifetime wish, they were prohibited from earning money or making other purchases.  Once the LTW was achieved, they could start earning money.  There were other stages to this, I can't remember it all, but the object was to ultimately own all the purchasable properties in town.  With Ambitions, that could involve doing upgrades as well.  I liked this idea and played it on my own - it was a lot of fun, and I think others might enjoy it as well.

[Metropolis Man]

I like the idea of the Legacy event being a tournament outside the tournament and lasting the year. That is good. Or you could make it the finale but just make it start in the beginning. I don't know how that would work but it was an idea.

Pam suggested to me the idea of the Dynasty event — or whatever I end up calling it — be timeless. It's a good suggestion. The wheels are turning and I'm getting some ideas, but nothing even worth putting down on the workbench yet. The only thing that keeps coming to me at this point is 1000 days. It's a monstrous number and just sounds so impressive a feat if it can be done.

The 100 day-ers aren't too bad with a single sim, I think the random wishmaster's quartet wore people out though, 100 days with 4 sims is a lot longer than 100 with 1, and thats before vacation time! I do like the races though, but I might be biased, the 2 events that I won were races.

I think the vast majority of the short 2-week events will be "race" type of events just due to their time span. There's only so many ways to score events and when I throw something at you guys and you literally have 2 weeks to complete it, it can't be anything more complicated than — "How many bottles of nectar can you make in X days?" "How many Books can your author write in Y days?" etc, etc. Really, really basic stuff where we don't have to think too much because the longer events will need more concentration.

[Schipperke]

Pam suggested to me the idea of the Dynasty event — or whatever I end up calling it — be timeless. It's a good suggestion. The wheels are turning and I'm getting some ideas, but nothing even worth putting down on the workbench yet. The only thing that keeps coming to me at this point is 1000 days. It's a monstrous number and just sounds so impressive a feat if it can be done.

What about an event that begins in January and doesn't have to be finished until December?

[Metropolis Man]

What about an event that begins in January and doesn't have to be finished until December?

Yeah, possibly. I just don't know yet if I want to commit to having the Dynasty event as an official part of the Tournament. There's too many players that continually trickle in all year long and they would be at such a disadvantage to try and play a file for 1000 days if they showed up in summer and tried to do all the regular Tournament stuff on top of that. If it's completely open and timeless, then there's less stress for everyone.

[AriaGirl77]

I'm not sure that making a 1000 day challenge is such a good idea.  Even the Legacy Challenge works out to be around half that amount of time.  You're talking about 142 weeks of game play, can you just imagine how many bugs a game file will have after that length of time??

[Pam]

Aria has a good point.  I like a generational timer.  Like, the challenge ends when the heir of the 10th generation ages to young adult and thus takes over as head of the family.

[Metropolis Man]

I'm not sure that making a 1000 day challenge is such a good idea.  Even the Legacy Challenge works out to be around half that amount of time.  You're talking about 142 weeks of game play, can you just imagine how many bugs a game file will have after that length of time??

Really? So, it's around 500 days for 10 generations? Okay, then yeah, 1000 days would be insane. I'll think some more on this.

[AriaGirl77]

I completely agree with Pam, the generational timer works out fine for the Legacy Challenge.  One of the rules is that you have to leave the game set at Normal life span, the rest sort of works itself out.  Oh, and no death flowers are allowed.  You can grow them, you can pick them, but you must not leave them in your inventory.

[Metropolis Man]

But, I'm not going to copy Pinstar's rules. I want to try and come up with a different way to end the Dynasty. It may be similar — but I can guarantee you the Dynasty will not come to an end when the 10th generation heir is a YA. That's just a rip off and I won't do it.

[Pam]

We had a suggestion from one of our members that the Founder be immortal (through the use of Death Flowers).  I sort of like that idea.  Maybe even extend it to Life Fruit and Ambrosia.  The Founder never dies and watches over his/her descendants as they take over the town.

[Telsey]

Neat idea Pam about the founder never dying.  I really am not too good at dying Sims bits anyway.

21 challenges made me think of Coming of Age.

[Schipperke]

Neat idea Pam about the founder never dying.  I really am not too good at dying Sims bits anyway.

I completely agree!  That's the only thing about the Grim Reaper challenge that bothers me.  I've never had a Sim die and am not looking forward to it.

[MomOfMany]

Could you end the challenge after something inevitable happens? Is there something that will happen in the town eventually but is just unpredictable when but obviously not for a long time? Just an idea...

[AriaGirl77]

In Pinstar's rule-set the inevitable conclusion is the birth of the 10th generation.

[Pam]

Could you end the challenge after something inevitable happens? Is there something that will happen in the town eventually but is just unpredictable when but obviously not for a long time? Just an idea...

Not that I'm aware of.  Nothing that would be dependable enough for a challenge.  Metro will have to build in the event that ends the challenge.

[Metropolis Man]

Right now only two ideas are coming to me on this whole Dynasty idea: the first is that your Founder is special and achieves the power of immortality (eating Ambrosia) the day they become an Elder. This family secret is only passed down to the first born of each generation. The challenge would end when you have 8 Immortal Elders in the same house (the 8th generation turns Elder and all other Household members would have died or there would not have been room in the house for others).

Another concept that might be interesting for scoring purposes is the Immortal's Room. This would be a showcase room for all 8 Immortals featuring an Ice Sculpture, a Photograph, and a Painting of each one. Maybe more items would be added too. But, the total value of that room when the challenge ends could be an interesting score.

[Sushi101]

The only thing that keeps coming to me at this point is 1000 days. It's a monstrous number and just sounds so impressive a feat if it can be done.

I love the idea of a legacy but I think I would kill myself if I even heard "1000 days" and "family" in the same post. Maybe for the legacy we could try a short time span instead of normal so it will be a little more easy to manage and wouldn't be as much of a marathon. As long as the only goal is to have babies and raise them to have babies there isn't a big problem with time.

Also the 2011 Tournament doesn't necessarily need a fancy name, just generic would be fine. Or possibly "Carl and Pam's 5th Annual Sims Tournament" or however many you have had.

I don't really see the point of keeping the first generation alive just to hang out. Seems like it would be a bit of a hassle to have to deal with an extra person and keep them alive with the fruits and everything.

Also I have to agree that the generation marker would be lovely. Would that make it a race, or what exactly would the main point of the challenge be?

[Metropolis Man]

I don't really see the point of keeping the first generation alive just to hang out. Seems like it would be a bit of a hassle to have to deal with an extra person and keep them alive with the fruits and everything.

I'm just looking for some kind of unique twist to this. And having 8 Immortal Sims — the firstborn of each generation — under one roof really is different.

EDIT: Though not exactly very creative, there's always the simple task of trying to accomplish everything in the game: have a single family spanning generations try and achieve all Lifetime Wishes, max all careers, finish all skill challenges, etc. There could be any number of additional requirements added — a best-seller written in each genre for the family library bookshelf, all spirit types collected, all tombs explored, every object in the entire game world upgraded, you name it.

Additional difficulty could be added by making the game length setting only Medium. That way, any individual Sim would be hard pressed to accomplish a great deal in their own lifetime.

There's the old expression — "Everything but the Kitchen Sink" so maybe a funny name could be the Kitchen Sink Challenge. Or Everything Under the Sun. A challenge like that would be much easier to construct for me compared to coming up with something completely from scratch. All I would need to do is pick various existing barometers and milestones for the household to achieve and then for the most part, it would be a speed test for score.

[Pam]

I think it's important is that the Dynasty (or whatever it will be called) challenge not be rushed.   I'd like for it to be leisurely and something players can leave and come back to as they wish.  Even leisurely while playing it without rushing to complete it in as little time as possible.  I also think that making it a requirement to finish absolutely everything in the game would make it overwhelming and would probably discourage players from trying it.  I'm seeing some good ideas here, though, and I'm excited about making it happen. 

[Sushi101]

I also think that making it a requirement to finish absolutely everything in the game would make it overwhelming and would probably discourage players from trying it.

I agree. Also I would prefer the goal to be more simple and fun rather than troublesome and exhausting. There are definitely some challenge I've seen that seemed like there was just too much going on.

[Metropolis Man]

You make a very good point, Pam. It's hard to break out of the Tournament mindset where so many challenges are a race against the clock. The Dynasty definitely needs a more relaxed feel to it.

[MomOfMany]

You make a very good point, Pam. It's hard to break out of the Tournament mindset where so many challenges are a race against the clock. The Dynasty definitely needs a more relaxed feel to it.

I totally agree with that. I think that if you did all that in one challenge it might take the newness out of the other challenges because they are all some form of that just in smaller portions. I definitely think laid back is the way to go for the legacy but I don't know how to determine an end for it. I was trying to help you by thinking of ideas and the only one I came up with I don't think will wok.

[AriaGirl77]

Part of what makes the Legacy Challenge fun and leisurely is that it's very open ended.  The beauty is that the choices you make with your family are going to be different than the choices anyone else makes, and after a while the family sort of takes on a life of it's own.

I have played several variations of the Legacy Challenge, often the difference will be that 1 trait is required for all family members (except for spouses), that you have to control only 1 sim per generation, that you are limited on which items you can buy or how you build, or randomly roll for traits.  And then of course there's how you score it.  Do you give points for art work of each family member, do you subtract points if certain events occur, do you give points for wealth, or LTH points?

The framework in all of these are pretty much the same, and it seems to be the part that makes people want to try it.  That you have a founder, who marries, who has an heir, perhaps siblings, and then the heir marries, has kids, etc.  Leaving LTW's up to the player or roll of the dice.

Anyway, just thought I'd share the thoughts crashing around in my brain as I read this.   Personally, I think a set time frame would be a mistake, it would rush the participants and take away part of what makes a Legacy fun.

[Metropolis Man]

I'm making surprising headway with the Dynasty idea. I may even put up a sample rule set for feedback within a day or two. After it's polished, there would be no real reason to wait until Jan 1 to allow players to tackle it. It will be completely open ended, so I'll create a new thread and players can work on it at their leisure.

[Sushi101]

I have played several variations of the Legacy Challenge, often the difference will be that 1 trait is required for all family members (except for spouses), that you have to control only 1 sim per generation, that you are limited on which items you can buy or how you build, or randomly roll for traits.  And then of course there's how you score it.  Do you give points for art work of each family member, do you subtract points if certain events occur, do you give points for wealth, or LTH points?

I like the idea of only controlling one sim and letting the others fend for themselves.