EPISODE84 - The Sims 2 Challenges - The Gypsy Challenge

WebbyMom's Gypsy Challenge

This is more a "method of playing" than any kind of points challenge, just so ya know. So here are the guidelines:

1) Start with one single Sim. Make him/her however you want to start out with.
2) Move your chosen founder into whichever house or lot you like (in whichever neighbourhood), as long as they can afford it without cheating. You can use a pre-built house, or build as you go. BUT - keep in mind the next point:
3) Buy a date from the Gypsy as soon as she appears on your lot. Spend as much or as little money as you like, but you must end up marrying the first person you get for your date! The only exception to this rule is if you get an elder, because they cannot have kids. Then you're allowed to buy another date, but only then. Don't whine at me if your date is ugly, them's the rules. LOL
4) Get a job and whatever you like to do with your beginning Sims, but work on your new relationship to get to the point of marrying them somehow along the way.
5) Have at least one natural child with your sim to carry on the challenge. You can have more, of course, if you like to do bigger familes, or if you like to have an heir and a spare. LOL
6) When the child(ren) get to the point of marrying, they must now buy a date from the gypsy and marry the first Sim to come along (again, unless it's an elder). They must then carry on with the having at least one, kid, etc.
7) You can hire as much help as you like as far as nannies, maids, gardeners, repairmen, etc., go.
8) Extra credit (LOL Like this is a point system!) goes to those who also manage to fullfill a Sim's Lifetime Want (for those with UNI or NL), because their is more challenge to that when you can't learn skills as fast as you can with reward objects, etc.

Various other things to the challenge that make this even more of a "challenge":
1) No aspiration reward objects allowed! That means no energizer, no learning cap, no nothing. I mean it. Nothing. Believe me, that first generation is the hardest - after that, at least you have money... LOL
2) You must play all chance cards. Yup. That's a hafta. Makes for interesting lives, believe me.
3) No cheating. No motherloding, kachinging, familyfunding, etc. They have to earn all their money on their own. You can use whatever things you can buy as you go, of course, and moveobjects on or other build cheats are allowed in unlimited quantities. LOL So, if you want to save your Sims a bit of time by building them Stealth Stairs, then that's just fine. They just can't get free cash. They also cannot get any help from the new NL cheats that will lock aspiration levels, need levels, change ages, etc.! Absolutely none! You hear? Don't complain at me, it's part of why this is a "challenge". LOL

Play to as many generations as you like or as your computer/game allows, or until you get tired of it. I'm working on three generations for my goal simply because after that time, I get bored of doing stuff over and over and I want a new thing to try.

The main idea is to play them having to do everything for themselves, just like real life. Those promotions are so much more rewarding when your Sim has really busted his virtual behind to get it! And also to get true variation in the game by having them marry the Sim the gypsy picks for them and seeing where the "gene pool" took them after that. :) And being as "The No-Aspiration-Rewards Challenge" sounded stupid, I called it "The Gypsy Challenge" instead.

EPISODE83 - The Sims 2 Challenges - The Fate Challenge

The Fate Challenge

By AnaDandy and RoloCorgi

The Fate Challenge is to take a founding Sim and play through his/her legacy with predetermined mates for each generation, predetermined heirs, random aspirations and turnons/turnoffs, and no "replays" (quitting without saving to change outcomes), much like watching a real family history unfold.

Background

The Fate Challenge was created after we (AnaDandy and RoloCorgi) had played through a few Legacy challenges, in which we found ourselves trying to get the most attractive mates for our Sims, and our own Uglacy Challenge, which we designed to try and breed the ugliest Sims from a random starting Sim by finding the least attractive mates. In either case, we'd often have a mate in mind for a given heir before they were even out of toddlerhood, and though it was a good strategy, it seemed funny to be cultivating relationships by having the future spouse play shape-sorter with their pint-sized intended. After all that, we thought, how would the Sims turn out if we didn't get to pick the mates at all, or even know in advance who they would be?

How is it played?

The Fate Challenge is loosely based on the Legacy Challenge. In the Fate Challenge, we keep these basic tenets of the Legacy Challenge: start with a created Sim, mate your Sims only with non-controllable Sims (which, in this challenge, are specified), roll a die to select aspirations for the offspring, never reload to change outcomes, and, with certain exceptions, use no cheats or hacks (see below). Each generation of your legacy will yield one predetermined heir; the heir’s goal is to marry and have a child with a specific NPC who’s identified when the heir turns into a teen.

Please note that we designed this challenge while playing with University and Nightlife installed, so portions of it have specific references to those packs. NPCs from successive EPs are not included in these rules but may be added if you do desire. Certain NPCs have been excluded because of known issues with making them playable, such as the Cheerleader/Mascot or because they are not suitable for breeding, such as the Nanny who is always an elder female.

Fate Challenge Rules

The Founder

- The Fate Founder will be an adult of either gender created however the player wants in Create-a-Sim. Since we'd both pretty much conquered the whole "bootstrapping" phase of the Legacy challenge, we allowed that the Fate Legacy founder could start with a pre-made house of our choice (we recommend Sim Estates) and $20K to decorate; however, if you like that lawn-living start, by all means, do so. For added randomness, the Fate neighborhood will be a new neighborhood with a downtown and a university that's created with all new Townies and NPCs by deleting the existing characters and using the boolprop cheat's "create new Townies" and "create new NPCs" options. (See below for how to do this.) No playable characters other than your Fate Challenge founder should occupy the neighborhood when the challenge starts.

- The Founder must marry the "Welcome Wagon" Townie (from the group of three that appears on the lot during the first day) of the appropriate gender. In the case of two Sims of the correct gender, choose the one whose last name comes first alphabetically. This gives those who want to do the "bootstrapping" method a better chance of scoring some cash right off, since NPCs are notoriously poor.

Producing an Heir

- It’s most expedient if only one child is born per generation, unless more are needed to fulfill a related LTW (like "Marry off 6 children," and if you get that one, we're so sorry). Regardless, the Fate Heir must ALWAYS be the first child born to the previous Heir and his/her assigned mate (no adoption). In the case of twins, the first twin born is the Heir. This makes it truly fateful by eliminating heir choice. If the Heir dies, he or she needs to be resurrected. If the Heir gets taken by the Social Worker, he or she needs to be adopted back into the family. There is no passing the torch. It’s advisable to have one of your Sims go to college early on so that the Resurrect-o-Nomitron can be obtained for the family.

- “Spares” bred specifically to fulfill LTW's are given a little more leniency. They may be adopted, though only as infants. They can breed indiscriminately, and offspring do not have to be legitimate, nor do they need to live with their sperm/egg donor (sadly, you will have to control the females since they won't get pregnant otherwise). For sanity, however, they should be moved out of the Fate house. Note that it’s legitimate to allow the Heir to have younger siblings if the parent’s LTW is to have six grandchildren—this burden need not fall solely to the Heir. (The extra grandchildren may also be adopted, but only as infants.)

The Heir’s Destiny

- The Heir of each generation of the Founder's legacy must marry and have a child with an opposite-gendered, appropriately-aged NPC of a type that’s assigned at their teenhood using a roll of two six-sided dice (see below). Rolling for this NPC takes place at the same time as rolling for an aspiration, right after the Heir ages into a teen. The specific NPC to be married is the first appropriate one of the given type that the Heir encounters after turning into a teen. An encounter occurs when the Heir is present on the same lot as the NPC, regardless of whether they meet.

- If multiple NPCs of the correct age and gender are encountered at once (such as by walking into a coffeehouse with multiple baristas), the fated mate will be the first alphabetically by last name. Some NPCs, like the mail carrier, who are of the wrong gender will need to be befriended and invited over in order to give access to subsequent ones; this is part of the challenge.

- The heir must be the one to initially engage the chosen NPC. For example, the heir must make the call and greet the Delivery Person, visit a community lot to find a Host/Hostess, etc.

- In the case of service NPCs who come to the lot, such as Maids, Mail Carriers and Gardeners, family members are not allowed to befriend them prior to the NPC class being chosen. Once the NPC has been designated, however, anyone may befriend them (but not move them in) in order to spawn a new service NPC of the correct gender, if necessary.

- In the case of Professors, the Sim must marry the first Professor of the appropriate gender/age that they encounter, even if it's a walk-by instead of a prof they meet in class. Sims may choose a major prior to their first class to meet Professors in majors other than “undecided.”

- Moving in the chosen NPC before the Heir is an adult is not allowed; however, you may give them makeovers via the Vanity Table.

- All Fate Sims are allowed to change Aspiration once per lifetime. This can be done via the ReNuYu Senso-Orb or upon finishing sophomore year in University. No re-rolling allowed if you roll the same aspiration as the current one (trust us, we've been there). Turn-ons and turn-offs must never be changed from their random assignment at teenhood.

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

- Aspirations are rolled with one six-sided die upon a Sim turning into a teen and are as follows:

1. Fortune

2. Knowledge

3. Family

4. Romance

5. Popularity

6. Pleasure

- Rolling for the fated NPC mate should also take place when the Heir ages into a teen, and it requires two six-sided dice that are distinguishable from one another. See the rolling tables to determine which NPC you have rolled. If you roll one that has already been chosen, roll again.

University
- Sims are not required to attend University unless their designated mate is an NPC located there (such as the Streaker). In that case the Heir must attend and complete college. Otherwise, skipping college or dropping out to cut to the chase of adulthood is acceptable.

When the Grim Reaper Comes

- Each Sim in your Fate Challenge line (Heirs and spouses) is required to fulfill his or her Lifetime Want before dying from any cause (as their “final exit”—if a Sim dies accidentally before fulfilling the LTW, they should be resurrected to fulfill it).

- You can pick one of two goals regarding deaths:

1. “Fate is Kind”—have every Fate Sim die a platinum death of old age, or
2. “Fate is Cruel”—have at least one of your Fate Sims die in every possible way with only one death of old age. Depending on what you have installed, possible causes of death include old age, drowning, electrocution, disease, starvation, burning, being hit by a falling satellite, death by flies, being scared to death, running with scissors (download), being eaten by a cowplant (Uni), dying from sunlight as a vampire (NL), plummeting in an elevator (OFB), and death by rally forth (OFB).

- Being haunted is not a necessary part of the Fate Challenge. It’s permitted to move tombstones/urns to a community cemetery or moat them off on your own lot.

Cheats and Hacks Allowed

1. The general rule is, if it’s cosmetic or bug-fixing, it’s okay.
2. The founder may use a money cheat to acquire starting cash and a house, if desired.
3. The only hacked object allowed is the toddler mirror from modthesims2 in order to change toddler appearance (pre-OFB).
4. When the Professor is the designated mate, SimPE or the boolprop testingcheatsenabled cheat may be used to edit his or her name to remove the “Prof.” from their name.
5. Use of the moveobjects [on/off] cheat to remove or fix bugged objects or place objects in unusual places is allowed, as is the boolProp allow45DegreeAngleOfRotation [true/false] cheat. The boolProp testingCheatsEnabled [true/false] cheat may be used for the purpose of solving bug issues.
6. Aspiration or Career Rewards are not considered cheats and are perfectly legitimate, as is custom content (unhacked objects, skins, hair, makeup, custom genetics used on the founder, etc.)
7. Third-party patches to fix bugs that are not addressed in Maxis patches are allowed (for example, a patch to fix the problem with some Sims not being able to stay married).

To Create the New Neighborhood

(Note: This was written before OFB when apparently this method became unstable. Please follow your method of choice for creating a clean, empty neighborhood. Good places to find instructions for doing this can be found at MTS2 and MATY)

Pick a new base neighborhood with whatever layout you like and load it. From the neighborhood view, open the cheat window and type "deleteallcharacters". (Another method is to open the neighborhood’s Character Files folder—My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\your new neighborhood\Character Files—and delete all those files.) Then create the founder in CAS and buy or build the legacy's house in the neighborhood. When the Founder has moved in, turn on the boolprop cheat (boolProp testingCheatsEnabled true) and shift-click on the mailbox. Choose "Debug-Create new NPCs." Then choose "Debug-Create new Townies." Turn off the boolprop cheat and save the game.

Check the neighborhood’s Character Files folder and note the highest-numbered file there. Return to the game and create a downtown for your neighborhood. Save and exit, look in the Character Files folder, and delete all character files above your previous high number. Load the game again and follow the same boolprop procedure to have your Founder “create Downtownies.” Save the game.

Once again, check how many files are now in your Character Files folder and make note of the highest number. Add a University campus to the neighborhood. Return to the folder and delete the character files above your previous high number. Townies on the campus must be created from a residential lot there, so you may either create a dummy Sim to take up temporary residence on campus and do the boolprop procedure and create new Townies and NPCs for the campus, or you can wait until your first Sim heads to college and do it then. If using a dummy Sim, delete the Sim after use.

More details are discussed here:

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=74f11728a222b2c1fe2a66d25b542bca;topic=4090.0

Using the NPC Rolling Chart

The Fate Chart (which shows you what NPC number you’ve rolled with your dice) and Fate Table (which shows you which NPC corresponds to which number) were developed by RoloCorgi and AnaDandy for use in their Fate Challenge. Make sure you have two six-sided dice that you can tell apart; decide in advance which is Die 1 and which is Die 2.

Each NPC type below will marry into your Fate family once and only once over the course of 18 generations. Since we want the order to be both random and unknown to us in advance, we roll each generation for a new NPC and reroll if we happen to roll one that has already been used. The “collapsing” rolling method is designed to minimize the number of times you will end up rolling already-used NPCs. (For example, if you only had three choices left but were still rolling out of the whole 18, it would get pretty tiresome to try and hit an available one.)

To roll an NPC for your current Heir, locate their generation’s column in the Fate Chart (the child of the Founder is Generation 2) and roll your two dice. Match the numbers on Dice 1 and 2 to the combo in the column—for example, rolling a 3 on Die 1 and a 1 on Die 2 for the Generation 2 Heir would result in NPC #7. Checking the Fate Table for the #7 NPC, you can see that your Gen 2 Heir is destined to marry the first eligible Firefighter. Cross out the Firefighter on the table.

When you’ve gone through Generations 2-7 and are ready to find a mate for Generation 8, note that the rolling scheme changes. Go to the “Gens 8-10” column in the Fate Table and renumber in order, 1 through 12, the NPCs who haven’t been crossed out yet.

Now use the rolling scheme for Generations 8-10 to roll the new mate. Rolling, say, a 5 on Die 1 and a 2 on Die 2 will give you NPC #8. This would not necessarily be the Gardener, as before, but would instead be the eighth NPC out of the twelve that weren’t chosen in the first six rounds.

Continue through the generations, renumbering the NPCs who are left each time the rolling scheme changes. Note that only one die is required after Generation 13.

Fate Table

# for		Renumber your unused NPCs here.
Gens		Gens	Gens	Gens	Gen	Gen
2-7	NPC Mate	8-10	11-13	14-16	17	18
1	Barista
2	Bartender
3	Chinese Food Person
4	Community Bartender
5	DJ
6	Exterminator
7	Firefighter
8	Gardener
9	Grocery Person
10	Gypsy Mate
11	Host
12	Maid
13	Mail Carrier
14	Pizza Person
15	Police Officer
16	Professor
17	Server
18	Streaker

Fate Chart

Gen	Roll 1	Roll 2	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3
2-7	1-2 Set 1,	1	NPC #1	NPC #7	NPC #13
	3-4 Set 2,	2	NPC #2	NPC #8	NPC #14
	5-6 Set 3	3	NPC #3	NPC #9	NPC #15
		4	NPC #4	NPC #10	NPC #16
		5	NPC #5	NPC #11	NPC #17
		6	NPC #6	NPC #12	NPC #18
8-10	1-3 Set 1,	1	1st NPC left	7th NPC left
	4-6 Set 2	2	2nd NPC left	8th NPC left
		3	3rd NPC left	9th NPC left
		4	4th NPC left	10th NPC left
		5	5th NPC left	11th NPC left
		6	6th NPC left	12th NPC left
11-13	1-2 Set 1,	1	1st NPC left	4th NPC left	7th NPC left
	3-4 Set 2,	2	1st NPC left	4th NPC left	7th NPC left
	5-6 Set 3	3	2nd NPC left	5th NPC left	8th NPC left
		4	2nd NPC left	5th NPC left	8th NPC left
		5	3rd NPC left	6th NPC left	9th NPC left
		6	3rd NPC left	6th NPC left	9th NPC left
14-16	One roll	1	1st NPC left
		2	2nd NPC left
		3	3rd NPC left
		4	4th NPC left
		5	5th NPC left
		6	6th NPC left
17	One roll	1	1st NPC left
		2	1st NPC left
		3	2nd NPC left
		4	2nd NPC left
		5	3rd NPC left
		6	3rd NPC left
18	One roll	1	1st NPC left
		2	1st NPC left
		3	1st NPC left
		4	2nd NPC left
		5	2nd NPC left
		6	2nd NPC left