Is it possible to play a 14 generation hood?

[julmoo]

I am thinking of playing a "Through the Times" sort of challenge.

Today I discovered the wonders of Any Game starter and that has opened up completely new possibilities to me. For example I can now have medieval mods without messing up my "modern" hoods, etc.

This led me to think of playing my Sims through the times, starting from Uga and Lonana in the stone ages oder Mechtild and Carl in the middle ages to Mary Lou and Camryn today.

I thought of using the following ages:
- stone age
- ancient Greece/Rome/Egypt
- Middle Ages
- Renaissance
- Victorian Era
- 20-th century
-today

if I use three generations for each age I would be at 14 generations.
Would a hood with notownieregen and antiredundancy last this long?

Or is it going to self-implode from the sheer mass of dead character files?

For anyone asking whether I am in my right mind: I am completely free until October, because that's when college starts.

On another note: If you happen to have marvelous mods or links to websites with marvelous mods that fit to my eras, feel free to post them.
I am going to go crrrrrazy on CC now!

[Darby]

I think you'll like this:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=438591

[julmoo]

I have seen this thread and this is what I will base my own challenge on, but I am wondering whether a neighbourhood can be actually played for so long.

Even without deleting tombstones and moving occupied lots from 'hood to 'hood there is still going to be some minor corruption...eventually, no?

Is a neighbourhood really fully functional after being played for so much time?

[joandsarah77]

I have played in a similar kind of fashion, except I dumped the ancient Greece/Rome/Egypt and made my own 'Wood age' 'Early medieval' and 'Late medieval" Also I have a challenge I made for it years ago posted on the exchange called 'Creation to Future" Only one person successfully completed it-and it wasn't me. :lol: Unless you have a super computer you will find separating your cc into the folders for each age works best. Then you only need the current age in, the rest keep on your desk top. My own challenge is a lot, lot shorter than 14 generations, it could be done in four or five if pushed or more towards the regular 10 legacy fashion if taken slowly. Each stage was controlled by certain skills and badges and fulfilling those moved your sims forward. I found the first time I tested it that eggplant juice could make things go way too fast. Maybe now I have longer sim ages and harder skills it would be a lot tougher. For some reason fishing badge has been really hard hit while gardening badges seems unaffected.

Anyway the way you do it is make frequent backups and if it does explode you revert to the last backup and rebuild-if you are serious about going for 14 generations. I know very few serious legacy players who haven't done at least one rebuild.

MATY has some wonderful castaway stuff. My cave sims live off harvestable trees until they can stock their pantry fridge (pantry fridge is on MTS) The Flintstone range on here has some good items too. There are peeable spots and the waterfall shower all from here as well. I also recommend symlogical school system so you can set your little cave simmies to 'flexi school' which means they do no school at all. You need to have the intuition sign on your lot as well to stop the school bus.
If you want to look at some of how I set up a lot you can look here. http://www.slideshare.net/coffee4u/caveman-legacy-one It was just a bit of picspam.

[Darby]

I'd ask the people who have done it and see what they have to say.

I wouldn't expect a neighborhood to last that long, but who cares. Once a generation is past, it only exists in whatever snapshots you took, so if you have to reset/reconstruct the 'hood a couple/few times, you won't really lose anything. If you do the reconstruction between eras, where you'd be changing the look of everything anyway, the main thing would be extracting the sims themselves.

[maxon]

You seem to have missed out the Enlightenment.

[EnblithTheFair]

Sounds great! I have been wanted to start a medieval neighborhood again. I haven't done it since the sims 2. I hadn't heard of Any Game starter before, sounds perfect. I wanted to keep my medieval custom content that I downloaded the other day separate from my modern neighborhoods. So far it is all sitting in a folder on my desktop.

I have found some nice medieval objects and clothing on modthesims. Do you know of any awesome medieval/historical mods?

[julmoo]

So to prevent losing EVERYTHING I'll make a back-up every time I reach a new era.
However I hope not to lose anything because I'm a fan of huge family trees xD

@Enblith: Yes, as far as I have understood the instructions for AGS you can make several games with separate download folders. That really appeals to me.
I haven't looked into CC yet, I will do that once I start my challenge. Right now I am thinking of using Castaway extracted objects for the three generations of neanderthal sims xD

[Darby]

Try here. Need to register, but it's free.
http://www.medievalsims.com/forums/ucp.php?mode=register

I only just signed up there myself, and haven't explored it much, but a whole site devoted to medieval cc is bound to have some good stuff, I figure.

[AlexandraSpears]

That would actually be an idea for Sims 4, the option of advancement. Like a cross between Sims and Civilization.

[Macaroodle]

Enblith- You might like Almighty Hat's dreamwidth (http://hat-plays-sims.dreamwidth.org/). She has a ton of Pookleted medieval-looking hairs along with some mods, another ton's worth of beautiful default replacements, some clothes, and a few objects.

[SusannaG]

There's also some good stuff (and an extensive Where Can I Find? list) at The Medieval Smithy: http://themedievalsmithysims2.blogspot.com/ .

[Saturnfly]

Is a neighbourhood really fully functional after being played for so much time?

Yes. I'm up to generation 15, and have been playing this particular 'hood since November last year.
So far, no glitches, even though I did delete one tombstone by mistake very early on. There is probably some corruption, but it has yet to leave my game unplayable, in fact I have not seen any visible signs of corruption at all since the "incident".
I also make back-ups at least every three days (my time, not sim time).
I also don't have any mods that prevents townies from generating, so my character files folder is quite... sizeable.

[TychoH]

Peni Griffin has played her hood Drama Acres for years. I don't know if she has corruption.

Once I read at MTS about someone who has his/her hood for 62 generations. No joke, he/she said :P .

[julmoo]

Yes. I'm up to generation 15, and have been playing this particular 'hood since November last year.
So far, no glitches, even though I did delete one tombstone by mistake very early on. There is probably some corruption, but it has yet to leave my game unplayable, in fact I have not seen any visible signs of corruption at all since the "incident".
I also make back-ups at least every three days (my time, not sim time).
I also don't have any mods that prevents townies from generating, so my character files folder is quite... sizeable.

O_____O

Okay if you even deleted a tombstone I suppose there is really no problem with playing for so long.
Yay :D

I already started setting the hood up. I'm excited :D

Peni Griffin has played her hood Drama Acres for years. I don't know if she has corruption.

Once I read at MTS about someone who has his/her hood for 62 generations. No joke, he/she said :P .

O_______________________O

Holy crap how does his/her computer not explode trying to load so many files?

[Peni Griffin]

Um - you're thinking of Maxon, who has played Little Carping for over five years and maintains it meticulously.

I didn't even have Sims 2 until 2010, so though technically I've played it "for years" I'm not nearly as good an example. And most of my original sims are still alive, so I'm no help at all with generation counts. (Fifteen generations since November? How do you have any time at all to enjoy the game?)

[TychoH]

@Peni Griffin
You know so much about the game, I thought you must be playing for years :) .

My hood started 2 months ago, right now generation 8 is growing up. I have enough time to enjoy the game, because the generations are really small and I don't add CAS Sims the next generations :P .

[ella_in_wonderland]

Wow...how do people play 62 generations?! The furthest I've gone is six...

[Tzigone]

I am thinking of playing a "Through the Times" sort of challenge.

That sounds really fascinating. If you make a story of it, I'd love to read it.

And thanks for the link, Darby.

[iCad]

I've gone 30+ generations without a hitch so...Yeah, certainly possible. I'd say the more likely threat is boredom with your 'hood. ;)

[Saturnfly]

(Fifteen generations since November? How do you have any time at all to enjoy the game?)

By game, I assume you mean "real life" :P

My game is pretty much a big fat mess of scattered families. There are plenty of great grandparents that are still adults, lol. Also, a mass population of elders. :/

[julmoo]

That sounds really fascinating. If you make a story of it, I'd love to read it.

And thanks for the link, Darby.

I'm not much of a storyteller, really.
If you really want to I could take a few crappy screenshots and tell you what's happening xD

So far I've played one of the founding families in the stone age and they had twin girls xD

I've gone 30+ generations without a hitch so...Yeah, certainly possible. I'd say the more likely threat is boredom with your 'hood. ;)

Jesus. 30 generations D:

How do you keep your game "not boring"?

[SusannaG]

Wow...how do people play 62 generations?! The furthest I've gone is six...

Wow, that's a lot! I've gone as far as two.

[iCad]

Jesus. 30 generations D:

How do you keep your game "not boring"?

The key for me has been playing in rotations and trying to do something a little different with each household. Also, not being so controlling. I find that when I let my little pixels lead the way, let them show me what they like by the autonomous actions that they tend to choose, I become much more involved with them and therefore much less likely to become bored with them. On the other hand, when I plan everyone out and control all that they do...Well, usually, I find that the grand plan I concocted doesn't turn out to be nearly so fun as I thought it would be. :lol:

I'm also big into sub-hoods with their own flavors. For instance, I have a sub-hood where witches live and do their witchy things. I have an agricultural sub-hood where the households are all dependent on farm livin' as their source of income. (Using Rebecah's farm animals from Affinity Sims has made this much more enjoyable because it gives other options besides gardens/orchards or fishing for farm livin') Then there's a self-sufficient monastic subhood where the Rule of Benedict is...Well, the rule. ;) Things like that. I play the subhoods as a whole in my rotations and by the time I'm done with them, I'm looking forward to the next one or going back to the more diverse main neighborhood.

In short, there are all sorts of interesting things you can do. If you tend to be a "rut" player, always doing (or avoiding doing) the same thing(s), then getting out of the rut can be enormously satisfying. I highly recommend it.

That said, I will admit that there are some households in my rotations that I dread when they're coming up in the rotation because I just haven't found a "hook" with them that's made them interesting. And sometimes, I never do. But for me, those households are way more the exception than the rule.

[ForeverCamp]

I think I may cry if I make it to 30 generations in Pleasantview. I'm already at 85 households, and it's only five generations in. DARN YOU PLEASANTVIEW AND YOUR RABBIT-LIKE BREEDING HABITS!

[Gcgb53191]

15 generations since November?! D: I've had my game for longer and am not even half way there lol! ..And thats coming from someone who pretty much plays on a daily basis for hours xD

Do you just stop playing the elders or you just stick with one family?

[TychoH]

@Gcgb53191
How much Sims do you got? I got just about 6 Sims per generation, play every household in rotations and got untill generation 8 in 2 months (although 8 will be bigger).

[Saturnfly]

15 generations since November?! D: I've had my game for longer and am not even half way there lol! ..And thats coming from someone who pretty much plays on a daily basis for hours xD

Do you just stop playing the elders or you just stick with one family?

I've got a tonne of families, I usually play whichever one I feel like playing the most, which usually leaves elders to fend for themselves. I despise elders so much, at one stage I lumped them all into one lot, set the game to fast forward and left them to it for 3 hours, lol.

If I played in rotations it would obviously be far less generations, I've also had a couple of plantsim offspring's, which as anyone who plays plantsims will know, makes procreation insanely easy.

My game is very out of order at the moment, I've got sims older than their great grandparents, for example.

I made a family tree at gen 8 (or was it 9?) and tried to make a recent one, but wow, large family tree's are painful. x.x

[ForeverCamp]

I made a family tree at gen 8 (or was it 9?) and tried to make a recent one, but wow, large family tree's are painful. x.x

Tell me about it. I just realized that EVERY SINGLE PERSON in Pleasantview can be placed on a single family tree.

[Tzigone]

I'm not much of a storyteller, really.
If you really want to I could take a few crappy screenshots and tell you what's happening xD


It's kind of you to offer, but it story-telling isn't your thing, there's no need to bother. Not my thing, either. I always want to keep my sims happy. Romance sims only target other romance sims, no cheating otherwise, etc. Make my sims happy, but makes my stories boring. Also, I really can't take decent pictures to save my life.

[iCad]

I think I may cry if I make it to 30 generations in Pleasantview. I'm already at 85 households, and it's only five generations in. DARN YOU PLEASANTVIEW AND YOUR RABBIT-LIKE BREEDING HABITS!

:lol: Population control is your friend. :) I find that if you're going to go long, so to speak, you just have to let people go, or you'll drive yourself nuts. I have the "Real Sickness" mod, which helps because if a Sim comes home sick or catches something from a sick family member, I don't generally coddle them (No soup for you!) aside from letting them stay home from work if they have vacation days and letting a kid stay home from school for one day. So there's a pretty good chance that a sickie's disease will escalate, and they'll corpsify. Along with a good percentage of their household, of course, if the germs get spread about, and they usually do. I consider it Darwin in action. :lol:

On top of that, I also sic a "plague" on my neighborhood every 4 or 5 rotations or so, or as often as needed (I play in 7-day rotations myself, until there gets to be about 40 households or so, total across the main 'hood and all subhoods, at which point I'll switch to four-day rotations. Any shorter than that, for me, is too short.) Anyway, during a plague rotation, I kill usually about 10% of the child-and-up population, more if things are really out of hand. I let the random number generator decide who will die...although I confess that I'll "cheat" if one of my extreme favorites randomly comes up on the "cull list." Then I'll usually choose someone I don't like in his/her family to die instead. :lol:

Now, I totally understand that some people can't bring themselves to kill Sims...but I guess I'm cold and heartless. Except when it comes to my darlings, of course. But for me, I find I play best and keep going with a neighborhood longer if I've got fewer than 60-or-so households to play. Population control keeps me in the neighborhood of that number once I hit Generation 4 or so, which is usually about when I'll hit the 60 household mark if breeding is average and I started with my usual 5 households, and then onwards from there. It also means that my immortals are sometimes not-so-immortal, because they aren't immune to the "plague." Which can sometimes be a good thing because they're generally the ones I'll tend to get bored with the easiest. But then again, sometimes immortals are amongst my darlings, too. :lol:

[ForeverCamp]

I'm pretty sure I have that "real sickness" mod (or something similar). I won't kill them unless I have a storyline in mind for them (for example, the mass suicide of the teen-to-elder stage males in Harmony Community when the SCIA infilitrated the cult commune), but every so often, there's a huge spree of illness that seems to run through the neighbourhood. I've had entire households die that way.

[katya_stevens]

I do some population control as well, but not as...extreme as iCad's (I'm too much of a wimp to deliberately kill my sims unless it's for setting up a household). Only Family aspiration sims are guaranteed to get married and procreate, everyone else is at the mercy of the random number generator for accidental pregnancy/abortion, whether they roll the want to get married, and also if they are able to find a partner. Anyone who I decide doesn't get to have children is moved in with a sibling: I hate elder-only households, and not only does this cut down on household numbers but also gives the procreating sibling an extra pair of hands or two to help with the children.

Generation-wise though, I've been playing one 'hood in strict rotation for three years with a rather exponential increase in household number, and am only just reaching generation five.