#sims 2 test of time challenge

[glowyjellyfish]

A Test Run of my Test of Time variant

After getting the downloads folder set up, I made some random sims to test that things worked properly and also to test that my planned rules would work okay. So far, it mostly has--I learned that I somehow missed the Basket Weaving set and added that in, and I think I need an Inventory Trade mod--not sell from inventory, but one where sims swap goods in each their inventories. And I discovered a bug or something where the hunters didn't bring back the carcasses they collected, which defeats the whole purpose of the hunting grounds. I'll have to figure out whether that happens regularly or not.

Featured above: my Hunting Grounds community lot and a Camp residential lot. You'll see the men going on a two-day hunting trip--technically, I don't intend to gender restrict hunting, but most of the women were pregnant and I couldn't remember which ones, so men only it was! Lots of socializing, including the mothers chitchatting while holding and taking care of their babies. Naked lady giving birth because sometimes the sims wander out of the waterfall shower and forget to put their clothes on, lol. The one single dude I had wasn't interested in the single lady I had, was randomly made bi by the hood gender pref roll, and fell head over heels for the handsome random Test Sim I made earlier. If I continue playing, I'll pair them up and let one or the other or both work on getting abducted via weird stone.

I did have a slight flaw where I did not reduce the funds to low/zero, removing a fair amount of challenge I am sure. I'm also considering having my Real Game involve ten single sims rather than five couples, and let the sims pair up how they like, and debating whether to stick with 1 day = 1 year or go with Proportionate Aging for this. I don't like that the hunting trip took basically two years, and six months would be much more plausible. On the other hand, I may need to set the Hunting Grounds up differently in order to make it viable--ie, have a sim own it, play it forward until the animals start spawning, then have the sim sell it, so that hunters can start hunting immediately. I'll have to think about this.

I did add a new rule that forbids putting away leftovers--they can use a fridge to pull food out of to cook, that's just how the sims works, but they can't keep leftovers until they have a little more preservation technology. Jury's still out on whether I want to allow Pottery and Basket Making at this stage--they can DEFINITELY do that once they discover Agriculture and move from the Band stage to the Tribe stage, but I'm not sure yet if they should be able to start now or not.

(My variant breaks the "Neanderthal" stage into more realistic "Band, Tribe, and Chiefdom stages, and advancing to the next stage requires events and discoveries, not just time passing. For example, completing the Band stage requires a sim to achieve maximum reputation and influence to become a leader, and also requires that the band discovers five randomized Sun&Moon crops--each one unlocks when a sim earns a gardening talent badge from planting seeds they dug up. I'm still tinkering with my rules, though.)

[timeless-toaster]

A New Era

The elders of Moonwell Valley have gathered around a campfire. The reason is the unfortunate disaster that hit the peaceful place they share.

I've watched the people of the Valley for two generations now, and I saw them develop a more and more comfortable lifestyle, even with the occasional hardships they had. However, one faithful day generations worth of progress has disappeared in a swift moment. An earthquake has struck Moonwell Valley, and brought down the houses of all the tribes.

The people knew they could only rebuild what was lost, by joining forces. After a long meeting, it was decided, that Cliff Hunter would be leading the rebuilding operations, as his family had the most resources.

And so a new era began...

~~

Where It All Started

Previously On Moonwell Valley

Next On Moonwell Valley

[sychik]

ANCIENT ROMAN NECESSITIES. PART 1: WOMEN

I know, it's very unexpected. I've been having lots of fun with the Test of Time challenge, and then I got to Ancient Rome… and the fun ended :/ enormous respect to all creators who have made cc for that era, but it's just not enough. I hereby present to you the results of my latest hyperfixation.

the meshes are my own, frankenmeshed from maxis meshes and modified. no need to fret about violating my TOU, because I don't care. use, modify, recolor, include. they all should have fat and pregnancy (tf-af) morphs.

1) long-sleeved, low-waist tunic. because of… common sense reasons, it's suited best for women who are more well-off. tf-ef, 28 swatches. DOWNLOAD

2) tunic with a stola; again. tf-ef, 73 swatches… I am sorry. I went ham. the actual Romans probably weren't THAT fun with their color combinations, anyway, but my sims Romans will be. they all have pretty borders, for the sake of consistency. DOWNLOAD

3) simple shorter tunic for working class women. tf-ef, 20 swatches, no fancy dyes or borders. DOWNLOAD

4) girls: shorter basic tunic and longer fancy one. those aren't as different, I guess. DOWNLOAD SHORT | DOWNLOAD LONG

that was a lot. if you encounter any issues, don't hesitate to contact me! also, my post-creation aversion is kicking in, so I hope you'll enjoy this more than I do :D

[nonsensical-pixels]

then vs now... just 20 years apart 👀 from stone age to roman times...

(it's also a monitor + computer upgrade apart lol)

[liri-sims]

Download at SFS or Box.

This is a default replacement for all the conversation icons: the basegame interests, the Freetime hobbies, the "tell story about" interaction that came in Apartment Life, and the pet interests that will sometimes turn up in a pet's dreams or thought bubbles. That extends to the UI elements, where the sim's level of interest in a subject or enthusiasm for a hobby is displayed.

I made this for my Test of Time challenge, because every speech replacement I could find was way too modern for my Stone Age hunter-gatherers.

My sample shots were taken against both Eddysims' high-res speech bubbles and Simborg's TSM speech bubbles, so you can see how they look against both. This was absolutely a deliberate choice and not just that I decided to switch my default in the middle but didn't want to scrap the screencaps.

As you can see above in the crabby toddler shot, I also default-replaced the motives, because I was tired of seeing the same "TOILET!" or "BED!" thought bubbles in the stone age as I'd seen in Pleasantview. A sim who's too hot will think about wanting a cool breeze, not an iced beverage; a sim who's on the verge of bladder failure (or wetting their diaper) will think about relieving themselves in a shrub; a sim in hygiene desperation will think about washing off in a waterfall, because of Marvine's waterfall shower. (If you see the manure pile, they want the place cleaned up.) This is a separate folder from the speech defaults, so you can choose if you want that or not.

This isn't perfect - some icons have some compression/color bleeding that I can't seem to get rid of, and the fuzziness of the era and setting (I don't call it the "Neanderthal" era but that is the official name) means that there are some anachronisms and inconsistencies baked in - the next stage is the Roman Empire, so any New World vegetation or animals shouldn't be there, but they're in a tropical setting, but if there are strays in the neighborhood they have domesticated cats and dogs, which Neanderthals wouldn't... My seven-year-old daughter, in fact, pointed this out and refused to let me have domestic cats and dogs in the children's speech pool. Kids talk about wolves and leopards instead:

The other samples of basegame interest discussion:

In my game, I have Almighty Hat's alien abduction mod, and Plantsims, so the discussion of elves and dryads fits right in. Instead of school or work, sims will discuss important survival skills and cultural knowledge: hunting, fishing, weaving, making tools and preserving food. And so on. It may not suit everyone's game perfectly, but it's better for mine than anything else I could find.

Credit and acknowledgments: The icons used here came from a variety of artists via Freepik and Flaticon. The Puppet Characters collection, Max.Icons, Monkik, and Eucalyp all got heavy use. I also got some from UltimateArm, though I'm having a hard time finding a link to their page specifically.

Without Sims in Low Space, this default wouldn't exist - it was from her novel default that I got the idea to use Flaticon as a source. I also referred heavily to other speech defaults, including Keoni's modern one, and the medieval replacements by ClstlDrmr83 and rugrat0ne.

And if you read all this, you may not want to scroll back up, so here are the download links again:

Download at SFS or Box.

Everything is compressorized and clearly labeled so you can delete any parts you don't want. Let me know if you use this, or if you run into any problems!

[ts2-testoftime]

HELPFUL SITES FOR THE TEST OF TIME CHALLENGE

These sites are particularly helpful for The Sims 2 (2004)'s versions of the challenge. I'm talking general places to find mods, custom content, and other stuff that you need for an immersive and enjoyable game experience.

anna220's Original Version of the Challenge - useful for inspiration as well as helpful tips on how to play the challenge, as they intended it

PleasantSims' Edited Ruleset - has some helpful CC and mod links for the Neanderthal era, and a ruleset up to the Victorians

🌟Chicklet's Test of Time Blog - more inspiration, rulesets, and finds for plenty of stages in the challenge, and more!

leopardeyes' Just Another Test of Time Blog - plenty of inspiration for the Neanderthal era

🌟The Plumb Bob Keep - in my opinion the best repository of historical custom content, mods, and so much more; it's especially useful in later stages of the challenge but offers so much for earlier eras, too!

🌟 AlmightyHat's Historical Blog - custom content, tips and tricks, and creator assistance; essential to any historical challenge!

ModTheSims' Themes and Challenges Page - mostly medieval downloads, but plenty of other juicy custom content, too

This ts2history Blog - some incredibly useful custom content for later stages of the challenge

Kalynn's Pinterest Board - more historical CC, best for later stages of the challenge but useful in earlier ones, too

Let me know if you have any other sites that you frequent for this challenge, but these are the ones that I use myself 😊 A 🌟means I consider it especially useful to my own playthrough!

[cruciferous-spatula]

This morning on House Qallariq: Autumn is here.

Wakin and Sacha are getting the final harvestables of the year planted

In the evening, Sumaq and Saminchay's father Entzu drops by

and bonds with his youngest

While the young people occupy themselves outside

The adults do some catching up.

Mutia's got a mean streak.

And Sky has had quite enough of her nonsense :( use a phone? I can't even use the phrase "has ran" without smirking like one of those smug asshats who think grammatical errors matter at all while making more than any I know in my own writing every day of my life jfc who even am i

existential crisis aside, and oh shit we lost the cat oh no... aside, the evening passes without further incident

peace out

[froynlaventje]

I've finally finished playing the Picaso's next round. Bran and Gaba are getting along well and are now friends.

Gaba had her birthday and is now a child. Her favorite thing to do is playing with big brother Bran and she gained the lucky trait.

Bran meets Bumelia Parviflorum

But right after that the whole family passes out due to heat stroke. Only mom Jessica is still on her feet.

Jessica stays awake until evening falls and passes out just as her family wakes up. It does not last long, since the sun is down now.

Jessica has a want to have another baby and that night chimes are heard from inside one of the tents....

The next day Bumelia walks by again and she and Gaba become friends.

And Agapios Sipos walks by as well. No one seems to like him much, but at least he manages to catch a fish so he's going home with some food. The Sipos family has just moved in from elsewhere and will soon be played.

The next evening Jessica finishes potty training Dob. It's a good thing she got that done before the new baby arrives.

In the last night of this round with the Picaso's, Jessica gives birth to their second son. They name him Mondi.

[simcatcher-ts2]

Crashing Site, because what would be a good historical setting without my dearest queen, anachronism.

[guessimate]

Happy October, everyone!

It is quite sad, but I have landed on a deadly scenario for the Oranges. It's supposed to be death by poison, which makes a lot of sense for this season which is filled with feasting. With how much wine is being drunk chances are someone might come up with the idea of putting something special in one of the cups...

But who would poison Damu Orange, and why? It's not like he has enemies, but he doesn't have lots of friends either. Did someone think it unfair that Damu got to marry princess Tefnut (one of the original emperor's daughters, before he rose to power)? Is someone envious that the Oranges have connections to the imperial family and it's so easy for them to get the emperor himself to attend their parties?

Or maybe it's because of the patriarch of the family, Ninurta... While he didn't make enemies with anyone, he made quite a lot of 'service' sims fall head over heels in love with him. He also was the first sim to turn into a werewolf and he started a supernatural garden after the local garden club lady had supplied him with special seeds.

Although he's young, the heir Ninildu already has quite a few friends, mostly his family members, but also Sampsa Imago and Primula Venus. The only member of the imperial family who isn't friends with him would be Nepri. But I don't think Primula Venus or Nepri would poison the Oranges. The Oranges 'found' Venus and let her stay with them before she moved in with the Wolfens. Would Nepri be jealous they lived with Venus? I don't think he knew that she lived with them. Most sims in my town must think Venus is connected to the Wolfens rather than the Oranges since she 'adopted' or maybe 'mothered' the first alien baby in town. So if anything Nepri would be jealous of the Wolfens, not the Oranges.

Either way, I don't think this would have been a murder of kin... which would put the Tia family under suspicion. I don't think the Tias are very vengeful, at least for now. We don't know yet if the Orange name will survive, but they have a living male heir. The same cannot be said about the Tias. So this could lead to a rivalry, but for now I don't think the Tias would compete against the Oranges. After all they have a higher station and their descendant is going to become the empress.

~*~

Ninildu realized he had quite a bit of attraction towards the local cashier who sells clothes and other goods. He approached her while she was working and asked her to meet him outside of her 'working hours'. She agreed to come over the following day.

The young lady's name is Adriana Lam and she is quite proficient at using the cash register (but I'm sure she'll forget all of that when I make her playable).

Ninildu got a crush on Adriana almost immediately. It took a lot longer for her to succumb to Ninildu's charms. She is a shy knowledge sim, but she likes red hair, so there is definitely some attraction on her part. It was just a little harder and slower at first, especially that she didn't have the ACR token I could have totally given her. At first I thought that Adriana wasn't rolling a lot of wants during the date, but it changed when their relationship increased. In the end the pair became best friends and they shared their first kiss.

There is no reason for them to rush getting married as teens, but Ninildu might want someone to give him a helping hand in running the store, especially an experienced cashier. Running the house alone is no fun for a teenage boy and his dog.

~*~

Shortly after the date Ninildu decided he would like to 'go out' with Adriana. I thought this would work well for the poisoning scenario. There would be a party on the Oranges' lot, but the son wouldn't be there to witness his father's death, so he would have no clue as to who the culprit behind this murder was (to be honest I have no idea who the culprit is either).

One thing that makes me really sad is that there was noone creative enough in this house to paint a picture of Damu. Even though Damu painted multiple pictures of his dad and his son, there are no pictures to remember him by...

~*~

Ninildu didn't earn very much because he only opened his store at the very end of the round. That's because I didn't want his dad to help run the establishment.

For now it's a general store, mostly selling harvestables. He has to stock up on milk and he has too few goats to sell animal products. I would really like to turn this business into a dairy (milk and cheese) store someday, but it's impossible to do with only one pair of farm animals.

Ninildu got a positive review, but his grandfather's ghost appeared on the day of the opening of the store... I was afraid he would scare everyone, but I think the ghost disappeared as soon as Ninildu closed the store. I didn't want to shoo away the business reviewer, so I waited for her to leave before everyone was safe from the haunting presence.

He earned around 230$ this round. He has some spare money to pay the bills for now.

500$ - rent

92$ - tax (40%)

23$ - tithe

He will pay the burial fee of 200$ when I move both of the graves to the cemetery. He paid 615$.

~*~

Hera Flori, the teen servant, is a terrible customer. She didn't want to buy anything and I'm not even surprised Ninildu's dog decided to chase her.

I didn't realize it when I was playing, but I did when I looked at my notes later. She must be jealous that Ninildu got together with Adriana! She kept showing how attracted she was towards Adriana on the community lot when Ninildu was flirting with her. I should have taken a picture when the wolf was chasing Hera, but I didn't realize there was more drama behind her behaviour.

[glowyjellyfish]

I just want to note real quick that I would very much like to start a modified Test of Time challenge and obsess over it, but because I am a dumbass it is taking me a million years to whittle down the stupidly large downloads folder I made by combining several completely different downloads folders because I simply had to have every potentially useful piece of CC I already had.

…this is for an Ancient & Classical downloads folder. The volume of CC should be very small and manageable, but nooooo I had to do it the stupid way.

…I am going to significantly modify the TOT rules to be—from what I can recall of history and anthropology classes about ten years ago—more historically accurate and less… racially weird. i.e. Roman era slaves are not based on skin color, nobody invented that idea until colonialism was running rampant. Roman era slaves are mainly prisoners of war and serious debtors (which I believe is more accurate but probably not 100% accurate). And slaves are not lumped in with The Poor but are a distinct class themselves.

Also nobody gains power based on money before we even have money, that’s absurd. You gain power based on friends and influence and reputation.

Also we don’t go directly from “generic primitive” to “Ancient Rome”, we start with a band level society and progress through tribe and chiefdom and THEN we can advance to the State level society of Ancient Rome.

Also we’re using Sun&Moon products like crazy so our sims can hunt and gather until they learn agriculture.

Also eras change based on large global events and unlocking, not time passing; this is mainly so I can play with Proportionate Aging without it taking twenty two seasons/rounds for my adult sims to age to elder and even have a chance of dying. Although I could also play without that mod. I really like the calendar and age system I derived from it but it does take so long to play.

My OH WELL, I HAVE LOTS OF TIME TO DECIDE BECAUSE MY STUPID DOWNLOADS FOLDER IS STUFFED FULL OF RANDOM MODERN AND MEDIEVAL CRAP THAT HAS TO BE CAREFULLY PURGED BEFORE I CAN EVEN THINK ABOUT PLAYING.

[timeless-toaster]

OOC: The end of Tribal Stage, and my reflection on the journey.

So... phew, that was a long road. Unfortunately I didn't record exactly when I started the Test of Time challenge, but from what I could gather from my files, the earliest date is 2022.06.22. It's 2023.11.30. as of writing this post. I didn't play continously, as a lot of simmers can probably relate. I had my hyperfocus moments on the game, then I had my "not opening Sims 2 for a month" phases.

I wanna talk about the thing I've seen commonly said regarding this challenge: is it boring?

My answer is nah and yah.

In my opinion it really depends on your playstyle, how much you like breaking rules, and how much you like making stories.

Do you hate breaking rules and insist on keeping everything like "it's supposed to be"? Then yes, with the original rules I believe this challenge is very boring, long and repetitive.

Especially if you're the kind of player who plays purely wants and fears and doesn't deviate from that at all. There's not many very interesting wants you can fulfill in the first period. Warning for wants'n'fears kinda simmers: the wants in the first stage of the challenge mostly consist of nature hobby wants, skill point and love/family wants. (I'm just saying, cause when I discovered wants and the fears playstyle, I used to play like this. I still play loosely like it, but now I understand that sims will never roll for certain things that I wanna do.)

However if you like to make storylines I think the limitations (and how you could break them) actually give you a pretty good playground for storytelling.

Okay, this broke the rule, but why? How am I gonna play with it in the future? (Me starting with the rule that only men can be heir, but making a family with a woman heir. Contributed to like 75% of the drama.)

Also, real talk here. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't have that much fun in certian parts. The start feels a little too hard, and limiting, with the food and overheating (god, the overheating is so freaking annoying), and by the original rules your sims are not even meant to bathe/shower?! From the start I was like "I'm not gonna listen to them complain 24/7 shouting for a shower, and I'm not gonna spam the Wash Hands action for 4 in game hours". That was the main reason I stopped with the Apocalypse challenge.

Elders got boring too, news flash I know.

Also I had a huge push when the closing generation aged up to teens. I got really hyped for the end of the stage, and wanted to rush through it. (One of the reasons I stopped with the Moonwell Valley posts.)

But overall I don't think this challenge is more repetitive than playing regular Sims 2. It is a game that becomes repetitive if binged for too long, no matter what... I think. Take breaks, guys, the game is still here after 20 years, it's not going anywhere.

I did make a modified ruleset for the challenge's first stage, where I tried to fix whatever I found annoying rather than challenging.

Overall I enjoyed it, I like the lore of the neighbourhood I created. If it says something, this is my second longest running Sims 2 game. (I played a total of 540 sim days in Moonwell Valley, and my second longest game in Veronaville I played 621 sim days.)

[sychik]

ANCIENT ROMAN NECESSITIES. PART 3: LENGTHY WRAPS, JUST LIKE ON THOSE STATUES

WARNING: CLIPPING ISSUES. these are ACCESSORIES, so they don't have morphs and are prone to clipping through the body mesh. 1) I made them to fit the fat+pregnant morphs specifically. they might look too spacious on thinner frame in the front. 2) I have tried to reduce clipping to minimal amounts, so the issues aren't that annoying. I made these for myself, and just to be clear - I don't think they're really worth publishing. I can't promise I'll go fixing the clipping issues later, because at this point, they are a trade-off (I make one thing better and ruin the other). sitting, standing, walking, flailing arms a little bit should look fine, but download at your own risk!

toga for tm-em. we don't have a lot of variety here. ~1200 polys.

plain white is supposed to be toga virilis, white with purple borders - toga praetexta, purple with golden borders and pattern - toga picta (my best attempt at it, anyway), and dark one - toga pulla. toga praetexta is not available for teens: too old to be a child in need of protection, too young to be a senator.

clipping occasions:

DOWNLOAD (mediafire) | DOWNLOAD (SFS)

palla for tf-ef. it's rectangular and not quite as long. more variety here. 961 polys.

the morphs weirdness:

clipping occasions (older version, most still persist):

DOWNLOAD (SFS)

pallium for men, in cases toga is too formal or just doesn't fit the status. a little bit different from palla, both in terms of mesh and swatches. not perfectly happy with this one, but if you don't look closely enough, it'll do. 796 polys.

clipping occasions:

DOWNLOAD (mediafire) | DOWNLOAD (SFS)

enjoy if that's your cup of tea <3 and please, inform me if anything doesn't work as expected! accessories are a completely new territory for me.

[nonsensical-pixels]

something something for an upcoming upload 👀 @clepysdra's gladiator sandals converted from ts4 to ts2 as a pantless bottom! i've always desperately needed something like this for the test of time challenge 😊

they're for teens to adults, but enabled for elders; they're also unisex - wow, a male pantless bottom! they're medium-poly at just 2354 polys. 13 swatches, all other ages are repo'd to adults of their gender. categorised as everyday, formal, and outerwear!

DOWNLOAD: SFS | MF ⚔

credits go to @clepysdra for the original ts4 meshes & textures! 🥰

SWATCH

if there are any issues that you find with this set, please don't be afraid to let me know! happy simming, and when you download this, do keep in mind,

Love, ~ Ky 💖

[plumbob-boy]

LyleSnake's Test of Time Challenge

I wasn't enthused about the existing versions of the Test of Time Challenge so I went ahead and made my own. It's inspired by existing Sims 2 challenges, other games, and history of course.

What's different about mine compared to the others?

No slavery or patriarchal ownership of women

Supernatural Sims incorporated into the challenge

Scoring system based on skillpoints and talent badges

Historically inspired abilities

Occupations that incorporate the expansion packs

Here's the short version:

Start with eight adult sims split evenly between two huge lots. these are the first tribes

once their grandkids are adults, move on to the next era

there are 6 eras, so the challenge will last a total of 18 generations

count up each sim's skillpoints. when you finish the game, that number is your score

I have the detailed guide here on google docs

rules for the early modern era coming soon

let me know how your playthrough goes if you decide to try it out!

[mishas-sims]

Granted Wish - Garden of Shadows

@rudhira granted my wish for a witch/wizard default. it’s perfect for my Test of Time Challenge.

“Here you go! I made a teen conversion as well. I also made two versions, v1 being the one you requested and v2 being some colours from Castaway that I thought looked nice. v1 is texture referenced, so it requires University.”

get them Reply #3 ————-> HERE

thank you, @rudhira