The Legacy Challenge Rules
Note, items in bold have been modified from the original posting. Please take note of them. Legacy Challenge The Legacy Challenge is a long, 10-generation challenge where you start out with a s...
Forum Discussion
Hey, I had some suggestions for possible optional rules, figured I'd throw them out here, and see how they fly.
Optional Challenges:
Black Market - Figure I'll add this challenge, since the normal rule got lifted. This is fairly straightforward - you could still choose to play with the "Black Market" restriction, where you can't sell stolen or rummaged items (although you can keep and use them). Since this would be an optional challenge, it could possibly even be beefed up... for instance, maybe make it so you can't sell gemstones (or maybe just cut gems) either, since such an item would cause the police to take an interest and think it possibly stolen.
Foundling Father - This would be a normal Legacy in most ways, except that instead of creating your young adult or older Sim in CAS, you'd start with an infant or perhaps toddler that's part of another (probably created) family. Or perhaps just start off with two CAS married Sims, and have them have one child.... which would then be your founder. You'd basically then have to raise the founder from the ground up, rather than just plop them into town as an adult. This would give you more time to lay some groundwork of friends, skills, etc., but at the same time you might not get the chance to pick all your traits, looks would be somewhat random, and so on. As soon as the Sim hit young adulthood, they'd be kicked out on their own, and then you'd switch them to the Active Family, move them into the largest lot, and start from there. (Although... do Kicked Out Sims get the normal starting cash? I'm not even sure how that works.)
Service-Oriented: The trick to this challenge would be that instead of marrying anyone in town that doesn't break the current restrictions, you wouldn't be able to marry *anyone* that actually lives in the town. The Founder and each Heir could *only* marry the Sims 3 version of "townies," which as far as I know is just the service Sims. Spares could marry who they wished, but the moment they married a non-service Sim, they'd no longer be eligible to be Heir, even if something happened to the current Heir.
Primogeniture - This challenge would basically use the rules of primogeniture when it came to choosing your heir. (So... not really "choosing" an heir at all.) There's a wiki article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primogeniture, but the basic rule of thumb is that the first-born male inherits, and if something happens to him, it goes down the line. Although there are variations, such as those that let the first-born inherit, regardless of gender. Obviously there'd need to be a specific set of guidelines figured out for the challenge - such as first-born male inherits, a first-born female only inherits if there are *no* male children, something like that.
Extra Point Categories:
I love and adore this challenge, but if there's one thing that's a bit of a downer, it's that it doesn't make quite enough use of some of the neat new things Sims 3 brings in. So it'd be neat to see extra point categories for various things. Like...
Trait Challenges - This would be a pain to figure out, but I figured I'd at least bring it up as a sometime future possibility. Each Trait would have a challenge that you could gain points for, if a Sim with the Trait completed it. Something like reading a certain number of books for Bookworms, Donating a total of $50,000 to charity for a Good Sim, and things like that.
Skill Journal - I'd love to see Sims be able to earn points for fulfilling the in-game challenges set by the Skill Journal. Maybe extra points for fulfilling all of them for a certain Skill, and a hefty bonus for doing all of them for *all* skills, something like that.
Fishpond - What about points for stocking a Fish Pond on your Sim's lot? a point for each type of fish stocked there, or something like that.
Opportunity Points - And what about earning points for something to do with the Opportunities? The writer of the rules (well, Pinstar to be precise XD) would have to pick maybe the toughest Opportunity for each Skill and Career, and you could get points for completing that Opportunity, or getting some type of specific reward. Such as a certain number of points for unlocking the Autobiography option, a certain number of points for being able to order Omni Seeds... I don't know come to think of it if there are any really tough Career challenges, but it's a possibility.
Gnome Points - Come on, who doesn't love the Mysterious Mr. Gnome? :twisted: We should be able to get a point for every Gnome we manage to collect over the course of the Legacy, although they have to remain on the display, and maybe have a name. Or maybe a point for every five gnomes or something.
Edit: Oooo, and/or maybe Gnome Portraits - 1 point for each portrait you have of a gnome in one of a list of positions/locations. (You'd have to use the honor system that the person didn't just place the gnome in the position manually, but then the honor system is used for pretty much the rest of the challenge anyhow.) Like, one point for a gnome pointing up at the sky, one for one pointing at the ground, one point for a gnome standing on top of a bar... things like that. If a gnome filled two of the positions (like, standing on a bar, pointing up at the sky), it'd be two points. But each position/location point could only be gained one time each.
Rules Clarifications:
Finally, there are a couple rules that I'd like to see clarified. Obviously Pinstar will have to give the final verdict (if he'd be so kind), but I'll give my own stab at a clarification for each.
Adoption and points - It's stated somewhere that you can't get points from adoption, but there's one way that I think you should be able to - In the "Surrounded by Family" Lifetime Wish, you have to raise five children from babies to teens. I'm pretty sure that this allows you to raise adopted kids as well - so would it be allowable a bloodline Sim with this LTW to raise a few kids that include adopted Sims (adopted when they were babies) and still gain the points for the Wish? I'd think so, since in this case the adopted Sims are just a "tool" for the actual bloodline Sim to gain points, but it'd be nice to see clarified.
The Family Trait - It would be possible for someone that started playing with a Family Trait to screw up somewhere along the line, not get a good age transition (or multiple), and not be able to actually pick the Family Trait at all because the game automatically assigns all the traits to the Sim. This would be more likely for things that aren't choices at all until later in the Sim's childhood, such as "Flirty" and so on. So since you're supposed to be required to have the Family Trait in all of the heirs and spares... what then?
Some possible solutions to this last I can think of:
a) That Sim is considered a Black Sheep, and is kicked out of the Legacy house as soon as they transition to Young Adulthood. They can gain no points for the Legacy, and cannot be considered as Heirs, even if something happens to the other children of the generation.
b) You continue on as usual, but have a certain number of points deducted from your Legacy Point total each time this happens.
c) The Family Trait is considered broken, and while the older Sims obviously still have it, you can no longer assign it to future Sims in the Legacy - all choices are random.
d) You continue mostly as normal, but the Sim in question cannot spend *any* Lifetime Reward points until they can afford the Mid-Life Crisis. They *must* take this reward as soon as they possibly can, and change their Traits to the Family Trait and four randoms.
Anyhow, I think that should do it. Sorry about the long post, and if I'm overthinking things like the Family Trait bit, but I've been kinda jotting down ideas as I go, and mulling them over for a while before putting them out in a post. ^^;;
Optional Challenges:
Black Market - Figure I'll add this challenge, since the normal rule got lifted. This is fairly straightforward - you could still choose to play with the "Black Market" restriction, where you can't sell stolen or rummaged items (although you can keep and use them). Since this would be an optional challenge, it could possibly even be beefed up... for instance, maybe make it so you can't sell gemstones (or maybe just cut gems) either, since such an item would cause the police to take an interest and think it possibly stolen.
Foundling Father - This would be a normal Legacy in most ways, except that instead of creating your young adult or older Sim in CAS, you'd start with an infant or perhaps toddler that's part of another (probably created) family. Or perhaps just start off with two CAS married Sims, and have them have one child.... which would then be your founder. You'd basically then have to raise the founder from the ground up, rather than just plop them into town as an adult. This would give you more time to lay some groundwork of friends, skills, etc., but at the same time you might not get the chance to pick all your traits, looks would be somewhat random, and so on. As soon as the Sim hit young adulthood, they'd be kicked out on their own, and then you'd switch them to the Active Family, move them into the largest lot, and start from there. (Although... do Kicked Out Sims get the normal starting cash? I'm not even sure how that works.)
Service-Oriented: The trick to this challenge would be that instead of marrying anyone in town that doesn't break the current restrictions, you wouldn't be able to marry *anyone* that actually lives in the town. The Founder and each Heir could *only* marry the Sims 3 version of "townies," which as far as I know is just the service Sims. Spares could marry who they wished, but the moment they married a non-service Sim, they'd no longer be eligible to be Heir, even if something happened to the current Heir.
Primogeniture - This challenge would basically use the rules of primogeniture when it came to choosing your heir. (So... not really "choosing" an heir at all.) There's a wiki article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primogeniture, but the basic rule of thumb is that the first-born male inherits, and if something happens to him, it goes down the line. Although there are variations, such as those that let the first-born inherit, regardless of gender. Obviously there'd need to be a specific set of guidelines figured out for the challenge - such as first-born male inherits, a first-born female only inherits if there are *no* male children, something like that.
Extra Point Categories:
I love and adore this challenge, but if there's one thing that's a bit of a downer, it's that it doesn't make quite enough use of some of the neat new things Sims 3 brings in. So it'd be neat to see extra point categories for various things. Like...
Trait Challenges - This would be a pain to figure out, but I figured I'd at least bring it up as a sometime future possibility. Each Trait would have a challenge that you could gain points for, if a Sim with the Trait completed it. Something like reading a certain number of books for Bookworms, Donating a total of $50,000 to charity for a Good Sim, and things like that.
Skill Journal - I'd love to see Sims be able to earn points for fulfilling the in-game challenges set by the Skill Journal. Maybe extra points for fulfilling all of them for a certain Skill, and a hefty bonus for doing all of them for *all* skills, something like that.
Fishpond - What about points for stocking a Fish Pond on your Sim's lot? a point for each type of fish stocked there, or something like that.
Opportunity Points - And what about earning points for something to do with the Opportunities? The writer of the rules (well, Pinstar to be precise XD) would have to pick maybe the toughest Opportunity for each Skill and Career, and you could get points for completing that Opportunity, or getting some type of specific reward. Such as a certain number of points for unlocking the Autobiography option, a certain number of points for being able to order Omni Seeds... I don't know come to think of it if there are any really tough Career challenges, but it's a possibility.
Gnome Points - Come on, who doesn't love the Mysterious Mr. Gnome? :twisted: We should be able to get a point for every Gnome we manage to collect over the course of the Legacy, although they have to remain on the display, and maybe have a name. Or maybe a point for every five gnomes or something.
Edit: Oooo, and/or maybe Gnome Portraits - 1 point for each portrait you have of a gnome in one of a list of positions/locations. (You'd have to use the honor system that the person didn't just place the gnome in the position manually, but then the honor system is used for pretty much the rest of the challenge anyhow.) Like, one point for a gnome pointing up at the sky, one for one pointing at the ground, one point for a gnome standing on top of a bar... things like that. If a gnome filled two of the positions (like, standing on a bar, pointing up at the sky), it'd be two points. But each position/location point could only be gained one time each.
Rules Clarifications:
Finally, there are a couple rules that I'd like to see clarified. Obviously Pinstar will have to give the final verdict (if he'd be so kind), but I'll give my own stab at a clarification for each.
Adoption and points - It's stated somewhere that you can't get points from adoption, but there's one way that I think you should be able to - In the "Surrounded by Family" Lifetime Wish, you have to raise five children from babies to teens. I'm pretty sure that this allows you to raise adopted kids as well - so would it be allowable a bloodline Sim with this LTW to raise a few kids that include adopted Sims (adopted when they were babies) and still gain the points for the Wish? I'd think so, since in this case the adopted Sims are just a "tool" for the actual bloodline Sim to gain points, but it'd be nice to see clarified.
The Family Trait - It would be possible for someone that started playing with a Family Trait to screw up somewhere along the line, not get a good age transition (or multiple), and not be able to actually pick the Family Trait at all because the game automatically assigns all the traits to the Sim. This would be more likely for things that aren't choices at all until later in the Sim's childhood, such as "Flirty" and so on. So since you're supposed to be required to have the Family Trait in all of the heirs and spares... what then?
Some possible solutions to this last I can think of:
a) That Sim is considered a Black Sheep, and is kicked out of the Legacy house as soon as they transition to Young Adulthood. They can gain no points for the Legacy, and cannot be considered as Heirs, even if something happens to the other children of the generation.
b) You continue on as usual, but have a certain number of points deducted from your Legacy Point total each time this happens.
c) The Family Trait is considered broken, and while the older Sims obviously still have it, you can no longer assign it to future Sims in the Legacy - all choices are random.
d) You continue mostly as normal, but the Sim in question cannot spend *any* Lifetime Reward points until they can afford the Mid-Life Crisis. They *must* take this reward as soon as they possibly can, and change their Traits to the Family Trait and four randoms.
Anyhow, I think that should do it. Sorry about the long post, and if I'm overthinking things like the Family Trait bit, but I've been kinda jotting down ideas as I go, and mulling them over for a while before putting them out in a post. ^^;;
