The Evolutions Challenge

The Evolutions Challenge is a progressing generational, family challenge with infinite time. The aim of the challenge is to increase your Sims life spans, prosperity and relationships. If you are searching for the Ultimate Challenge then you may just have stumbled across it here.

Length Warning: 33 Generations!


Modding Options
There are a variety of ways you may adjust the rules and style of play:
Mods: If you enjoy the great creations from the wonderful on this site and elsewhere, then this challenge is very open to allowing your modding to continue.
1. Highly Recommended: If you would like the best possible experience out of this challenge you will need to install SLAM Lifetime Ages which includes 50 different life span settings for your Sims.
Note: Although this is not required it does give a more enjoyable and progressive experience then the four default options.

2. Mods that are allowed are any in the categories: Sims, Patterns, Create-A-Sim .

3. Buy mode objects are allowed so long as they have no game modification hacks inside them.
Eg: A meshed Bugatti Veyron car = Good
Gibson Explorer Guitar that increases skills faster = Not Allowed
4. Build Mode items are allowed so long as they don’t alter the game as stated above.

5. Miscelaneous items are only allowed from MTS and must be MTS2 (3) Picks or Featured and cannot help the user cheat.
Eg: IT Career = Good
Buyable Rock Spawner = Not Allowed

6. Finally, Game Mods must be listed here in this thread to be allowed, otherwise request them here and I will review and add them to the list if allowed:

Indie Stone Story Mod
Pointed ears as CAS sliders
Create-a-Sim: Adjustable Female Breast sliders
No Cheating in The Sims 3
Unlocked Traits for babies and toddlers for predestination
One speed Limit for all
Cooking And Ingredients Overhaul

7. Attention! - If you’re using Awesomemod you must use the default settings and not a config which can provide aids to the player such as hand of god.

Life Span Changing:
I’d like to remind you that Evolutions Challenge requires lots of dedication to complete. Thats why theres many ways of scoring points in the challenge so that even if you give up you can brag about your T.E.C. (The Evolutions Challenge) score.
If you go into Game Options and set Lifespan there should be 4 different Options available. Choose the quickest lifespan to begin playing and every generation you are noted to change, increase your lifespan.
There are two methods of Life Span Generations:


Setting Up:
To begin create your founder Sim in a new save file town. They may be male or female. They may be any age that can have children (YA, Adult and Elder for males, YA and Adult for females). You have full choice over their look, colour and clothing. You may choose all their traits as well as three favourite likes (food, music and colour) and a lifetime want. No other Sims may be created in the founder’s family. Be creative with the family name, you’ll be seeing it for quite some time.
Now to place the founder. While you are free to choose either standard town, there is a very specific lot that must be used. If you move into Riverview, you must move into “345 Riverblossom Hills Drive”. If you move into Sunset Valley, you will be moving into “15 Summer Hill Court”.

Rules:
No cheating. Plain and simple, no money or mood cheats. You may use custom objects, as long as their price and mood effects are in line with similar ‘official’ objects.
Aging and story progression must be on.
You are allowed to play with any Mod that does not give you a significant advantage over a player without the mod.
The Evolutions family must be the “Active Household” during the entire challenge. You may never switch the active household to another family. If you want to take a break from Evolutions play, it is recommended you play in another saved game slot.
No Ambrosia until Generation 21! Your Sims may learn the recipe for Ambrosia, but may not cook or consume the dish. Ambrosia cannot be used to resurrect ghosts ever.
You may not resurrect dead Sims via the Science lab.
Sims may not consume life fruit to gain extra days to their lifespan until Generation 21.
You may age Sims up via the birthday cake only once the game prompts you with a reminder of their impending birthday, not earlier. You do not have to use the birthday cake to age Sims up, you can wait for the game to force the age transition if you wish.
Death Flowers may not be kept in inventory until Generation 15. You may gather and sell them, but cannot be used to ward off death

Black Market Restriction:
The Black Market is no longer being monitored by police. Kleptos, rummages and thieves are now allowed to liquidate their ill gotten goods for cash.

Moving Sims in:
Any sim may be moved into the Evolution Family via marriage or move-in except for the following:
Sims created by the player
Sims/households downloaded and imported from the exchange
Sims that had previously lived in the Evolution household but had since moved out
Sims that are identified by your sim as "Rich" are considered fair game beginning Generation 3
You are allowed to create/download/import Sims and families into your Legacy neighbourhood, they just cannot join the family.
No Sims/families may ever be merged into the Evolution family. If you wish to add members, they must be done in game.

Challenge Concepts:

Generation: Order of birth in relation to the family at large. Your founder is generation 1, your founder’s son/daughter would be generation 2, and the grandchildren of the founder would be generation 3 ... so on.
Founder: The sim you create in CAS who starts the family.
Heir: The sim belonging to the family bloodline that is slated to bring in the next generation once he/she is old enough and finds a mate.
Spare: A sibling of an heir, who can become an heir should anything happen to the current heir. Spares may be fed to the time stream or kept on the lot if you wish. They are eligible to earn evolution points for the family.
Fed to the time stream: Moving a controllable sim out of the evolution house. A sim fed to the time stream no longer can generate evolution points for the family, but still may be interacted with. Evolution points that have already been earned by this sim still count towards your total, even after you move the sim out.
Evolution Points: Your score for the challenge, earned in a variety of ways described below. The goal of the challenge is to get as many Evolution points as possible.
Evolutions House: The lot initially moved into by your founder. You may not move the family to another lot during the entire challenge. All heirs must be born in this house (or rather, born from Sims living at this house, even if they use the hospital to give birth)
Bloodline: Any sim who can trace his or her family tree directly to the founder. Adopted Sims are NOT part of the bloodline. Sims that are moved in are only considered part of the bloodline when they contribute to the birth of the next generation.
Mate: A sim brought in from outside the family to reproduce with the current generation’s heir to produce the next generation. When the next generation is born, the mate becomes part of the family bloodline and eligible to earn points.

Unlockables:
Marry Rich Sims - Generation 3
Unlocked Lifetime Rewards - Generation 5
Death Flowers may be kept in Inventory - Generation 11
Life Fruit consuming unlocked - Generation 15
Ambrosia consuming unlocked - Generation 21
Bonus 1800 Points achievement - Generation 30
Unlock the ability to control other families - Generation 33
Hall of Fame Royalty – Generation 50

Points:
You earn points for your family in the following ways.

Generation: You get 10 evolution points for your founder and 10 point for every generation thereafter. You earn each point at the birth of the first child in each generation. Further births in that generation do not generate more points. Thus you can only earn a maximum of 330 total Generation points by completing the challenge and birthing the 33rd generation.

Lifetime wants: You gain 25 points for every unique lifetime want fulfilled by a family member. The sim in question must be living in the evolution house and be part of the family tree to earn this point. Once a specific lifetime wish has been fulfilled by a sim, further Sims fulfilling that wish will not earn you a evolution point for doing so. There are 32 unique lifetime wishes in the game, meaning you could earn a maximum of 800 points in this category.

Portraits: 5 point for creating a portrait of a family member and keeping it on display after their death. Like above, the sim must be part of the family tree and living in the evolution house to qualify for this point. You earn this point after the portrait is created, you do not have to wait for the sim in the portrait to actually die. Portraits are still worth their points even if the family member pictured is moved out of the house later on. The skill of the artist doing the portrait does not matter, as long as it features the sim in question it counts. Portraits may be of any size or style. Keep in mind that a sim must have a painting skill of at least 5 to get the option of painting a still life (needed to capture a sim’s picture).
Sims must be of Young Adult or older and living on the evolution Lot at the time of painting to count for a portrait point.

Evolution House: Earn 50 evolution points for every $500,000 in net worth the house is worth. To get the net worth combine the "Furnished Value" of the house with the families cash on hand. Round up. This category can have a maximum of 500 points earned, meaning a net-worth of 5,000,000

Aspiration Rewards: If a sim is able to earn 250,000 points worth of aspiration rewards, they earn your family 5 evolution points. You are free to spend aspiration points after Generation 5 starts. It is your lifetime total, not your current total, that matters for this point. Like the other sim-based points, this may only be earned by family members. You may earn an additional 15 points in this category from a sim if they somehow earn 1,000,000 points in their lifetime.

Death: Sims that die on the family lot may be kept around as ghosts, or may be moved to a cemetery. It is up to you. If a sim dies and you forgot to get their portrait, making a portrait of their ghost does not count. If the bloodline is cut short by death, the challenge ends immediately. It is always a good idea to have at least one spare in case the heir perishes. Even if ghosts become playable, they may not earn any further points for the family. Ghost babies are not considered part of any bloodline. You gain 100 evolution points if you keep all tombstones of Founder and heirs in their own cemetery.

Birth and growing up
Whenever a sim is born or ages up, they will often obtain new traits. Sometimes these traits are randomly assigned by the game. Other times the game lets you pick them. In the Evolution Challenge, all traits are random. If you are given the option to pick traits for any sim, you must hit the random button and accept the trait that is randomly assigned. The only exception is if you are playing with the "Family Trait" optional rule. If you are, and the family trait is one of the options, you may select that trait rather than hitting the random button.

Bringing in the next generation
In order to bring in the next generation, a new sim must be born. Adoptions do not carry the family bloodline and thus don’t count. (You are still allowed to adopt Sims if you really want to, but they won’t help point wise) If the heir is male, you must move their mate into the evolution family house before having a baby. If the heir is female, she may move her mate in, or simply get pregnant while off the lot. In either case, the heir and their mate don’t have to be married. Sims may be born at home or in a hospital, whichever you prefer. The moment the next generation is born, the heir’s mate officially becomes part of the family bloodline (and thus can earn lifetime want, aspiration perk and portrait points for you, provided they are living in the evolution House).

Optional Rules
These are optional rules you may play with if you wish. They don’t affect your score in any way, and are merely tools to help establish a theme for your family.

Family Trait: When creating your founder in CAS, choose one of the founder’s 5 traits to become the ‘family trait’ for your legacy family. Thereafter, every sim born to the evolution family must possess this trait by the time they reach young adulthood. If they do not inherit it at birth, you must choose that trait the moment you are given the option to. The remaining traits still must be rolled for.

Matriarchy/Patriarchy: Whatever gender your founder was, this must be the gender of every heir. Meaning if you started with a female founder, only female children may become the heir to bring in the next generation. Children of the other gender are still counted as part of the family bloodline and may still earn the family points, they simply may not bring in the next generation.
A male dominant family is called a Patriarchy, a female dominant family is a Matriarchy.

Story Teller:

A popular practice is to write a story for your family and upload it in chapters. If you feel the creative energy, why not try uploading your own story? There is no in-game bonus for doing this, but the addition to the community is always welcome!

FAQ

Why do I have to buy such a big lot. I barely have money in the beginning.
Early poverty is a hallmark of the challenge. A large plot of land not only drains the available cash from your starting funds, it gives you the ability to build some epic sized Evolution homes as you play through the generations and get more wealth.

If I’m playing with the family trait option, does my Sim’s mate have to have that trait too?
No.

Can I move in/marry Sims into the Evolution homes that aren’t going to help bring in the next generation?
Yes, keep in mind that they don’t earn any points for the family. Even Sims that are destined to help bring in the next generation won’t count as part of the family until the next generation is actually born.

Does the first born have to be the heir?

No, as long as they are part of the bloodline and born on the Evolution house they are eligible to be an heir, regardless of order of birth. They must be the proper gender if playing with the matriarchy/patriarchy option.

Are collection items, such as rocks, insects and seeds subject to the black market restriction?

No, you are allowed to sell any collection items you find...as long as they weren't stolen out of someone's house or garbage.
Why is this Challenge so long!??

This Challenge is intended for hardcore enthusiasts who have completed the legacy family or want to keep score on how well they play the Sims 3. It’s a challenge that will take a looong time to complete but it’s meant to be progressive and ready for all expansions coming with the Sims 3.
How can I show off The Evolutions Challenge score?

You can add a score to your signature which will show everyone your skill rank:
Eg
TEC Rank = 3100
http://www.modthesims.info/showthre...ewpost&t=378083
The Evolutions Challenge

sounds good!

1. Highly Recommended: If you would like the best possible experience out of this challenge you will need to install SLAM Lifetime Ages which includes 50 different life span settings for your Sims.

What does SLAM stand for? I can't find this anywhere, but it sounds interesting.

Slam link: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=354452
stands for Sims Life Age Mod

Just to let the OP know Ive started this challenge

Just finished school for the year, so I will be starting the challenge also. Thanks or posting the SLAM link geekrockergal, this will help others in future.

I will be posting updates to my evolutions family here each generation. There will be a link in my signature to the story soon.

Everyone feel free to share your adventures during the challenge and results here.

I found this challenge a day or so ago and am trying it out. Just trying to work out when I actually change the life span? When the next generation is born or when they become a YA?

Have given birth to one child with my founder but am trying for a girl as I wanted to do Matriarchy but the 1st kid is a boy I got my girl pregnant with Nate Morita but did not move him in till I found out if he was rich or not (he wasn't)

They are now married but I do gotta say that 1st gen on 25 day Life span is HARD I had her eating from the picnic baskets in the park and using the gym facilities to shower and pee. She got preggers on her 1st day of Adult and that was a freaky thing coz she had barely any money for a cot

But I am hoping that now she has her mate in and he has a job things will slowly improve.

Wow. This challenge is pretty good one! I would love to give a try but I don't think I can do it. lol