The Ten-Gen Townie Dynasty Challenge

[Metropolis Man]

The Ten-Gen Townie Dynasty Challenge

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Goal
Your goal is to produce a Sim who is the descendant of 10 different families living in Willow Creek, Oasis Springs, and other Sim towns. You'll start with a childless premade YA townie (or teen or child immediately aged up to YA or adult or elder immediately aged down to YA). Your founder will have 10 days in which to marry and move in with an unmarried childless townie and produce an heir. (Note: if you choose one half of a married childless couple, they may stay in their house.) Before moving your Sim out, he or she must put together a 10-item unique collection and paint or photograph each of the Sims in the household. Each YA heir thereafter will also have 10 days in which to marry and move in with an unmarried childless townie and produce an heir, after amassing a 10-item unique collection and painting or photographing every member of the household.

One other thing -- 95% of the time, the only Sim you are allowed to control is your founder or heir. Exceptions will be listed below. You will switch control to the next heir when your founder or previous heir has accumulated 100 points (point system listed below).

To recap: within 10 days after becoming a YA and becoming the controlled Sim, the founder or heir must:
1. Either photograph or paint the portrait of every household member and place them in the family museum.
2. Amass a unique 10-item collection and place it in the family museum. Collection items must be made or found by the heir. A list is here.
3. Marry and move in with a childless, unmarried Sim living in one of the towns.
4. Produce the next heir, either through childbirth, alien abduction, or adoption.

Once the founder or heir moves in with the spouse, points (both positive and negative -- see below) begin to accumulate. 100 points must be accumulated before the player can begin controlling the next heir.

A spreadsheet made by LenaLJ to help you get organised can be found here: Spreadsheet.

Setup
You'll start with a completely new file. This means you'll have to start in CAS. Create an Elder Sim and move him or her into Crick Cabana. Before starting to play with your chosen founder, you'll need to do some work on your town.

The following options should be chosen: Autonomy -- Full; Aging -- Normal; Auto Age All Sims; Fill Empty Houses -- Checked. If you have Seasons, you may choose any length. You may opt out of Blizzards and Thunderstorms, but must have Rain and Snow. Sims must be affected by weather. You may opt out of fame. Any Sim that you want to become famous can choose to step into the spotlight, though. Neighborhood Stories System settings: Player's choice.

You MUST set up a Museum for your family. This will be where your Sims place their collections and portraits. This Museum must meet the lot requirements for a museum. You may also set up a cemetery on this lot. You can build your own or use the Willow Museum of Fine Arts or any other museum in My Library on the Gallery.

You MAY NOT bulldoze the Willow Creek Archives or the large parks in Willow Creek, Oasis Springs and San Myshuno. You may bulldoze other community lots provided that at least one of each type remains, i.e, you'll have to keep one gym, one nightclub, one bar, etc. You may place any Maxis-made venues (spa, restaurant, retail store, etc.), and you may place up to 5 houses. These may come from #carlsguiderdc or EAaccountID MaxisCreator on the Gallery. You may not bulldoze any houses.

You may place the following on any community lot: rocket ship kit, telescope, microscope, cupcake machine, wedding arch with seating, movie screen with seating, wishing well, horseshoe court, garden planters, buffet table, drinks fountain, popcorn machine and counter, hot tub, puppet theater, battle station(s), water slide, basketball court, busker station, bowling alley, climbing wall, obstacle course, and photography studio, etc..
Once you've set up your town, you may alter only your family museum and retail stores, restaurants, and vet clinics owned by your Sims. You may add new venues and objects that come with new packs.

You may give lot traits to the community lots but not to any residential lots that you add.

Once you've finished setting up your towns, you may make a template by doing a Save As. If you run into a problem or fail to follow the rules by controlling a Sim other than your founder, you may return to this template to start over.

General Rules
An heir can be any of the following: the firstborn child of the founder or previous heir; the alien offspring of the same; or an infant adopted after the marriage of the founder or previous heir.
The founder and heirs must marry unmarried childless Sims living in houses or apartments. Heirs may not move into houses that their ancestors previously lived in.
The founder and heirs may take only items they have made or found when they move.
You may add homeless Sims to your household but not Sims from other families in town. Only heirs (and their pets) are allowed to move out, and they can only move out when they marry. The only exception is that heirs can move in a family member after they've married.
Gender customization can be done only to the heir and only once when he or she is a teen.
Alien babies must be kept.
A nanny must be hired if there are toddlers or babies on the lot when the last teen or adult leaves the house.
Aspirations can be changed only when an aspiration has been completed.
Traits for children born into the household must be randomized, but you may choose their aspirations. Your heirs must choose unique aspirations, i.e. aspirations that have not been completed by a previous heir. You may randomize traits here (this site includes toddler traits) or use Pinstar's system for the legacy found here, or use the button that is now in CAS.
Your controlled Sim may not be in a club with other household members. Your Sims may join clubs but not form them.
The interior of a house may be changed but not the footprint, i.e., the shape of the house. You may add basements if you need more room. You may make changes to the landscaping and add a pool.
Your Sims may celebrate as many as 8 scheduled holidays per year, no more than 1 per week. Pop-up holidays are allowed.
Upon moving into a house, you may add only one skill-boosting trait (See list) and up to 2 others. You may not change lot traits once you've added them.
Life extension is not allowed for founders and heirs, except for the Body Builder aspiration, which affects only elders. No one may be given ambrosia, but it may be used in collections.
The Money Tree is banned.
You are allowed a one-time use of the quirk removal potion.


Point System
Your Sims start accumulating points when the founder or heir moves into a new house and stop getting points when control has shifted to the next generation. They also do not get or lose points on "free" days.

Positive
 1 point for each level gained in a unique designated skill (cooking, handiness, and parenting not allowed) by the controlled Sim. Your Sim must max this skill before gaining points from another skill, and no other controlled Sim may choose this as the skill to gain points from.
1 point for each job, school, or scouting or drama club promotion earned by any household member.
1 point for each 1000 satisfaction points gained by the controlled Sim. Note # of satisfaction points immediately upon moving in.
1 point for each good friend made by the controlled Sim. You can count a friend only once.
1 point for each enemy made by the controlled Sim. You can count an enemy only once.
1 point for each different gold party (a date can count) thrown by the controlled Sim. 5 points maximum. (A gold medal wedding for the controlled Sim can also count even though it happens before the Sim moves in with the spouse.)
1 point for each $10,000 in profit (household funds excluded) earned by a retail store, vet clinic, or restaurant.
2 points for every $30,000 added to the initial household fund. 50 points maximum. Note household income immediately upon moving in.
1 point for every wish made by the controlled Sim at the Wishing Well. 3 points maximum.
1 point for each character trait achieved by a Sim aging up from teen to YA.
1 point for every trick learned by a dog.
2 points for every skill or job maxed or aspiration completed by any Sim in the household. Child aspirations and skills can count and so can toddler skills.
2 points for every completed collection.
1 point for every visit to a different community lot for 2 or more hours.
1 point for every fame level.
1 point for every A in a university course.
2 points for a university degree.
3 points for a university distinguished degree.

Negative
-1 point for every bladder failure. (Toddlers and pets exempt)
-1 point for every pass out. (Toddlers and pets exempt)
-1 point for every demotion or job firing.
-1 point for every NPC hire. (Each day that a maid works is counted as a separate NPC hire. Each day that Patchy works in the garden counts as an NPC hire.)
-1 point for every Satisfaction Reward bought. (Note: Satisfaction rewards bought upon completion of an aspiration are free.)
-2 points for every club perk.
-2 points for every fire.
-2 points for every fight between household members.
-5 points for every child or pet taken by the Social Worker (automatic fail if the child is the heir).
-5 points for every death from anything other than old age.
-10 points for controlled Sim that is a vampire.
-10 points for controlled Sim that is a spellcaster.

You'll get a free day every 10 points. If your Sim is at 9 points and gets awarded 2 points, you can carry the 11th point over. If your Sim takes the free day at 10 points and then loses a point or two the next day, you'll have to wait till you get to 20 points before taking another free day. Points can be gained and also lost on free days now.


Times When You Can Control Other Sims
Any Sim in labor may be given the order "Have Baby."
Sims may be told to blow out candles on their birthday cakes, when it's their birthday (0 days left).
Aliens may be told to put on their disguise when aging up from babies to children.
Whenever your Sim accumulates 10 points, the household gets a mandatory "free day." For 24 Sim hours, you may control any Sim in the household for any period of time.
Non-controlled Sims may respond to chance cards from work and school. Non-controlled Sims in an active career must choose "go to work alone" for the careers from Get to Work, and "go to work" for the careers from City Living.
You may change the clothing and hair of any Sim in the household by sending your controlled Sim to CAS.
You may bring household members with your Sim to a community lot, and you may have them do things together there. You may not use the "group" function on the home lot.

Except for the above cases, you may not give directions or cancel actions for non-controlled Sims. When your controlled Sim is away from the lot, you may not choose actions for Sims at home, nor may you choose among the options they get at work (normal, work hard, socialize with co-workers, etc.).

Mods, Cheats, Custom Content, and Manage Households
Custom Content items are fine and are to be used at your own risk. No mods or cheats are allowed with a few exceptions: lighting mods that change the look of the game are fine; Moveobjects is fine; some bugs may creep up that a mod could fix, but team permission is always necessary in these cases. Quitting a game without saving to avoid a disaster like a fire or sudden death is considered cheating; quitting without saving because you've experienced a bug is not.

ResetSim Firstname Lastname. You may only use this cheat in the event of a stuck Sim.
Moveobjects. You are allowed to use this cheat at your discretion.
Buydebug cheat (bb.showhiddenobjects) is banned.

Whenever your heir's world has fewer than 8 occupied houses or apartments, you may move in Sims from the Unplayed Households bin to bring the total to 8. You may use the freerealestate cheat to move them into a house, and you may select any house that has not been occupied by your dynasty. You may evict ghosts from households at any time.

Finishing
When your 10th generation Sim is ready to move out of the house, take a screenshot of him or her with the 10-item collection and pictures of the 9 ancestors. Submit this for your Hall of Fame entry. Your "score" is the worth of your Museum items -- pictures and collections.

The team is always here to answer your questions, and we hope you have fun with the Sims 4 Ten-Gen Townie Dynasty Challenge. Good luck!
— Metro, Trip, MarianT, LenaLJ, sdhoey, and Glazey Lady

[MarianT]

Rule Changes

December 8, 2016 -- You may evict ghosts from households at any time.
January 13, 2017 -- A nanny must be hired if there is a toddler or baby on the lot when the last teen or adult leaves the house. Maxing a toddler's skill also counts for 2 points.
January 29, 2017 -- Under Negative Points: -10 for controlled Sim that is a vampire.
June 23, 2017 -- 1 point for every character trait achieved when a teen ages to YA.
September 9, 2017 Clarification added that heirs can add members of their previous family to their new household.
November 8, 2017 -- +1 point for each $10,000 made by a vet clinic; -5 points for a pet taken by the Social Worker.
January 11. 2018 -- Founder may also be an adult or elder townie aged down to YA. If one half of a married childless couple, the founder may stay in starting home.
July 2, 2018 --Rules for Seasons. Length is the player's choice, but you're allowed only 1 holiday per week, with a maximum of 8 scheduled holidays in a year. Pop-up holidays can be celebrated. The Money Tree is banned. Also, teaching a dog a trick now yields 1 point. Also, it is now okay to age up a child to be your founder.
July 9, 2018 --1 point for each trophy (scouting, bowling, career reward)
December 6, 2018 --You may opt-out of fame. You may choose to have a Sim "step into the spotlight." You get 2 points for any column of fame perks completed. You're allowed a one-time use of the quirk removal potion.
November 26, 2019 -- 100 points now required to change to next heir. Points may be gained and lost on "free" days. Rewards can be bought without penalty whenever a Sim completes an aspiration (children's aspirations count). Additions to the point system.
September 18, 2021 -- Update Money Offer "You look Low On Funds" Must be declined, Please read updated post
April 1, 2022 -- For a new or existing dynasty, you are allowed to select your global Neighborhood Stories System (NSS) settings for both "My Households" and "Other Households" one time only, after which they must not be changed.  Changing NSS settings for individual households is not allowed.
July 9, 2022 -- Neighborhood Stories System settings are player's choice.

[Metropolis Man]

oshizu and Whirligig - sorry, but I needed to removed your posts to reserve the 2nd post for rule changes. I dropped the ball and did not do that right away after posting the rules. Sorry again about that.

[LenaLJ]

And i am working on a helpfull spreadsheet but not sure how fast it will be done.

[Metropolis Man]

Thank you as always, Lena.

[FrancescaFiori]

I'm so excited! Townies are my favorite!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MarianT]

@Whirligig, You're right, the ISBI challenge was an inspiration, and if you've played that, especially in TS2, then you should be able to handle this. Besides using premades, you'll also get 5 free days in which to control all the Sims in your household.

[oshizu]

oshizu and Whirligig - sorry, but I needed to removed your posts to reserve the 2nd post for rule changes. I dropped the ball and did not do that right away after posting the rules. Sorry again about that.

@Metropolis Man
No worries about that! I had come to this thread right now to remove my post so as not to come between the rules and rule changes, so you saved me the trouble.
I'm excited to start this challenge once I've completed or failed my current project!

[reggikko]

I have a question about the free day.

Whenever your Sim accumulates 10 points, the household gets a mandatory "free day." For 24 Sim hours, you may control any Sim in the household for any period of time. You will not accumulate or lose points during this day.

I'm confused about not accumulating points on that day. I am assuming it is to prevent players from having back-to-back parties or skilling up uncontrolled Sims for points, but does it also mean that, say, if a Sim gets promoted on that day or a child comes home with a grade increase, that those points don't count? Or, say, since you can control a Sim that day, you get them into the preferred mood for their job and they get promoted. That doesn't count? Maybe I am missing the point of the free day.

Also, my son, DylanTK, is the creator of the original ISBI challenge. I helped play test it.

[MarianT]

I have a question about the free day.

Whenever your Sim accumulates 10 points, the household gets a mandatory "free day." For 24 Sim hours, you may control any Sim in the household for any period of time. You will not accumulate or lose points during this day.

I'm confused about not accumulating points on that day. I am assuming it is to prevent players from having back-to-back parties or skilling up uncontrolled Sims for points, but does it also mean that, say, if a Sim gets promoted on that day or a child comes home with a grade increase, that those points don't count? Or, say, since you can control a Sim that day, you get them into the preferred mood for their job and they get promoted. That doesn't count? Maybe I am missing the point of the free day.

Also, my son, DylanTK, is the creator of the original ISBI challenge. I helped play test it.

Wow -- Thank Dylan for us, and tell him I hope that people enjoy this as much as they enjoyed the ISBI challenge.

Yes, if a Sim comes home with a promotion that day, you don't get the point. However, you can also pick up a satisfaction reward without losing any points, so they even out.

The rationale for the free day is to get your other Sims to do a few things besides sit and watch TV (or play video games). In TS2, you could have a parent click on the homework and help the child with it; in TS4 you only have the option to have the child do it. I've used the free day for homework, also to have other Sims get jobs and work on the skills necessary for a promotion, and to get a Sim from another household pregnant. As you point out, allowing the accumulation of points on free days would make it easy to throw a few parties and grab points that way.

There is one (sort of) exception: if your Sim is at 9 points, and someone completes an aspiration or picks up 2 points some other way, you can carry over the extra point. Similarly, if your Sim has a free day and then someone sets fire to the stove, dropping your point total to 8, you don't get another free day at 10 points.

[rokrchik]

Man, and I *just* started a Rival Dynasty Challenge, lol!

[Whirligig]

oshizu and Whirligig - sorry, but I needed to removed your posts to reserve the 2nd post for rule changes. I dropped the ball and did not do that right away after posting the rules. Sorry again about that.

I'm going to echo Oshizu - really not a problem.

[oshizu]

Also, my son, DylanTK, is the creator of the original ISBI challenge. I helped play test it.  

@reggikko

Well now I have very high hopes that you will start this challenge at the end of this month and pave the way for those of us who have never played an ISBI challenge!

@LenaLJ

Now that I've read that you're creating one of your genius scoresheets for this challenge, I'm even more excited. Yay!

[reggikko]

Also, my son, DylanTK, is the creator of the original ISBI challenge. I helped play test it.  

@reggikko

Well now I have very high hopes that you will start this challenge at the end of this month and pave the way for those of us who have never played an ISBI challenge!

Haha! In Sims 2, you could manage a lot of what the uncontrolled Sims did through your controlled Sim. That isn't really true in Sims 4 (Marian's example of homework is one thing). BUT, in Sims 2, kids would not ever do their homework autonomously and the school grade drop was much more dramatic if they didn't do it. Sims 4 kids can easily maintain a C grade just by going to school. In some ways, the game mechanics of Sims 4 make having uncontrolled Sims much easier, but getting them to achieve may be harder, especially for certain skills. You'll have to understand how the game advertising works and probably limit what objects they have access to in order to force them to gain fun with skilling objects.

And now for some questions.

1. I assume that unemployed uncontrolled Sims can get a job on a free day. Can uncontrolled Sims also change careers on those days? Is there any restriction on how many uncontrolled Sims in a household have the same career? Can you change your starting Sim's career if they have one?
2. If you start with the Pancakes, does whichever one you choose as founder just paint or photograph the other one? Wouldn't the heir then be painting or photographing the same household?
3. For the skill points, if the founder maxes both gardening and fishing, no other heir may gain points from either of those skills, correct?
4. I'm curious as to the reason why cooking and handiness don't count as scored skills.

[MarianT]

Also, my son, DylanTK, is the creator of the original ISBI challenge. I helped play test it.  

@reggikko

Well now I have very high hopes that you will start this challenge at the end of this month and pave the way for those of us who have never played an ISBI challenge!

Haha! In Sims 2, you could manage a lot of what the uncontrolled Sims did through your controlled Sim. That isn't really true in Sims 4 (Marian's example of homework is one thing). BUT, in Sims 2, kids would not ever do their homework autonomously and the school grade drop was much more dramatic if they didn't do it. Sims 4 kids can easily maintain a C grade just by going to school. In some ways, the game mechanics of Sims 4 make having uncontrolled Sims much easier, but getting them to achieve may be harder, especially for certain skills. You'll have to understand how the game advertising works and probably limit what objects they have access to in order to force them to gain fun with skilling objects.

And now for some questions.

1. I assume that unemployed uncontrolled Sims can get a job on a free day. Can uncontrolled Sims also change careers on those days? Is there any restriction on how many uncontrolled Sims in a household have the same career? Can you change your starting Sim's career if they have one?
2. If you start with the Pancakes, does whichever one you choose as founder just paint or photograph the other one? Wouldn't the heir then be painting or photographing the same household?
3. For the skill points, if the founder maxes both gardening and fishing, no other heir may gain points from either of those skills, correct?
4. I'm curious as to the reason why cooking and handiness don't count as scored skills.

1. Yes, uncontrolled Sims can change careers, and there's no restriction on the careers that uncontrolled Sims can have. Yes, you can change the starting Sim's career but not the aspiration.
2. Yes, Bob would paint Eliza (or vice versa), and the heir would paint or photograph both Bob and Eliza plus any siblings or homeless Sims that Bob invited to join the household.
3. Maxing is not the same as taking points from. If the founder counts points from gardening and fishing, even if he maxes only one, the heirs can't count points from them. However, they can all max gardening and fishing, and get the 2-point benefit.
4. Cooking and handiness don't count as scored skills because all your heirs will be doing them. Having to make sure meals are available and fixing the plumbing are part of what make the challenge difficult.

And as far as grades go, I did have a Sim teen drop down to a D in one of my play-tests, but that was before free days were added. TS4 Sims are really pretty good at taking care of their needs. But I think the only skill they'll develop autonomously is video-gaming (unless the Sim is in the Tech Guru career -- they seem to prefer browsing the web which does nothing for their job progress).

Edited to add -- And while testing this I often wished that we had the "influence" options from TS2. Even Sims with the neat trait would rather complain about mess than clean up.