The Stranded Alien Colony Challenge
Posted: March 7th, 2017, 7:42 am
OK, I've long been curious about the genetic possibilities in this game, and thought of an interesting way to explore them.
Here's the situation: An alien world is suffering a complete cataclysm, and in desperation to preserve their race, they sent out an interstellar colony ship, the only one of its kind (because they did not have time or resources to build more). The crew was chosen based on who had the most valuable skills for survival and building a new colony. However, to be fair, civilians were chosen via a lottery to fill a limited number of "breeder" spots. They have no special skills, but are all certified healthy and fertile. This was done because the crew was going to be busy working, and raising children is a major endeavor, especially if you're trying to raise a lot of them, to build up the race again.
The trip was largely uneventful, with all the civilian colonists, and most of the off-duty crew in stasis. But then, CALAMITY! The ship's engines suffered a total melt-down, and all the stasis pods were released, shot into space in the desperate hope that they would land, somewhere, and manage to survive, despite all odds. They were linked via special alien-communication-technology (call it what you will), so the sims in the pods (awakened upon being released from the ship) were able to communicate with each other, and they knew when each pod was destroyed.
Only one pod survived, crash landing on your Sim world. The traumatized aliens sought help from the natives, and explained their situation. Taking pity on them (and seeing that they were absolutely no threat, and could not even "contaminate" the native sims, being biologically incompatible), the powers that be offered them a disused spot of land, and some starting funds. What they do with it is up to them. They are to live by the same laws as all the natives do, and may fully assimilate into the community, with the only exception being that they CANNOT breed with the local sims. It simply will not work (You can woohoo, but you can't Try For Baby).
The colonists must now breed amongst themselves, to try to maintain their race and establish a thriving alien colony.
Now, here's where it gets REALLY interesting: You civilian space pod had only six sims in it - one female adult and five male adults. The first generation will be easy enough, but with only one woman to start, how will they possibly manage to rebuild their race?
The woman becomes the Matriarch (Generation 1), and passes on rulership of the colony to her chosen daughter, down through the generations, until the Fifth Generation Heiress reaches adulthood, and takes her places as Colony Matriarch. By that time, they should be far enough removed from the original Matriarch to be able to marry at will, rather than based on genetic compatibility or need. In fact, you may choose not to allow your aliens to marry, at all, until their breeding responsibilities have been adequately performed.
Start with 6 adult CAS sims, using a specific skin tone (either download something you like enough to see it all over your neighborhood, or else use boolprop testingcheatsenabled BEFORE entering CAS, plus Shift+N and Shift+M to enable you to access in-game alternate skin tones, such as the default alien, vampire, zombie skin tones. Don't do mannequin skin tone, unless you have a hack to allow it to be passed on to babies). Specific eyes, hair, facial shapes and the like are optional, but definitely choose a specific skin tone that is definitely going to identify these aliens as not biologically compatible with your other sims.
The aliens MAY interbreed with in-game aliens, via alien abduction. However, these half-breed sims may not become Matriarchs. Matriarchs must be full-blooded colonist aliens.
You could make it a Patriarchy, instead, if you wish, but you MUST be consistent on which gender has the babies, and have only one of that type in the founding generation. No Same Sex pregnancy mods! However, in a Matriarchy, you may have a mod to allow females to get pregnant from alien abduction.
Start in an empty neighborhood, with no pre-existing lots in the area (but you can keep all the townies and NPCs). This area is designated as The Colony, and locals have not built anything there, because (insert your reason for it being available here). Locals will not live in the colony borders unless invited to live in a colony household, by existing colonists. They are free to visit as much as they want, though, so you can have thriving business relations with them.
Then, start Building your Stranded Alien Colony (according to your favorite Build a City or Build a Royal Kingdom rules). This would lend itself quite well to a BARQ (Matriarchy, remember?), with the pixel donors taking their ranks according to whatever criteria you set up. Just start them all out together on the same base lot, then move them out as you wish to establish their own homes. It will be different than regular BACC and BARK games, because you start with six sims, BUT, you can never add CAS sims! All future Colony sims must be born in game!
Game ends when the Fifth Generation Heiress becomes an adult and takes her place as the new Matriarch. Count up your Colonists at that point.
5 points for each full-blooded colonist
3 points for each alien/colonist half-breed
1 point for each alien/colonist descendant with less than half colonist blood
All other points you earn will be based on whatever Build-a-________ ruleset you decide to use.
Note: If you expand to Downtown and other sub-hoods, the Colonists still "own" that area, and playable sims must be born in the game, or invited to live with a Colonist. The only exception to this rule is University, which may be mixed with native dormies, mascots, cheerleaders, professors, etc. Alternately, you can build a Colony University, from scratch. If you do this, then use "Boolprop TestingCheatsEnabled true", and shift-click to select the FIRST FIVE colonist students to attend the university. After Shift-clicking on them, you can add them to the Secret Society. They won't get abducted to the Secret Society, but they can go to the lot you set up for them, and then all future playable sims will have to befriend these five starter SS members, in order to join the society, themselves.
Edited to add and clarify:
1 - Because of the genetic limitations, and the Matriarch's need to have AT LEAST five pregnancies, you may choose to give all of your FULL-BLOODED aliens an extra 15 days of adulthood. You can boolprop them a free Elixir of Life on their adult birthdays. Alternately, if you have SimBlender, you can make them three days younger, five times. If you do this, though, do it for ALL full-blooded aliens. Be consistent! If you do the Elixir, and they goof it up, by drinking it in the red or low green, and lose days, then you chalk it up to illness or contamination, or whatever floats your drama boat.
2 - Because they can breed with the telescope aliens, and the colonist/telescope half-breeds can actually breed with the locals (the telescope aliens act as a "bridge" between species), you may want to include either a Multi-PT hack, or if you don't like the looks of any of the available ones, you could create a CAS-alien family that you enjoy, and move them in somewhere hidden (no building, off on the edge of the map), and don't play them. Just have them available so that whenever a FEMALE is abducted by aliens, you can teleport in one of the CAS aliens, and boolprop a pregnancy with that sim.
3 - You may choose to build them a small Emergency Survival Pod, with a limited number of supplies, and let them live in it for at least two weeks (turn off aging!), while the Matriarch uses the computer (ONLY the computer!) to communicate with the leaders of various planets to find a place for her new colony. Your sims CANNOT purchase anything during this time, so it is recommended that you buy at least two fridges to start, or provide some other form of nutriment, such as snack machines, bars, CC food replicators (SimWardrobe has one), etc. The Matriarch can use the computer to chat online and send emails to sims she has met online, and when she becomes Best Friends with a sim she has met online, then she can make arrangements with that sim to get a colony started on their planet. The ESP will not land for at least 2 weeks (travel time), or until she makes her arrangements, whichever comes LAST. The sims can make money by selling novels or digital artwork, getting "space credits," to help them set up at their new place (or to pay the bills during their journey. I highly recommend SimWardrobe's automatic bill payer, for this, so they don't have to get the mail). Obviously, they will not leave their pod during the trip, and they cannot buy new stuff, unless you write in some Space Traders, or maybe Space Pirates, who could steal from them! Personally, I plan to simply not give them a door to the outside world until they land, but the opportunities for drama abound.
4 - You may choose to have your Matriarchs maintain the genetic records, either by writing a best-selling novel each generation, or by painting a masterpiece. If so, then give yourself 10 points at the end of the challenge if you managed it for each generation (1st Matriarach through 4th generation Matriarch. Challenge ends when the 5th gen Matriarch grows to adulthood and takes her place as Matriarch, so we won't count her for this). Be consistent, making the records either visual or written, the same for each generation. If you find a good family-tree .jpg for this, then make that custom painting (must be a masterpiece - worth over $500 - to count for this) and hang the paintings on the wall. If you have Free-Time, you can make the custom books. At the end, you can place them somewhere, to take a picture of all the paintings/novels to show the Matriarch did her duty tracking the genetic pairings. 10 points!
5 - Since the Matriarch's primary duty is to ensure the healthy genetic pairings of the colonists and the continuation of the colony, then all breeding must be approved/assigned by her. After 5 generations, that should be more ceremonial than required, but certainly in the beginning, she needs to track and approve it all. The only way to make it work is for the second generation Matriarch (and her sisters, if she has any), to breed with the first generation men who are not her father. Similar matches will be made down the line, but eventually, ages will start to match up. The rule for the breeding amongst the colonists is that if EA allows the relationship, it is removed enough, and not forbidden incest. Do NOT use an incest mod for this challenge, unless you really want to track the family tree enough to make that kind of choice for a pair, and if you do, then I highly recommend having the Matriarch PUNISH such pairings, for the good of the colony. You can wrack your brains to figure out the family trees yourself, or just trust EA's coding and say, "It's far enough removed for EA to allow it. It's good." However, the Matriarch certainly WOULD track it, and would prefer the genetic pairings to be as much removed as possible. She may even assign matches, for that purpose. SimBlender is great for arranged marriages, regardless of their actual relationship. You could even use the Science Reward to manage a genetic pairing, if the two sims just can't stand to Try For Baby. But that would only work if you are in a sufficiently advanced society to allow that level of Science.
6 - Adopting and marrying in local sims is perfectly alright, and they would have the same rights in the society as any other member. However, they cannot breed with the full-blooded colonists, and would not have breeding responsibilities, even with mixed-breed colonist/telescope aliens. They would just be part of the family that doesn't breed, that's all. Likewise, if you move in a Bigfoot or create a Servo.
Here's the situation: An alien world is suffering a complete cataclysm, and in desperation to preserve their race, they sent out an interstellar colony ship, the only one of its kind (because they did not have time or resources to build more). The crew was chosen based on who had the most valuable skills for survival and building a new colony. However, to be fair, civilians were chosen via a lottery to fill a limited number of "breeder" spots. They have no special skills, but are all certified healthy and fertile. This was done because the crew was going to be busy working, and raising children is a major endeavor, especially if you're trying to raise a lot of them, to build up the race again.
The trip was largely uneventful, with all the civilian colonists, and most of the off-duty crew in stasis. But then, CALAMITY! The ship's engines suffered a total melt-down, and all the stasis pods were released, shot into space in the desperate hope that they would land, somewhere, and manage to survive, despite all odds. They were linked via special alien-communication-technology (call it what you will), so the sims in the pods (awakened upon being released from the ship) were able to communicate with each other, and they knew when each pod was destroyed.
Only one pod survived, crash landing on your Sim world. The traumatized aliens sought help from the natives, and explained their situation. Taking pity on them (and seeing that they were absolutely no threat, and could not even "contaminate" the native sims, being biologically incompatible), the powers that be offered them a disused spot of land, and some starting funds. What they do with it is up to them. They are to live by the same laws as all the natives do, and may fully assimilate into the community, with the only exception being that they CANNOT breed with the local sims. It simply will not work (You can woohoo, but you can't Try For Baby).
The colonists must now breed amongst themselves, to try to maintain their race and establish a thriving alien colony.
Now, here's where it gets REALLY interesting: You civilian space pod had only six sims in it - one female adult and five male adults. The first generation will be easy enough, but with only one woman to start, how will they possibly manage to rebuild their race?
The woman becomes the Matriarch (Generation 1), and passes on rulership of the colony to her chosen daughter, down through the generations, until the Fifth Generation Heiress reaches adulthood, and takes her places as Colony Matriarch. By that time, they should be far enough removed from the original Matriarch to be able to marry at will, rather than based on genetic compatibility or need. In fact, you may choose not to allow your aliens to marry, at all, until their breeding responsibilities have been adequately performed.
Start with 6 adult CAS sims, using a specific skin tone (either download something you like enough to see it all over your neighborhood, or else use boolprop testingcheatsenabled BEFORE entering CAS, plus Shift+N and Shift+M to enable you to access in-game alternate skin tones, such as the default alien, vampire, zombie skin tones. Don't do mannequin skin tone, unless you have a hack to allow it to be passed on to babies). Specific eyes, hair, facial shapes and the like are optional, but definitely choose a specific skin tone that is definitely going to identify these aliens as not biologically compatible with your other sims.
The aliens MAY interbreed with in-game aliens, via alien abduction. However, these half-breed sims may not become Matriarchs. Matriarchs must be full-blooded colonist aliens.
You could make it a Patriarchy, instead, if you wish, but you MUST be consistent on which gender has the babies, and have only one of that type in the founding generation. No Same Sex pregnancy mods! However, in a Matriarchy, you may have a mod to allow females to get pregnant from alien abduction.
Start in an empty neighborhood, with no pre-existing lots in the area (but you can keep all the townies and NPCs). This area is designated as The Colony, and locals have not built anything there, because (insert your reason for it being available here). Locals will not live in the colony borders unless invited to live in a colony household, by existing colonists. They are free to visit as much as they want, though, so you can have thriving business relations with them.
Then, start Building your Stranded Alien Colony (according to your favorite Build a City or Build a Royal Kingdom rules). This would lend itself quite well to a BARQ (Matriarchy, remember?), with the pixel donors taking their ranks according to whatever criteria you set up. Just start them all out together on the same base lot, then move them out as you wish to establish their own homes. It will be different than regular BACC and BARK games, because you start with six sims, BUT, you can never add CAS sims! All future Colony sims must be born in game!
Game ends when the Fifth Generation Heiress becomes an adult and takes her place as the new Matriarch. Count up your Colonists at that point.
5 points for each full-blooded colonist
3 points for each alien/colonist half-breed
1 point for each alien/colonist descendant with less than half colonist blood
All other points you earn will be based on whatever Build-a-________ ruleset you decide to use.
Note: If you expand to Downtown and other sub-hoods, the Colonists still "own" that area, and playable sims must be born in the game, or invited to live with a Colonist. The only exception to this rule is University, which may be mixed with native dormies, mascots, cheerleaders, professors, etc. Alternately, you can build a Colony University, from scratch. If you do this, then use "Boolprop TestingCheatsEnabled true", and shift-click to select the FIRST FIVE colonist students to attend the university. After Shift-clicking on them, you can add them to the Secret Society. They won't get abducted to the Secret Society, but they can go to the lot you set up for them, and then all future playable sims will have to befriend these five starter SS members, in order to join the society, themselves.
Edited to add and clarify:
1 - Because of the genetic limitations, and the Matriarch's need to have AT LEAST five pregnancies, you may choose to give all of your FULL-BLOODED aliens an extra 15 days of adulthood. You can boolprop them a free Elixir of Life on their adult birthdays. Alternately, if you have SimBlender, you can make them three days younger, five times. If you do this, though, do it for ALL full-blooded aliens. Be consistent! If you do the Elixir, and they goof it up, by drinking it in the red or low green, and lose days, then you chalk it up to illness or contamination, or whatever floats your drama boat.
2 - Because they can breed with the telescope aliens, and the colonist/telescope half-breeds can actually breed with the locals (the telescope aliens act as a "bridge" between species), you may want to include either a Multi-PT hack, or if you don't like the looks of any of the available ones, you could create a CAS-alien family that you enjoy, and move them in somewhere hidden (no building, off on the edge of the map), and don't play them. Just have them available so that whenever a FEMALE is abducted by aliens, you can teleport in one of the CAS aliens, and boolprop a pregnancy with that sim.
3 - You may choose to build them a small Emergency Survival Pod, with a limited number of supplies, and let them live in it for at least two weeks (turn off aging!), while the Matriarch uses the computer (ONLY the computer!) to communicate with the leaders of various planets to find a place for her new colony. Your sims CANNOT purchase anything during this time, so it is recommended that you buy at least two fridges to start, or provide some other form of nutriment, such as snack machines, bars, CC food replicators (SimWardrobe has one), etc. The Matriarch can use the computer to chat online and send emails to sims she has met online, and when she becomes Best Friends with a sim she has met online, then she can make arrangements with that sim to get a colony started on their planet. The ESP will not land for at least 2 weeks (travel time), or until she makes her arrangements, whichever comes LAST. The sims can make money by selling novels or digital artwork, getting "space credits," to help them set up at their new place (or to pay the bills during their journey. I highly recommend SimWardrobe's automatic bill payer, for this, so they don't have to get the mail). Obviously, they will not leave their pod during the trip, and they cannot buy new stuff, unless you write in some Space Traders, or maybe Space Pirates, who could steal from them! Personally, I plan to simply not give them a door to the outside world until they land, but the opportunities for drama abound.
4 - You may choose to have your Matriarchs maintain the genetic records, either by writing a best-selling novel each generation, or by painting a masterpiece. If so, then give yourself 10 points at the end of the challenge if you managed it for each generation (1st Matriarach through 4th generation Matriarch. Challenge ends when the 5th gen Matriarch grows to adulthood and takes her place as Matriarch, so we won't count her for this). Be consistent, making the records either visual or written, the same for each generation. If you find a good family-tree .jpg for this, then make that custom painting (must be a masterpiece - worth over $500 - to count for this) and hang the paintings on the wall. If you have Free-Time, you can make the custom books. At the end, you can place them somewhere, to take a picture of all the paintings/novels to show the Matriarch did her duty tracking the genetic pairings. 10 points!
5 - Since the Matriarch's primary duty is to ensure the healthy genetic pairings of the colonists and the continuation of the colony, then all breeding must be approved/assigned by her. After 5 generations, that should be more ceremonial than required, but certainly in the beginning, she needs to track and approve it all. The only way to make it work is for the second generation Matriarch (and her sisters, if she has any), to breed with the first generation men who are not her father. Similar matches will be made down the line, but eventually, ages will start to match up. The rule for the breeding amongst the colonists is that if EA allows the relationship, it is removed enough, and not forbidden incest. Do NOT use an incest mod for this challenge, unless you really want to track the family tree enough to make that kind of choice for a pair, and if you do, then I highly recommend having the Matriarch PUNISH such pairings, for the good of the colony. You can wrack your brains to figure out the family trees yourself, or just trust EA's coding and say, "It's far enough removed for EA to allow it. It's good." However, the Matriarch certainly WOULD track it, and would prefer the genetic pairings to be as much removed as possible. She may even assign matches, for that purpose. SimBlender is great for arranged marriages, regardless of their actual relationship. You could even use the Science Reward to manage a genetic pairing, if the two sims just can't stand to Try For Baby. But that would only work if you are in a sufficiently advanced society to allow that level of Science.
6 - Adopting and marrying in local sims is perfectly alright, and they would have the same rights in the society as any other member. However, they cannot breed with the full-blooded colonists, and would not have breeding responsibilities, even with mixed-breed colonist/telescope aliens. They would just be part of the family that doesn't breed, that's all. Likewise, if you move in a Bigfoot or create a Servo.