EPISODE106 - The Sims 2 Challenges - The Genetic Diversity Challenge by Draftzilla2k

http://bbs.thesims2.ea.com/community/bbs/messages.php?&openItemID=item.82,root.1,item.43,item.61,item.23&threadID=f6f04892d5bed8b185b89d69e8936002&directoryID=82&startRow=1

Part 1 of 2 - The Genetic Diversity Challenge: Welcome to Diversityville!

This is a challenge based on Sim genetics, which should result in a very interesting, multicultural neighbourhoods. (The challenge is also specifically designed to help avoid NPC/slowdown bug conflicts without penalty.)

How to Play
1. Create a new neighbourhood. (We'll refer to it as Diversityville for the rest of this explanation, but you can of course name your neighborhood anything you like!)
2. Make sure there are no Sims in your Sim bin. If there are, temporarily move them to lots in one of your *other* neighborhoods.
3. Enter your new neighborhood, Diversityville. Open the command box with Ctrl+Shift+C. Type "deleteallcharacters." Press Escape to close the box.
***Make sure you move all Sims out of your bin before step 3, or else they will be deleted. This step deletes the NPC*'s (*NPC = Non player character, i.e., the autonomous characters in the game) from the neighborhood, and the game will spawn new ones. This step is to add some interest to the neighborhood and to prevent planning in advance to matchmake your Sims with standard NPC's.
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4. Create a couple in CAS, ("Adam and Eve Diversity"--but again, pick any name you like). They must have the same skin tone, hair colour, and eye colour. Choose the darkest skin tone; choose brown or black hair; and choose brown or dark blue eyes (the most dominant traits).
5. Move in your Sim couple, on any size lot, and start their family.

The challenge is over when you have every Maxis-issue eye colour, hair colour, and skin tone, present in two subsequent generations; i.e., all variations are present across a generation, and then repeat again in the next variation. All descendants must be able to trace their blood line back to Adam & Eve Diversity (of course, again, name them what you wish). A generation is defined as all Sims the same number of steps from the original parents. Sims must be direct descendants, not "married in" Sims, to count for scoring purposes.

Update: the challenge has proved longer and more difficult than I originally thought. Reaching a full display of all genetic types across just one generation is really more than enough!

Part 2 of 2 - The Genetic Diversity Challenge: Welcome to Diversityville!

Rules
- You can only marry NPC's.
- You can move Sims out and move houses as often as you wish.
- The only pregnancy cheats allowed are for same-sex couples (Adam & Steve's are welcome!). Otherwise, no pregnancy cheats, no abduction cheats, no twins cheats, no cheats to increase relationship scores.
- Children born out of wedlock still count. This is about genetics, not birth certificates.
- Adopted children and their offspring/descendants are not blood relations of Adam & Eve and do not count in the score.
- Money cheats are not allowed. So, in addition to breeding, your Sims will need to concentrate on earning money so they can afford to feed all those children!

What you can do:
- use any size lot
- use downloaded houses or community lots
- have any career
- When a child ages up to teenager, look at the time on the Sim game-clock. Pick their aspiration according to the last number in the time:
1 or 6 = fortune
2 or 7 = knowledge
3 or 8 = family
4 or 9 = romance
5 or 0 = popularity
- Neighbourhoods hold around 75 lots. If you happen to fill up your neighbourhood, you need to kill off your elders to make room.

Scoring:
- You start with a score of 100 points.
- Deduct 10 points for every generation it takes to reach the diversity goal (your first set of children count as minus 10).
- Alien Bonus A: Add 10 points if your last two generations have alien skintone; and add 10 points if your last two generations have alien eyes. [**Update: make this just the last generation]
- Alien Bonus B: if you have a Sim with alien skin *and* eyes in each of your last two generations, instead of the 20 points in Alien Bonus A, add 50 points. [**Update: again, just last generation]

Hints
- Don't use custom skins, eyes, or hair. They tend to be genetically dominant in the game, and will make it almost impossible to successfully complete the challenge.
- Community lots will make it easier to meet NPC's. Build your own or download them.
- Each Sim family can have as many or as few children as you wish; but obviously, the bare minimum number of descendant Sims in a generation to complete the challenge is 5--and odds are you will need more than this, unless you're a genetic genius or very lucky. It's a good idea to start your first family with 2 or more children.
- If you don't know much about how genetics work, this is a great time to learn as the information will really help you make strategic choices in the challenge. A good start is to search the BBS for posts on Sim genetics or else take a look at some of these great posts:
* Pyrmnclgrl on genetics: http://tinyurl.com/4452a
* redchuckles22 on dominant genes: http://tinyurl.com/5wn4p

Enjoy the challenge, and enjoy your new neighborhood!

Clarification on Aliens:
Since this challenge is about game genetics, the aliens need to be born to a male who is genetically linked to your original parents; aliens born to an NPC male who has married into your family do not count for the score or for continuing the family line. (Ouch! I know...but it's a genetic diversity challenge after all.) Likewise, if a married-in NPC has a baby with someone who is not blood-related to the main family, that child and its descendants are not part of the official family tree. (We're not xenophobic, we're just obsessed with genetics.) You can have children out of marriage or with aliens, but not "off the bloodline."

Housing for Your Growing Diversity Family:
In the course of this challenge, you will have Sims continually moving out to start families of their own. On one hand, constant movement should help prevent developing bugs on your lots. On the other hand, you will need a large number of starter homes under 20,000 Simoleons.

When I first posted this challenge, I asked around for good starter homes, and the many helpful replies are in this BBS post:
http://bbs.thesims2.ea.com/community/bbs/messages.php?&openItemID=item.22,root.1,item.43,item.61,item.23&threadID=8f95e067309736c09065f99252c88325&directoryID=22&startRow=1
Several builders who specialize in starter homes also left messages in my guest book:
http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/guestbook.php?user_id=918418 (scroll down)
And, I have built and uploaded several starter homes as well:
http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/guestbook.php?user_id=918418

~D2K

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