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Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Episode 7 Royal Kingdom Challenge

Tonight we discussed the Royal Kingdom Challenge
We were lucky enough to be joined by the challenge creator, Carrie, or EnblithTheFair. She has created a lot of great custom content for this challenge that can be found here

If you'd like to join the Yahoo Group for The
Royal Kingdom Challenge it can be found here

Her interview with Maxis is found here


Without any further ado, here are the rules:

R o y a l K i n g d o m C h a l l e n g e

Do your Sims have a longing for days gone by? Do they want to shout ‘Huzzah! Long Live the King and Queen!’ Do they have a hankering for good old-fashioned servitude? Then it is you duty to transport them back in time several hundred years to live in Good Old Simland! Simland has a King and or Queen that presides over all of their loyal subjects. It’s up to you to make the strongest Royal family that you can. The fate of the Kingdom depends of you!

The Goal: The point of this challenge is to make a themed neighborhood with a royal family, nobility, merchants, and peasants/farmers and reach 5 generations with at least one family from each category.

- To begin you must make a new neighborhood
- Make 1 King and Queen for your royal family in CAS
- Make 3 or less families that will become the Nobel class
- Make 2 or less families that will be the Merchant class
- Make 3 or less families that will be the Peasant class

Rules for the Royal Family
- All money cheats are acceptable
- You may use boolProp cheats for building their castle
- You may download a castle for the royal family is you don’t want to build one
- The first-born son of the current King and Queen will become the heir to the throne and must never move out of the house except to go to university
- The heir to the throne may only marry a Sim descendant from the royal family or the Nobel class, but they may have lovers of any class (They can marry as close a relation as the game allows)
- The heir to the throne must be the legitimate son of both the king and the queen.
- Any illegitimate children of the Queen would not be a prince/princess but could marry a non-heir Royal or Nobel
- If you have university, all royal children must attend, but they can drop out after at least completing freshman year (except for the heir to the throne, he must complete collage)
- Women of the royal family are not permitted to have a job or live alone
- Don’t forget to use any influence points that a Royal Sim gets. Members of the Royal family should be able to influence their subjects
- Children must get accepted to private school (Keep trying until you get accepted)
- Non-heir Peasants may move in as servants to cook and clean

Rules for the Noble Class


- You may use the motherlode cheat only two times
- You may use boolProp cheats for building purposes only
-The first-born son will be the family heir and must never move out of the house except to go to university
- Only legitimate children can become heirs
- The heirs may not marry below their status (ex. They must marry noble or royal children)
- Women are not permitted to have a job
- Children of the Noble Class are encouraged to attend university, but it is not required
- Don’t forget to use any influence points that a Noble Sim gets. Members of the Nobility should be able to influence their subjects
- You can only use one elixir of life per Sim
- Children must get accepted to private school (Keep trying until you get accepted)
- Non-heir Peasants may move in as servants to cook and clean


Rules for the Merchant Class
- You may use the motherlode cheat only one time
- You may use boolProp cheats for building purposes only
- Although the eldest son traditional becomes the heir, if the eldest becomes enemy’s with his father, any of the children may inherit their father’s house and fortune
- The heir must never move out of the house except to go to university
- The heirs may not marry below their status
- Only single women may have jobs
- You can only use one elixir of life per Sim
- Children can only attend private school if their family has at least 5,000 available simolians in their account

Rules for the Peasant Class


-You may not use any cheats (except boolProp for building purposes only)
- Anyone and everyone are encouraged to have a job since they will have very little money
- Although the eldest son traditional becomes the heir, any of the children may inherit their father’s house and fortune and the heir must never move out of the house
-Children of this class are not permitted to go to university since peasants did not receive much of an education.
-Since they are the lowest rank, peasants may marry anyone except royalty.
-You may not use the elixir of life on a peasant since they generally would not live as long anyway
- Children are not permitted to attend private school
- The only service NPC they are allowed to hire is the nanny and the matchmaker

General Rules


- Unless otherwise specified you may not use any cheats. No mood or aspiration cheats and no hacks that alter a Sims mood, personality, aspiration etc.
-To keep all the families and classes in the same generation try to play each family for a specified number of days and then move on to the next family. Play one family from each class before you move on to the next class.
- Roll a dice (or pick from a hat) to determine the aspiration for teens.
-To avoid confusion try to stop your Sims from having an affair until after the heir is born
-Since reliable birth control was not used in the old days, you must choose ‘try for baby’ each time your Sims woohoo.
-Women always take the status of their husbands so make sure it is always the man who proposes
- Illegitimate children below Royalty will take on their mother’s class
- You should assign a hair color or skin tone to each Class for the townies so you know which class they belong to (example: All townies with red hair could be considered of the merchant class). However since Townies do not have a family tree they are less respectable and should not belong to the Royal or Nobel class
- NPC’s are like servants so they may only marry Sims from the merchant class or lower
-You may use move_Objects on only to decorate and move Sims if they get stuck or there is a glitch
-You are encouraged to use custom content that fits the neighborhood theme. Pick a theme and try to make your neighborhood fit that theme as much as possible.
-Try to use only objects that fit within the theme, this means no TV’s, computers, electric guitars, etc. if you are doing a historical theme for your neighborhood. You may however use objects in the small electronics section such as fire alarms. You may also use the smallest stereo in the Royal and Nobility houses since they would have had paid musicians to play for them at dinners and parties. (If you have to have a TV, there are custom made TV’s available that look like something else, like a painting or crystal ball)
-You may not delete gravestones
-You may use all reward/aspiration objects unless stated differently. If doing a historical theme, try to hide any modern looking rewards in a basement or attic.
- Hacks and mods are allowed for the purpose of making the neighborhood more historical accurate and Hacks and/or mods that make the game easier are not permitted

Career limitations:
-Royalty would be limited to Artist, Natural Science, Paranormal, Politics, Science, Military and Show Biz if they went to college. If they didn't, they would be limited to Politics, Military and Science
-Nobles are the same as Royals if they are College Grads, non-grads limited to Athletic, Military, Politics, Science.
-Merchants, even if going to college, would be limited to Business, Medical, Politics, Science, and Culinary
-Peasants would be limited to Criminal, Medical, Military, Slacker and Culinary
-ONE child of each class per generation (not per house, only per generation) could go to ANY job.
Peasants still would only get the 10 basic jobs, but they could do any of those.
Consider a genius Peasant becoming a Top Athlete or Politician, a Black Sheep Royal becoming a Criminal. Oh the stories you can tell...

*You must play the chance cards every time. No exiting without saving if you don’t like the results.

OPTIONS
- If medieval isn't your style you could also play this challenge with another theme such as Renaissance, Regency, Victorian, or fantasy.
- If you want an even harder challenge you could create two kingdoms by having the second kingdom in a downtown neighborhood attached to your original neighborhood. However, this means two sets of everything, 2 royal families, two sets of nobility etc.
-You can add a church/monastery or abbey to you neighborhood that you can send Sims to that you don't want to marry. You still must play these Sims. Sims of the Church are considered a separate class and must be added to your play list. You must play Sims of the Church as often as Sims of the other classes.
- You can start the first King and Queen as young adults but you can not begin playing the other families until they graduate and move to the regular neighborhood.
- To keep track of who belongs to what class you can have each class have a specific hair or skin color (ex. all peasants could have brown hair or green skin).
- You can add one household for the town witch or wizard. The heir to that family would have no cheat restrictions and would be able to attend university in order to get the paranormal career but otherwise would have to live by the rest of the peasant rules.
- If you can’t decide which theme to choose, try advancing the time period every one or two generations. Then you could start at medieval, then renaissance, colonial, regency, victorian etc. If you find the custom content for it you could even start with an ancient period like Egyptian or Roman.

Nightlife Update
- Your original families can not live downtown, but non-heirs that start their own families may live either in the regular neighborhood. Also as was stated in the Options section, you can create a second Kingdom in your downtown area.
- You can make vampires if you want them. Vampires don’t age, so remember that an heir to a family can not inherit their parents place until they are dead. Also with the quickly growing population, you don’t want to many Sims hanging around far longer than their regular life span.
-Use of the matchmaker is encouraged since many cultures use to rely on matchmakers to find a suitable match for their children. The drawback of the matchmaker is that you often don’t get one of your playable Sims as a match. A Nobel or Royal Sim should not marry a Sim of unknown parentage. A good bloodline is very important.
-Gravestones can be moved to a community lot however there needs to be a separate graveyard for each class
- Only the Royal and Nobel classes are allowed to have carriages (Cars) but they should have a garage to make them less discreet
- Mr. Big and The Diva can marry Merchants or non-heir Nobility (They may not have a known bloodline, but they come with a large ‘dowry’ so money conscious merchants are encouraged to marry them

Open for Business Update

Peasants:


- Only a Home Business is permitted
- Are allowed Retail and Service businesses
- May only sell items they make themselves
- If a peasant family reaches a level 10 business and keeps that status the next generation of that family may be promoted to Merchant status
- Only family member may work in business

Merchants:
- May have a home business and/or community lot business
- Are allowed Retail, Service and Venue businesses
- If a Merchant family has a community lot business, they are allowed to purchase a Carriage (car) for more efficient transport
- All family members may work in businesses, at home and community lots
- May hire an employee of merchant or peasant status (Use hair or skin tone classification when employing a townie)

Nobles:
- Are allowed Retail and Venue businesses
- Must hire a manager as soon a possible
- Women of the family may only help out by crafting items such as paintings or flower arrangements

Royals:
- Are only allowed a Venue business
- This is encouraged, with this Royals could hold court with their subjects ‘donating’ money to the good of the kingdom for a chance to mingle with the Royal Family and enjoy the luxuries of the Royal Castle or Palace
- Royals may use a crafting table as a hobby but it would be below them to sell what they made

General OFB Rules:
- Only your town wizard/witch or equivalent are allowed to use the Robot making bench since a robot would be considered magic.
- Only Nobility and Royals would be allowed to purchase a Robot. Servo would be considered a live in servant of the house.
- Only the head of household may purchase a business and it must be passed on to their heir
- Selling clothing allows the business owner to ‘suggest an outfit’ for a customer. This is a good way for you to make the townies fit into your theme. If they decide to buy the will immediately change into the outfit your picked out for them. The salon chair also works for hair and makeup.


Scoring
* Count up all the points when at least one family from each category reaches 5 generations.
If you keep track of points you must play by all the rules, but you don’t have use the scoring system.
Please be honest.
1 point for each generation reached
10 points if every heir for all classes is the first born son. *See below
1 point for each PLATINUM grave
1/4 point for each family friend the royal family has
2 points for each heir to the throne who marries another royal
1 point every time a Sim fulfills an 'impossible' want
1 point for each lot that has all career reward objects possible that are on each lot
1 point for each different color ghost you have on the lot
1/2 point for each set of natural twins
2 points if you manage to collect ALL the different types of ghosts on a lot
-2 point for each Sim that was purposely killed
-1 point for each Sim that marries below his or her status
-1 point for each infant, toddler or child that gets taken by the Social Worker
-1 points every time a household member drops into aspirational failure, prompting a visit from the Sim Shrink.
1 point for every Merchant who marries a Mr. Big or Diva
-1 point each time you change a Sims aspiration using the ReNuYu reward

University Bonus Points:
1 point for each Sim that graduated from collage
1 additional point for graduating Summa Cum Laude (4.0 GPA, no less)
1 point for each heir who becomes a member of the secret society
-1 point for each heir that drops out of collage
1 point if your Sim enters and graduates college as a vampire.

*If you want to make a society run by women then you get the point is all heirs are first born daughter
* If you don’t have all of the Expansion Packs simply ignore the rules or bonuses that don’t relate to you.

This challenge is very flexible so it can fit your personal tastes. With this challenge you can unite all the families in a neighborhood and give it some sort of structure and goal. If you are not playing for points feel free to bend the rules a bit to fit your playing style, but don’t be afraid to try something different then you normally do!


As suggested by Carrie

Here are just a few places that you can download things to get you started making your neighborhood fit better in a historical theme:

Some of my favorite sites for Historical Content:
http://www.fancifulmind.com/sims/index.htm (My Sim Site)
http://www.sussissogoodsims.com/index.htm
http://www.all-about-style.com/themes.html
http://www.geocities.jp/garapon9/garasim2index.html
http://www.tarox4sims2.de/
http://www.pronupsims.net/ (check out the hair)
http://www.besens-sims2.de/
http://fashion2sims.de/
http://www.elegantsim.com/
http://www.rosesims2.net/
http://sims2.picolink.nl/
http://www.www.parsimonious.org/

Sims/Clothes:
http://www.ts2creations.com/index.htm
http://sites.estvideo.net/bipsouille.sims/index.htm
http://forums.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=55391
http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/uploads.php?user_id=1163
http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/uploads.php?user_id=104834
http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/uploads.php?user_id=197791&asset_type=sim
http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/uploads.php?user_id=204406
http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/uploads.php?user_id=42070
http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/uploads.php?user_id=280795
http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/uploads.php?user_id=1056388


Lots:
http://www.webalice.it/mikebur50/index.html (You MUST check this site out!)
http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/lot_detail.php?asset_id=120954&asset_type=lot&user_id=1163
http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/lot_detail.php?asset_id=589&asset_type=lot&user_id=1163
http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/uploads.php?asset_type=lot&user_id=198877&nstart=22
http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/uploads.php?user_id=135946&nstart=1&asset_type=lot
http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/uploads.php?user_id=173930&nstart=1&asset_type=lot
http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/lot_detail.php?asset_id=122061&asset_type=lot&user_id=1296563
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=54568
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=56285&highlight=medieval
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=51062&highlight=medieval
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=55612&highlight=medieval
http://www.webalice.it/mikebur50/Antiche_Dimore_pag1.html (You have to check these out)
http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/uploads.php?user_id=794804&asset_type=lot (A few commercial lots)

Objects:
http://moonsims.asi.org/dh-sims-site/sims2main.htm
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=54257
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=52997
http://www.parsimonious.org/ (look in bathroom, children’s room, bedroom pg2 and clothing)
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=65715
http://www.marinasims.net/objects/objects.htm
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=67233&highlight=knights (to use instead of the stereo)
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?p=353380
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=43129
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=53052&highlight=medieval (toddler chamber pot)
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?p=402257
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?p=382146
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=43261&highlight=medieval
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=43033

Other:
http://forums.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=52677&page=1&pp=25
http://modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=35643&page=1&pp=25
http://www.justa-web.de/download.php?view.130
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=50870&highlight=castles (peasant walls/floors)
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=56010&highlight=medieval (neighborhood terrain)
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?p=252633
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/TS2challenges/
http://www.medievalsims.com/

*Do a search for ‘Medieval’ at http://www.modthesims2.com/ . You will find a lot more. I think that searching for great custom content to fit this theme is part of the fun!