Build a City Challenge Chat

[Rflong7]

OMGoodness- you all are Awesome who can write each family chapter... I've decide not to do that again. I'll save up the other challenges and write them up differently but the whole neighborhood will be condensed per season update. I know I can do it. I know I can.

All hail the long BaCC writers.

[katrisims]

I have a rules/strategy question to those who have a privately funded university. (Because even though I'm not that close to anyone going to college yet, strategizing is part of the fun!) The original BaCC rules have a sentence saying:

The founder of the private university gets $50,000 per Sim who enrolls.

Do you implement this rule, and if so, how? Where does the money come from: from the city or the university (that is, out of thin air), the families of the to-be students? Does the founder get to keep the money, or do they have to do something in particular with it?

My university founder is also in a legacy challenge, so taking/keeping the money would be against the letter and spirit of those rules. But I'm considering that maybe she could get the money and donate it all to the tax fund, that is, towards a public university.

Then there's yet more things to consider. Like what if the enrolling student is the founder's relative, do they still get the money, say, for their own kid? And what if/when the founder dies, does that mean that's the end of the easy money, or does the family keep getting it?

For me it's all still pretty far away, but I'm curious to hear your takes on it.

[raebeth47]

I've always found that $50,000 handout to be a little strange, so I've just ignored it. Besides, the way I funded my universities means that there's not just one donor.

[Seera]

You could say your founder donated $50,000 to the city with the stipulation that it be used to found a public university. Then there wouldn't be any tuition fees.

Or maybe he opened a private university but charges $0 tuition. So he doesn't get anything anyway.

But yea, I had multiple people donating into the fund for the University so it would be hard to figure out which family gets what. So I just don't give anyone anything. That and I don't add in a tuition fee to attend.

[Lorinsv]

I ignore the §50000 part too. Basically I'm collecting private universities for scoring only, not for any kind of realism.

Perhaps I should revisit it though...

[katrisims]

Thanks for the replies, everyone! I was kind of suspecting that most would actually just ignore that part. And then there's the possible issue of multiple founders, which I didn't even think about.

I don't think I will at least do it by collecting tuition from the attending sims' families. With the current monetary situation of most of my families, sending even one kid to college would be almost impossible, and I want them to be able to go. The "getting money from the college" option does tempt me a bit, since that would boost the speed of getting a public uni quite substantially if my founder were to donate the money she can't keep... On the other hand, maybe doing it the hard way would feel somewhat fairer. Well, in any case, it's an interesting point in the rules.

[Rflong7]

The money comes from the University Students, which are more than just the Students I sent, so I justify it for rule sake. It's not really tuition from families- in my mind it's what I get for going through all those Uni kids I send.
And it goes to one family to collect to expand the Uni points, not as if it's for using any other way.

[mysterymusic7]

Slowly playing through the second round of the RKC. It's going okay...just a few houses are being rather dull. Trying to figure out a way to create a whole chapter for just that house is proving to be hard. Perhaps I'll just not do full chapters for those spare houses this round? I don't know. Guess I'll figure it out eventually.

[emmalouise]

I've crawled back to the Sims 2 after playing the sims 4 for a while. I had been reading more sims 2 stories and they were making me miss the game so I downloaded the ultimate collection. I really enjoyed reading the Apocalypse and BACC stories and they have inspired me to start my own BACC. I'm just deciding if I want to publish it or not. Sometimes with my Sims 4 story I get stuck in wanting to play but being way behind in chapters. On the other hand after reading everyone's stories I want to share mine too. Plus it's always fun to read back on stuff I've written a year ago and cringe

So far I have Arnold my founder with a wife, a son and a baby on the way. Arnold started an Antique shop which is really just crap he dug up and then sells at very expensive prices. It's now level 10!
The next family I added was Bob Potato. His best friend is his dog, a stray that he adopted. He spends most of his time gardening, recently became a plantsim and then opened his own grocery store.

[Lorinsv]

Sounds great, emmalouise!
Sometimes it's slow going for me too because I get bogged down with writing updates, but I eventually plow through them.
I enjoy reading what's going on in undocumented BaCCs here in the chat thread too

[Rflong7]

Yay! New BaCC player.

I keep wanting to start over and start slowly... I rushed it too fast and now have about 18 families per rotation. I should have thought it out better and not jump in with my eyes closed.

And think about some play rules for the families... such as paying for Uni per student or who can't go and why. I think I''ll let them decide who fails and only make the ones with wishes do the work. -I've never had any Sim fail Uni, drop out but not fail.
Plus basic business start out and not just money makers. Oh, well... there's always next time.

Right now I'm thinking how I can get the family count down... without killing too many Sims.

[MichelleCYoung]

Rflong7 - How about some sort of "Act of God," which destroys half the houses, and the people have to move into crowded shelters together, until they can rebuild?

[Rflong7]

Lol! It's a great idea. I should use some random occurrence scenarios... but then I wonder if I can do them. I have a hard time letting Sims burn. Pure weakness.
I can use a mod to kill them quick but not watch them die. I had only one Sim drown in TS2 and it was so sad.

I'm using my Simself to run a Monastery for Sims I don't have a plan set out yet. Then put them on freewill to see how they do... I'll control my Simself. I'll need some zombies for her and some werewolves and strange Sims. I think they can do that.

[MichelleCYoung]

How about an earthquake? Or a plague?

Hehehe. A plague - all the Family sims survive, thanks to Grandma's Comfort Soup. But if you don't have a family sim in your household... Maybe some family sim could set up a soup kitchen.

BTW, I like the monastery-free will idea! With zombies! Everything's more fun with zombies.

[Rflong7]

As long as I can use a cheat to kill them fast. XD

I've got the cowplant free at the SS house in Uni, even took away their fridge, but no one is taking the cake. It makes me sad...

[MichelleCYoung]

Earthquake, then. There's no other way than to cheat, and you can set up some touching scenes, with rubble and stuff, if you have it.

alternately, don't kill your sims (except the ones you intend to raise), but just destroy the houses. Maybe everyone got under some sturdy shelter, or something?

[Scribal_Goddess]

As long as I can use a cheat to kill them fast. XD

I've got the cowplant free at the SS house in Uni, even took away their fridge, but no one is taking the cake. It makes me sad...

Alternately: stage a plague and turn sims who die but you actually liked into zombies. (Since zombies don't reproduce, this will at least cut down on the number of new births...)

Or you could drop a random amount of sims into the family bin for half a dozen rounds and say they've been abducted by aliens or something...

[Lorinsv]

I finished playing the second household in St Hubert, Mesa Vista's new(ish) rural/farming district - it's a Harvest Moon Challenge that I actually played a couple of years ago and sat on because I couldn't think of an interesting storytelling angle for it. Then I discovered this lot at MTS , and will be using it as inspiration for the house, and got started building it. Now I can't wait to get back to it!
My population now sits at 3026, just past the 6% mark!

[Bokavoy]

I just finished my 6th rotation. My founder family is very strange the mom has a strange addiction to stomping on bugs....

[Rflong7]

I'm going to play TS2 today... it feels like forever since I played. I finished my Asylum house- rather boring, to tell the truth.
But now I have to figure out what to do with them. Probably a few for the Cemetery to open up the Paranormal career.