Baby Boomer II: 50 Days of Extreme Parenting

[Pam]

So this is not normal behaviour? 

Not at all!  I've play lots of toddlers and I don't think I've ever had the parents refuse to take care of them.  What happened when you gave the command?  Did it disappear from the upper left corner?  And it happened a lot?

[Schipperke]

  I've play lots of toddlers and I don't think I've ever had the parents refuse to take care of them.  What happened when you gave the command?  Did it disappear from the upper left corner?  And it happened a lot?

Both of the parents had a - what's the right term? - an indication in their queue that said "carry __ (child's name)."  The commands I was trying to give them came in behind that one.  I couldn't cancel their "carry" action and they wouldn't stop doing it.  Twinmum, thanks for the suggestion, but there was no problem with the parents getting to the children.  Two of the children with failing needs were the ones the parents were carrying.  If it had gone on much longer, I think the kids would have died.  And by the way, these parents aren't evil or anything - both of them are family oriented.  Do you think this could have anything to do with the recent patch?

[Pam]

Did it happen just the one time, Schipperke?  Or did it happen several times?

[annieb]

Both of the parents had a - what's the right term? - an indication in their queue that said "carry __ (child's name)."  The commands I was trying to give them came in behind that one.  I couldn't cancel their "carry" action and they wouldn't stop doing it.  Twinmum, thanks for the suggestion, but there was no problem with the parents getting to the children.  Two of the children with failing needs were the ones the parents were carrying.  If it had gone on much longer, I think the kids would have died.  And by the way, these parents aren't evil or anything - both of them are family oriented.  Do you think this could have anything to do with the recent patch?

I had this problem too, but it wasn't as bad. For me it happened when some of my infants were aging up to toddlers. The dad would pick up an infant and just walk from point to point for awhile (I think the longest was around a sim hour) and finally he would set them down to have their birthday. Is that what happened to you?

I didn't find a way to fix it, it just worked out in time. It is annoying though and I think I'll  make sure that infants needs are good before birthdays happen.

[pallyndrome]

do parents life time wishes count in the scoring or is it just kids?

[samoht04]

Helen is on her first Pregnancy, the house looks like a legacy starter home, hate those bad moodlets from 'uneven cooking' or 'tastes like fridge', how do they even know what a fridge tastes like O_o

[Metropolis Man]

do parents life time wishes count in the scoring or is it just kids?

All LTW count, including the parents. Just remember that all LTW have to be different from each other.

[samoht04]

Just remember that all LTW have to be different from each other.

If they are the same can you just not score it, I ddin't realise Parents counted too, they both have surrounded by family one... Can we change it later on?

[Metropolis Man]

If they are the same can you just not score it, I ddin't realise Parents counted too, they both have surrounded by family one... Can we change it later on?

Yes. The bad news for you is you need to waste lifetime happiness points and purchase Change Lifetime Wish as soon as you are able to do so and have the points. I specifically say in the rules that ALL Lifetime Wishes need to be different, not just the children's.

[NancyJ]

Does anyone really feel I need to state that you have to have freewill turned on? Has anyone ever felt that was optional? Let me know. As alway I want to keep the rules as brief as possible, so more additions is not what I want.

Me. I'm not trying to be difficult and I haven't turned it off myself (although I considered doing so in the nectar challenge but in the end I couldn't be bothered) but it never even occurred to me this wouldn't be allowed - its not specifically forbidden in any rules and its not a cheat or modification. If anything that's a normal part of the game is forbidden then it should be mentioned - else how are people supposed to know?

I appreciate that you want to keep the rules as brief as possible but how are people to know something is a rule if its not there? 5 challenges in and this hasn't been mentioned before - what if someone has turned off free will for the 4 previous challenges? Are they disqualified?

[Metropolis Man]

Does anyone really feel I need to state that you have to have freewill turned on? Has anyone ever felt that was optional? Let me know. As alway I want to keep the rules as brief as possible, so more additions is not what I want.

Me. I'm not trying to be difficult and I haven't turned it off myself (although I considered doing so in the nectar challenge but in the end I couldn't be bothered) but it never even occurred to me this wouldn't be allowed - its not specifically forbidden in any rules and its not a cheat or modification. If anything that's a normal part of the game is forbidden then it should be mentioned - else how are people supposed to know?

I appreciate that you want to keep the rules as brief as possible but how are people to know something is a rule if its not there? 5 challenges in and this hasn't been mentioned before - what if someone has turned off free will for the 4 previous challenges? Are they disqualified?

Of course not. You make some good points and I'll make it a standard rule from this challenge onward. With the other challenges in progress it just won't be an issue.

[Schipperke]

Did it happen just the one time, Schipperke?  Or did it happen several times?

As in the post from Annieb just after yours, it was when the babies were ready to age up.  Previously when this happened, the parents would drop everything to take the babies out of their cribs and put them on the floor.  This is the only time I've seen them walk up and down carrying the babies for 3 hours.

[Schipperke]

Does anyone really feel I need to state that you have to have freewill turned on? Has anyone ever felt that was optional? Let me know. As alway I want to keep the rules as brief as possible, so more additions is not what I want.

Me. I'm not trying to be difficult and I haven't turned it off myself (although I considered doing so in the nectar challenge but in the end I couldn't be bothered) but it never even occurred to me this wouldn't be allowed - its not specifically forbidden in any rules and its not a cheat or modification. If anything that's a normal part of the game is forbidden then it should be mentioned - else how are people supposed to know?

I appreciate that you want to keep the rules as brief as possible but how are people to know something is a rule if its not there? 5 challenges in and this hasn't been mentioned before - what if someone has turned off free will for the 4 previous challenges? Are they disqualified?

Of course not. You make some good points and I'll make it a standard rule from this challenge onward. With the other challenges in progress it just won't be an issue.

To keep the rules a reasonable length in the individual challenges, maybe you might consider having a section with "general challenge rules" that apply to all challenges.  Just a thought.

[samoht04]

It's not too bad about having to change the LTW of the Husband because he won't be playing much of a role in all this apart from the making the babies part. Someones got to make some money to get a better oven!

[Please use preview before posting to catch typos and errors.  -Pam]

[Metropolis Man]

To keep the rules a reasonable length in the individual challenges, maybe you might consider having a section with "general challenge rules" that apply to all challenges.  Just a thought.

I appreciate it. But, I think it's best if the entire rule set accompanies each challenge. I'd rather not have players look elsewhere to familiarize themselves with standard rules. And then there's the issue of the occasional exceptions I make (allow a cheat, etc).

[AriaGirl77]

Ok, just read through the rules before I get started.  I'm wondering, do all children have to be born from the starting couple?  It says you can move people out after they turn elder, so does that mean that once my starting couple become elders I can move them out and have more babies to bring in a third generation?

Just thought I'd make sure before I really get going with this.

[Metropolis Man]

Ok, just read through the rules before I get started.  I'm wondering, do all children have to be born from the starting couple?  It says you can move people out after they turn elder, so does that mean that once my starting couple become elders I can move them out and have more babies to bring in a third generation?

Just thought I'd make sure before I really get going with this.

Correct. Although don't plan on having much time to do that. There will probably be a tiny window for that to happen.

[Delta33]

Sounds like an interesting challenge. I'm in!

[samoht04]

Metro, should the same couple be able to breed and whatever for the fifty days? Or will we have to actually get a new couple?

[Metropolis Man]

Metro, should the same couple be able to breed and whatever for the fifty days? Or will we have to acctually get a new couple?

This is too much information and gets into strategy. You'll need to discover that for yourself.

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EDIT: I played a little bit this morning. The Nelson's house is completely full now at 8 Sims. There's Tony and Jeannie. And in order of appearance we have: Adam, Brian, Carl (I had to do a Carl!), Daniel, Edward, and Franklin. Whew, thank goodness no more babies for awhile. And in case anyone's curious, they just all turned out to be boys. It was not intentional. I never got boys in real life, so I might as well get a truckload in a game! 

[simfulicious]

My Disbrow house is full too!  I have Allan, then the triplets (Benoit, Caleb, & Duncan), followed by the twins (Eva-lynn & Fiona).  Five toddlers at the same time is just a LITTLE harry, which leads to my question:

Do you get a warning notice (like in TS2) that you're mistreating your children?  Or does the Social worker just come on by?

[Metropolis Man]

My Disbrow house is full too!  I have Allan, then the triplets (Benoit, Caleb, & Duncan), followed by the twins (Eva-lynn & Fiona).

Ha. You're doing the alphabet thing too. 

Five toddlers at the same time is just a LITTLE harry, which leads to my question:

Do you get a warning notice (like in TS2) that you're mistreating your children?  Or does the Social worker just come on by?

You'd have to get a warning. Having kids taken away is too big of an epic fail to not give a player a warning. Pam would know for sure since she's dialed in to anything connected with parenting—I have not received any. To be honest, there were moments during my first two weeks in this event where I really thought I would. There just aren't enough hands to go around sometimes and some kids get neglected. It's finally calmed down a bit with some of the kids in school. I feel like I've been playing this challenge for 5 months already. I'm already eager for the single Sim Political "Traiter" Challenge! 

[NancyJ]

My kids don't have names - they have numbers, much easier to remember who they are lol. Having trouble getting the kids to sleep through the night - its miscalculating the amount of time needed to be fully rested, I have to keep sending them back to bed and my toilet vanished (happened in both my test runs too ?!) Down to only 1 toddler now though so it should get a little easier. In my test runs (didn't go all the way - I'm not that mad!) I always had a single, twins and then triplets - this time it was single, twins, twins, single so I'm 3 days behind where I expected to be I can't believe I'm halfway through already.

[annieb]

My kids don't have names - they have numbers, much easier to remember who they are lol.

Ha! That's funny! My kids all have names and I did a good job of keeping them straight for the first four kids. Unfortunately, my last two kids are almost teens and I still have trouble with their names!

If I wanted to add another challenge to my game (which I don't), I would change all their hair color to be matching. Most of their looks are so similar! It would basically be like having two sets of identical triplets. On a different note with the hair color, one parent has brown hair and the other has blonde. For my kids, 3 have blonde hair, 2 have brown, and one has... black? It's really random and I've never had that happen before!

[NancyJ]

I've got a random one too - mum is blond, dad is black with pink tips. All 3 girls and 1 of the boys have mum's hair, 1 boy has dads and the last kid has brown hair.