Rebuilding Worlds: General Discussion

I am flexible and happy to go with whatever, for remodeling we can add that in so that folks know that it doesn't need to be a full scale remodel. I know I plan to do remodeling for most of the challenge : ) For the more challenging worlds or world with fewer plots lets make those a free for all and people can pick their lots. So that would Tomerang and Copperdale I think. 

For length of the challenge we can just have one genepool and let people decide if they want to do a 5 gen or 10 gen. Just means we need to provide enough mates for that. Its always the hardest part for me lol

I’m happy with that regarding the remodeling.  From my perspective, I like to know the details of a challenge before starting it, so I’m just anticipating future questions.  If we make it clear that remodeling means something has to change but it can be as little or as much as people want within the budget.  I haven’t decided which way to go yet with this challenge but I’d probably do something along the lines of removing the walls to create a hopefully better floor plan (especially in smaller houses) and then refurbishing.  I’ve done that in a San Myshuno challenge and it was a fun challenge trying to reconfigure the spaces.  Not so much fun decorating but I don’t like that anyway 😆.  I have a while to think about it anyway, given I still want to finish the challenges over on vol 2!  Although, since I haven’t started Isolde’s challenge, she could easily swap over onto this.  

Do we want to have floor plans already sorted for this or get people to find their own, if they choose to rebuild?

I'm thinking we could maybe give some options for the rebuild.  I'd like to link houses we've built for the lots as options, give floor plan suggestions but let people do what they want if nothing calls to them.  i think part of the reason we put in the house floor plans was because the people doing the challenge were having fun using each other's housing or having something similar to what others had or even seeing the differences when we all used the same floorplan.  I think we need to build up participation again to have something that structured.

I was thinking though that if we do have things be really flexible maybe we could do a set of optional side challenges.  Maybe things people could do over the span of the challenge so for 5/10 generations or challenges to accomplish in a generation.  Like maybe with the founders you could start with $0 and try to have $X before moving on to the next generation without cheats.  Or maybe have a full collection of something without cheats in a generation.  Long term ones could be things to pass through the generations like eye color or I don't know what else.  It's fun thinking about it though lol.

@debjameswhite When you’re talking about links to houses we’ve built, do you mean just the shells or fully decorated houses?  And would those be new houses done specifically for the lots or ones we might have already used in the vol 2 challenge?  I like the idea of shells - there have been times I’ve used the shells done in the Blueprint Build thread for my other saves and it saves a lot of work 😆.  People would then be free to decorate how they wish.  

The idea of optional side challenges is a good one.  I’m already doing that in my vol 2 saves (though the eye colour one in Brindleton was unintentional but now I’m going to keep it going since I’ve got it to gen 8).  My Strangerville save has the goal of building a museum by each generation collecting one collection for it, and the entire five generations have to also contribute as many of the paintings as they can.  My HoB one, which I haven’t started, the aim is to keep the spellcaster gene in the main line throughout five generations, complete the magical collection, and have a magical club meeting every week.  Doing this challenge though, I like the idea of rebuilding Newcrest with community lots based on the needs of the heir (ie. if I used Isolde as my founder, I’d build a museum as her aspiration is one of the Selvadora ones.  If her heir was high maintenance or active, I’d build a spa/gym).  I’m not sure I’d actually build those lots, more like download them 😏.  But it makes things more interesting to have a goal to aim towards.  

Catching up on replies now but I just wanted to check in to see if you've all had a chance to look at the Google doc here? I have it set so you can edit things too so feel free to drop things there too so we don't lose any neat ideas 

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@Ojenn wrote:

Catching up on replies now but I just wanted to check in to see if you've all had a chance to look at the Google doc here? I have it set so you can edit things too so feel free to drop things there too so we don't lose any neat ideas 

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I have looked at it but didn’t realise I could edit it.  I might be doing that later today then, depending on whether anyone else gets in first 😏.  Do I need to sign in to save because I don’t know if I have a Google password or user name?

Okay, I’ve come up with some things to put in the document.  I’ll put them here as I’m not sure how to save to the actual document…

Genetics:

- Create a founder.  Find them a spouse from the general population who is genetically diverse from the founder.

OR

- Create a founding couple that is genetically diverse.

- From gen 2 onwards, choose the heir’s spouse from the gene pool for that generation, making sure they will provide some genetic diversity.

Builds:

- Pick your starting world.  Choose from the small, medium or large lot and do one of the following:

a) remodel the existing house as you see fit but try to keep it within the budget.

b) download the house shell for that lot and decorate it

c) use the floor plan for that lot and create your house

d) free build your dream home!

The same options will apply to any of the future worlds.  Once you have finished a generation, choose a world and lot to move to and choose whether to remodel or rebuild.  You can go to any world you like!  Pick your favourites, choose worlds you haven’t played much in before, or use a randomiser to pick for you!  

Optional Challenges:

if you want a bit more of a challenge, here are some ideas to get you started.

- keep the eye, hair or even skin colour of the founder throughout the legacy

- have a trait or skill that each of the heirs has to have (ie. if you want dogs in the family, pass down the trait ‘dog lover’.  If you want to have a hereditary wine business, each heir has to master nectar making).  
- each generation has to complete a collection.  Maybe you could make a museum in one of the worlds and put everything there!

- turn Newcrest into a destination world filled with community lots by placing 1-3 lots per generation.  These could match in with the heirs (ie. an active heir might build a gym, whereas a gardener might build a park),  These lots can be built from scratch or downloaded from the gallery.  See if you can fill the whole of Newcrest by the end of the challenge!

You are a rockstar @MayaRose1138 ♥♥♥ Google Docs autosaves to the cloud so it's all there!

You’re welcome ☺️.  I have a lot of time to think while I’m driving to work, so I can write stuff up in my head then write it down later.

i had a thought today regarding the shells and floor plans.  Given that is a lot of shells to do, maybe we could divvy them up between us (and maybe @tipsycowplant, if they’re available).  We could start of with one world each, do the shells for them, then pick another world, and so on, until we’ve done them all.  Same with the floor plans, unless we want to reuse some of the plans we have in vol 2.  We would have a few months to do it, depending on when we want to launch the new challenge.  Or maybe we could use some of the floor plans from vol. 2 to build the shells, especially for the newer worlds that no one has used yet 🤷‍♀️.  

@MayaRose1138 we could maybe source some shells from the gallery? I think that could be kind of fun 🙂

That would certainly be less time-consuming 🤣.  Maybe we could still divide up the worlds and individually decide whether to create or find a shell for those lots.  I can’t access the Gallery on my computer, only in-game, so I can never get web addresses for links but I should be able to give you the information on them to get those links.  

Are you able to access links on your PC like this one? 

I can access links but I can't do any kind of thorough searches.  I just tried searching 'shell' and only got four results.  I can't even find my own stuff that I've uploaded!  I got confused before - it's not the links I have problems with but the search engine.  It just doesn't seem to work properly for me.  That's why I gave up and only use the in-game Gallery now but doing that means that I don't have a web address for anything I find.  

Ooof!  Sorry I had a couple of nights of "forced family fun" at work so I haven't had much play time this week.  Last night I was determined to finish a kdrama series I had been watching! lol  Anyways, @Ojenn I did look at your document on google docs.  Thank you for always pulling this stuff together for us!  @MayaRose1138 You're awesome taking all our ideas and listing them out.  I'm still really grateful to the two of you for keeping this challenge alive.

I definitely have some houses I would like to donate to the cause.  Some that we've used in the past because I loved them and just some I built but didn't get much use of.  I know I built a couple of houses that I loved but didn't get to play in for whatever reason.  Actually I think a big part was this challenge and doing the different lots.  It is fun going out and finding the lots and the gene pools though so I am in!

Thank you @debjameswhite !  That would be great if there are some houses we can already use.  I reckon I might have a couple from my Brindleton save because I build them in a different save and then put them in my library for use when I need them.  I really liked the gen 4 and gen 6 builds I did - I would just have to see how I saved them and whether I need to go back and empty them of furniture.  And there is a gorgeous house that is listed for HoB’s Nettle Lane that I would love to do 🥰.  Do we want to have any houses as actual shells or give them a lick of paint and some flooring?

@Ojenn - incidentally, the house B floor plan for BBay on Ragdoll Refurb is no longer available.

I also have a couple of sims to consider for the gene pool.  One question - do we want to have any sims of alien colours in the gene pool?  I know we have the starting sim for Strangerville whose kids have all turned out blue but do we want to have any in the gene pool?  I have a sim in mind for the gene pool from a different challenge but she does have blue skin.  I can easily change her skin colour if we want to stick with the more traditional colours though.  

I realised that since I haven’t started Isolde’s challenge in HoB that I could use her to road test this challenge with the house I built for her, but then I realised it was probably way over the budget 🙂. If I did road test this challenge, I think I’d start with the Nettle Lane floor plan A from Vol 2 on the medium block either as a free build or if we wanted to use it for the shell or floor plan for that block.  Keeping it as a five gen challenge, I would then probably go to worlds I haven’t had much to do with yet like Tomerang, Chestnut Ridge and Tartosa.  On the other hand, I really like HoB and wouldn’t mind doing the vol 2 challenge like I had planned…

@MayaRose1138 - I swear links never last long ☹️ I'll look into updating it this weekend when I have a minute. The online gallery is crappy for sure, what I have to do usually is uncheck Maxis Created under Advanced to see most things. I think to help folks find things better we can list lots out like this:

> Basegame Starter Shell by Dedeho
> Family Home Shell by Daniellebuilds

That way people can search while in game like you mentioned (P.S. I really like that family home shell lol) I think having builds as shells would be best but if some have paint already that's ok too. I know I plan to redo interior and exterior paint in my save.

I don't mind having alien sims in the genepool, feel free to throw them in! I have honestly given alot of thought to just starting up v3 with my current's sims kid....very tempted <.<

@debjameswhite - Yay, welcome back from family fun at work lol.

Lets work on adding some info for housing and see what we can come up 🙂

Okay, I’m in-game today, I’ll see what I can do about putting the two sims I’m thinking about into the Gallery (I’ll give them the # of RebuildingWorlds to make them easier to find but the female might have cc marked even though I’ll make sure she won’t be wearing any.  I’ve found that if I give the teens cc clothing, it’ll still mark them as wearing the clothing as YA even if they’re not!).

I’ll see if I can post the shells of the two houses from Brindleton Bay in as well.  I’ll delete the furniture (if necessary) but keep the wall and floor coverings, and post it with the same #.  I will post back here later today if I manage to get all that done, as well as the names I’ve posted them as.

Okay, I have two houses - It’s a Good House and Domus Familiaris.  Both are #RebuildingWorlds and #shell, and should be able to be found under my name.  The two sims are Texas Everest and Sienna Breen.  The alien one I’ll have to actually go into the save and get because I obviously didn’t save her the last time I was in there.  

Edit: just added India McDonald as well.  Both she and Texas also have the # of TrailerPark.  

I’ve discovered the house I really like is too big for the Nettle Lane address - it needs at least a 30x30 lot to go on.  But I’ll see if I can create a shell for it this afternoon that can be linked to one of the medium lots.  On the up side, I think I might have found a possible floor plan/shell for Nettle Lane:

https://www.eplans.com/plan/1880-square-feet-4-bedroom-2-50-bathroom-2-garage-farmhouse-sp297162

I haven’t tested it out yet but I’m thinking that if I don’t use Isolde’s house in HoB that I’ve already done for the Cordelia’s Cottage lot in vol 2, I would use the above floor plan for the medium lot in HoB.  

Also, possible thought - to cut down on the number of floor plans/shells that we need to find or create, do we want to have some of them linked to multiple lots?  There are some styles that would suit multiple worlds and if a player chose those particular worlds to play in, they would just choose a different sized lot.  Thoughts?

20x15:

https://www.eplans.com/plan/1011-square-feet-2-bedroom-2-00-bathroom-0-garage-country-beach-cottage-cabin-sp277052

https://www.eplans.com/plan/681-square-feet-2-bedroom-2-00-bathroom-0-garage-sp183012

20x20:

https://www.eplans.com/plan/1738-square-feet-3-bedroom-2-50-bathroom-0-garage-sp164854
https://www.eplans.com/plan/1616-square-feet-2-bedroom-2-00-bathroom-0-garage-sp165405
https://www.eplans.com/plan/1617-square-feet-4-bedroom-2-00-bathroom-0-garage-sp182876

30x20:

https://www.eplans.com/plan/1802-square-feet-4-bedroom-3-00-bathroom-0-garage-sp163740
https://www.eplans.com/plan/1880-square-feet-4-bedroom-2-50-bathroom-2-garage-farmhouse-sp297162  - this is the one I like for Nettle Lane and am planning on making a shell for.

40x30:

https://www.eplans.com/plan/2095-square-feet-4-bedroom-2-00-bathroom-2-garage-traditional-farmhouse-country-sp265096

These are the ones I’ve found so far by looking up country style on one particular site while seeing what I could find if I switch Isolde to this challenge.  The facades are country style but they could be changed to make them more suitable for other towns.  Now I actually have to go do stuff non-sims related 🤣.

Hey checking in here! We moved from our hotel to an AirBnB so today was busy to say the least. I'm hoping to get some time tonight or tomorrow to look through things and come back with some answers lol

Wow, that does sound busy!  No hurry, just whenever you’re able to check in!

I’ve put two shells up on the Gallery.  Both are labelled #RebuildingWorlds and #shell.  One is named 13 Nettle Lane shell and the other is 13 Acacia Avenue shell. The Nettle one is popular already - 9 downloads in about an hour!  The two I put up yesterday have four downloads each!  

just having a look through Daniellebuilds’s homes and they’re very nice 😊.  But we may have to be more specific with names because, for example, there were multiple shells with the title Family Home Shell and without a link, I wouldn’t know which one it was.  I tend to look at the links from the other challenge on my iPad, see what the sim/house is, then find it in-game.  

I'm looking forward to building again although I am still marveling that I built the house I'm playing in right now.  I realized this morning I never shared it so I just did...even if it will be taken down soon ☹️  I'm also toying with just starting over.  It might be nice to start in a fresh save with new characters.

Hi @MayaRose1138 I think allowing some of the shells to be multi-use is a great idea! Find them is already going to be a pretty hefty undertaking so that will help 🙂 Maybe we can create a list of plans/shells and list them like you did under the lot size. The question is how many should we provide so that it's enough for someone to complete the challenge? Although I am not really sure completing the challenge is even possible with all the worlds and more coming lol. Also feel free to add me on the EA app, I sometimes chat with @debjameswhite when I am playing

Lets all start over together @debjameswhite fresh new sims in a new year with a new challenge ♥ What town were you thinking of starting in first?

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@Ojenn wrote:

Hi @MayaRose1138 I think allowing some of the shells to be multi-use is a great idea! Find them is already going to be a pretty hefty undertaking so that will help 🙂 Maybe we can create a list of plans/shells and list them like you did under the lot size. The question is how many should we provide so that it's enough for someone to complete the challenge? Although I am not really sure completing the challenge is even possible with all the worlds and more coming lol. Also feel free to add me on the EA app, I sometimes chat with @debjameswhite when I am playing

Lets all start over together @debjameswhite fresh new sims in a new year with a new challenge ♥ What town were you thinking of starting in first?

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There would have to be at least 10 for each size of small, medium and large, so I’m thinking count up how many we have of each sized lot in the challenge and maybe add 2 or 3 extra if it’s a small number?  With a variety of different styles that can be adapted for different worlds.  I’ve put up two country styles on the Gallery - 30x20 and 40x30 - plus two Brindleton builds (the 40x40 would be probably country style too whereas the 30x30 maybe more Victorian?).  There are 16 30x20 lots listed for the challenge, so unless people are planning on doing a never ending challenge, we would probably only need maybe 6-8 for that size to choose from, a variety of single and multi-storey houses as there will be other sizes within those categories.  Have around the same amount of floor plans.  I’ll see if I’ve got time today to go through and sort out how many size lots we’ve listed so we can work out a figure.

I’ll head into my game sometime this week and see how to go about adding friends on the EA app, though I don’t think I’d get to chat to either of you because I’m in a different time zone and you’ll be sleeping most likely while I’m playing 😆.