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[BETA] The Sims 4 History Challenge
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I recommend MCCC over the no culling mod, since it lets you specifically set Sims who shouldn't be culled. The only issue with the no culling mod is that since nobody gets culled, the game starts to lag over time. I think it's largely untested on a save that has lasted through an entire Legacy/History challenge. The journal mod is... touchy. You can start books just fine with it, but to resume writing you have to resume through a computer on the lot (I keep mine in a closed-off basement). They also tend to leave the notebook random places such as in bookshelves and on railings, so it can be a bit of a hassle to find. As far as bugs popping up in game with these mods installed, I believe all is well. I can't vouch for the no culling mod since I don't use it, but MCCC and the notebook mod both seem to work fine. If you choose to install MCCC, know that it may seem like it's causing errors, but in actuality it's just notifying you of when little errors pop up. The game does the same thing, except you don't see them unless you look for the logs they make.
An alternative to the journal mod would be this Ancient Loom CC, which is essentially just a re-skinned computer. Your Sims are writing a novel with a loom, though, which has always bothered me and as such I've yet to use it.
PS: Let me know how your experience with this Era is. I've yet to finish it, and I'm concerned about a couple of the goals.
I believe you'll be able to visit the lot they died on and find a tombstone/urn there, but I'm not 100% sure. Probably best to hang around your Sims who you know are going to die if you want to be sure to get their tombstone. Only 26 collectibles? Maybe I'm just a hoarder, but I usually have that goal nearly finished by the time the era starts. I was actually considering raising it, but if you and other players feel it isn't too easy I'll leave it as is.
Fair enough, lol. I always found woodworking to be my big money maker for the $10k goal, and usually only worry about collecting for the first few days when my Sims can't work on handiness. Any other collectibles after that get stored in family inventory for the goal in Early Civ. I also mount and keep one of each fish I catch, especially the anglerfish that is one of the Prehistoric goals. I wish the feather displays from Cats & Dogs weren't so modern looking, as collecting feathers seems like a very Prehistoric thing to do.
Edit: Keep in mind that harvestables are technically collectibles too. I keep mine on a shelf in the Early Civ kitchen.
As @Dglbr1969 said, giving the toddlers fruit/veggies is usually the easiest way to feed them for the most part. Making fish and placing the plate somewhere where the toddler can get to it also works, but the harvestables are easier to manage. Toddlers being able to sleep in tents was only added to the game recently, so that's a great place for them to sleep if you don't want to use beds (which are also allowed). The toddlers can also have blocks to play with, and once you've unlocked toilets through woodworking they can use toddler potties as well.
Thanks
Since it doesn't specifically say one Sim, and there's already a couple one-Sim goals in that Era, I would say it can be just 10 masterpieces total painted in that Era--regardless of who the painter is. That said, my experience with painting in this game is that it's easiest to get masterpieces by having one Sim grind painting pretty much 24/7. I think being inspired also increases your chances of making a masterpiece. If you have a Sim doing the painter career, the easels you get as career rewards will also increase the chance of a masterpiece.
On a side note, if you bring in a commissioned painter for your family portraits, any masterpieces he/she paints wouldn't count toward that goal since they're not technically part of your challenge family.
Again, I hope I haven't missed a whole paragraph somewhere
I'm glad you're enjoying the challenge! As far as I can tell there's plenty of people who are playing this challenge (or lurking on the Google doc, at least), but not everyone needs/wants to post here, which is fine too! I try to check in at least once a day to see if anyone needs help, so you can post as often as you want
It's entirely up to you when to send your kids to school. Old West is probably when it's most historically accurate, but it's extremely annoying to cancel the kids/teens going to school for that many generations so I leave it up to the player. If you have Parenthood, you can start doing school projects once you have kids actively attending school, but that's the only school-related rule.
- You can buy seed packets from build/buy at any time.
- Glass roofs and gardening updates have no restrictions.
- No using the re-pick traits potion. I know it costs 5k satisfaction points, but if I were to allow it you would still be required to randomize the new traits of your Sims anyway. Let me know if you really want this to be allowed, and I'll think on it some more.
Thoughts for Seasons:
- Beekeeping allowed throughout the challenge.
- Skating and Flower Arranging allowed in Early Civ. and onward.
- Weather machine not allowed until Modern Day.
- Make/delete holidays as you see fit! Use this to make some cool historically accurate holidays, etc. You can even *technically* make a holiday each day that gives your Sims the day off from school, thus negating the need for cancelling their "going to school" interactions every day.
- Seasons will undoubtedly make this challenge, at least the Prehistoric Era, significantly more difficult. When starting out the challenge with Seasons, you'll probably want to start in Spring so that you can *hopefully* have walls by the time Winter rolls around.
- I haven't decided when the thermostat will be allowed, since it is very modern in design but is also integral to Seasons and helping your Sims survive. If fireplaces provide a lot of heat, I may restrict it until the Industrial Age.
General plans/musings:
- No bathtubs in the Prehistoric Era. The only thing keeping me from making this change is the need for bathtubs to wash toddlers. Since this challenge requires OR, I'll look into using the deodorizing cream (unlocked at level 2 Herbalism). It's always seemed a bit silly to me that Prehistoric Sims would be using modern plumbing but still can't figure out how to build a structurally sound house.
- In that same frame of mind, no fridge/oven in Early Civilization. Cloudseeker never really wanted these to be available in this Era, they were only added because you pretty much had to bake a cake in order to achieve the goal of getting a gold medal on a house party. I still don't have a viable alternative for this goal, but when I do I'll look more into restricting these objects until a later Era.
-I still think no purchasing seeds until Early Civilization Era
-Ive never randomized for traits, but maybe limit to only be used on sims brought into the family or heir spouses only? Or possibly limit to 1 time per era?
-I agree to all the possible season updates.
-The bathtub baffled me too. In the end I let my sim craft one on the work bench and only then did my toddler get to use it. Made it a little more challenging since you have to get a high handiness skill amd i had to really grind in order to get it built before they had nooboos. The adults swam in "ponds/lakes" with the hygeine mod so they were not allowed to use it at all. (This wouldnt work for non-modders though)
-One idea on the fridge is to limit the amount of time you can keep things in the fridge (one week and then toss it out, for example) and like in prehistoric only use what you have on hand (fish, veggitables, fruits, etc.). Early civilizations started using cooler or underground areas to store things to keep them cold (but of course couldn't keep it forever). The oven is trickier. They used stone ovens to make breads and such which would be similar to cakes(?). Maybe limit the oven to only cakes and stews and such while still being able to roast fish and beetles and such over the fire.
Just thoughts to maybe make it work better. Bad thing is they could do all these things back then, just in a limited version.
@Sarahkay Thanks for the suggestions! I'll do my best to address them below:
- Seed packets haven't ever been restricted, you could always purchase them via a plant pot which you could either buy up front or craft at level 1-2 woodworking. It might be a bit too easy to get a good garden going if you can just buy seed packets for it, but I figure it's mostly as though you've bought those seeds from a neighboring tribe/family. I never bought seed packets, though, because I liked the idea of making my Sims hunt for the different plants.
- The re-traiting potion still seems a bit cheaty to me, but I like the idea of using it once per Era. On a side note...
- The bathtub/toilet (if you have Get Together) always seemed out of place to me. At the same time, they felt like a reward for maxing the Handiness skill early enough and were a huge relief as I no longer had to force my Sims to swim every day. I've got to do some testing with the deodorizing cream to see if toddlers can use it, as that is sometimes even better than a hot bath for our Prehistoric Sims. It's interesting that this patch added a swimwear sort for toddlers, I also want to test to see if we can somehow swim with our toddlers now that they have swimwear. Probably not, but it bothers me that the addition to the base game will be functionally useless without the kiddie pools from Seasons. On a side note, I haven't had the hygiene from swimming mod installed for a loooong time. Your Sims can get hygiene while swimming without it, it just only ever fills the bar up halfway. Back on the topic of bathrooms, I would probably still allow them in Early Civilization despite them obviously still not fitting the Era. Similar to cancelling kids going to school every day, using pools or even deodorizing cream is a tedious action that I don't want to force on people for too long.
- All of your suggestions are fair and historically accurate as far as fridges and ovens go, but I'm disinclined to use them. There are a LOT of rules and restrictions in this challenge, and I don't want to make it more confusing by restricting little things like what food you can/can't make. If we can find a good alternative to the Early Civ. party goal and eating campfire food for another generation isn't too frustrating, I'll happily remove both of them until the next Era. Perhaps a good middle ground would be allowing a fridge and a grill, and the oven in the next Era. That way you can still make and store meals, but can't use the more modern functions of the oven. I'll test and see if you can grill with just a cooler, or if a fridge is required. Not entirely sure why, but a basic cooler seems better than a fully functioning fridge.
Change Log (6/25/18)
Update for Seasons and game version 1.44
- This is kinda-sorta a placeholder rule at the moment; it isn’t set in stone. I’m going to test this challenge without the rule about randomizing all traits and see how I like it. If it still feels challenging and entertaining with hand-picked traits, I may change the rules accordingly to allow players to choose their own traits throughout the challenge.
- This includes seeds now able to be purchased directly via buy mode (added in the Seasons patch), and purchasing seeds from plant pots (the original way you could do this).
- While not technically a rule, I wanted to point this out here in case anyone was wondering. I won’t be adding it to any sections in the main rules outline (unless you think it will be confusing otherwise).
- I originally wasn’t going to restrict these, but it wouldn’t be realistic to allow your Prehistoric Sims to construct fancy glass roofs with the added benefit of any plants under the roof growing year-round.
- I did a bit of research to see when beekeeping historically started, and was surprised to find it’s been around since before what this challenge classifies as “Early Civilization”. The wax our Early Civ Sims use for their candles have to come from somewhere, after all.
- These spawn at random locations in the worlds, so one may be in your local neighborhood. While I’m sure Prehistoric Sims wouldn’t have anything against using these, historically people only began to make skating a passtime in Early Civilization Eras.
- People didn’t really start using potted plants/flowers to decorate their homes until this time period. Besides, I didn’t want to start up the debate again on whether gardening should count towards the 20k goal in the Prehistoric Era or not.
- If you’re playing with seasons with this challenge, you don’t get to cheat mother nature! We’ll all just have to suffer together.
- If your Sims are getting cold, try using fireplaces to warm up your house!
- You might want to take advantage of that pool lot from the Prehistoric Era to keep you cool in the summer.
- Use this feature to make fun Holidays for each Era!
- You can also use the holidays to keep your kids/teens out of school by making a holiday every weekday that gives your Sims the day off. Keep in mind this will give your adults the day off from work too, though.
- In fact, if you have Seasons installed, you won’t be allowed to use bathtubs in this Era. You’ll have to use toddler pools to clean up your toddlers, and either a pool or Deodorizing Cream (Herbalism Skill Level 2) to keep your kids-elders clean. This is noted in the change below.
- This means that players with Jungle Adventures and/or Get Together can’t use toilets until Early Civilization, and (as noted above) players with Seasons can’t use bathtubs until Early Civilization. You must instead use the toilet bushes or the toddler pools, respectively.
- This rule mostly only applies to the Prehistoric Era, since everything crafted on the woodworking bench is allowed after that Era.
- You can still sell anything crafted at the woodworking bench, and can store crafted items in the family inventory to be used in a later Era.
- Allowed bathtubs here to support the above rule change.
- These aren’t allowed if you have Seasons.
- Enjoying your lovely new rain/snowfall? Well, you probably won’t be in this challenge. Seasons adds a whole new layer of difficulty to this challenge, but since it’s an optional pack you can change the in-game seasons settings as you see fit. The ones I’m talking about are found in Options>Seasons. If you want a hardcore experience, though, you’ll leave those death settings on.
- If you’re starting a new challenge with Seasons installed, you’ll probably want to set the season to Spring. This will give you time to reach the second part of the Prehistoric Era and at least give your Sims a hut to retreat to when it gets too cold. That, and a warm bed.
Hi, welcome to the challenge! I hope you're liking it so far. The latest update for it (in the wake of seasons) changed a lot of things, including the use of bathtubs in the Prehistoric Era. If you have seasons installed, the ways to get hygiene up are to swim and use deodorizing cream (level 2 herbalism recipe from outdoor retreat). I tested it out and toddlers do get hygiene from the toddler pools in seasons, which is what you have to use for them.
In regards to the hygiene mod not working, try taking it out. I don't know when, but at some point in the last year the Sims team patched the game to give your sims hygiene while swimming, so the mod isn't necessary. If it hasn't been updated by the author for seasons, it probably is what's disabling all hygiene gain for your Sims. I've been playing without it for a long time now and my Sims gain hygiene just fine.
If taking the outdated mod out doesn't work then by all means use any CC you find appropriate to make the game functional for you. The allowed/disallowed objects are mostly restricted due to historic accuracy and doesn't assume that people are using CC. If you find some CC that will make your experience more enjoyable, then use it! Even if it isn't allowed for the era. Some things are restricted for a difficulty balance, but in the end it's your game and up to you what you do/don't add into it.
Hope that helps! As always, let me know if you find anything too hard/broken/odd as you're playing along. Reports and suggestions here really do help.