The Legacy Challenge
The Legacy Challenge! Well known (if not the best known) challenge for TS2 and TS3, this was invented by Pinstar and hosted mainly on the site legacychallenge.com. But the domain expired (April 2011), and with it went the master set of rules for this challenge. :C
A lot of people still play the challenge and it can be hard to find the complete set of rules and handicaps, since most people just referred back to the master site. Luckily, the wonderful slina_elvellon had them, and was kind enough to send them this way.
Before continuing on please be sure to check legacychallenge.com first. The site may have returned and may have a better version of the rules there. The version below is designed for The Sims 2 and pre-dates Apartment Life.
If you have questions/etc about the challenge, there is a topic at Mod The Sims where you can do your research. For the most part if you use your common sense, you'll be fine. :)
Before you begin, look at the menu of handicaps you may select here. If you are brand new to the Legacy Challenge or want to keep the challenge as simple as possible, skip past the handicaps.
Next, go into Create-A-Sim and make your founder. They must be an adult or young adult. You may choose either gender, pick any aspiration you want, assign personality points however you want and pick their turn ons and offs however you want. You may use any custom content.
When creating your founder in CAS, you may start them with a single cat OR a single dog (not both). You may customize this animal in any way and pick its personality however you see fit.
You may buy animals, adopt them for animal services, or adopt strays. The only method of having animals moved in that is restricted is that you may not merge an animal household into the Legacy house.
If you made a young adult, move them into an empty dorm.
If you made an adult, move them into an empty 5X5 lot. (Unless you have chosen a handicap that states otherwise)
When starting on an empty lot, you may use the “Flatten lot” tool before moving your family in.
Congratulations: You have begun the Legacy Challenge!
These are the rules that apply to any and all Legacy families, no matter what.
If you have Sims in college, see the Rules of College here
You may not use any cheats except for the following:
-Move_Objects (for use in fixing bugged objects)
-Any cheats needed to do advanced building
-Kaching (each use gives you a penalty)
You may only use official Maxis objects, and the official Maxis objects. You may use custom re-colors of objects, as long as they do not alter the in-game properties of objects.
You may download and use ANY custom content for clothing, tiles, and wallpaper.
You may not use any mods.
The challenge may be done with any combination of expansion packs
You may only marry or move-in Townies or NPCs
When a child grows up to be a teenager, you may not choose their aspiration. You must roll a 6 sided dice to determine it.
1: Wealth
2: Knowledge
3: Family
4: Romance
5: Popularity
6: Pleasure Seeker (or pick your own if you do not own Nightlife)
(If you don't have a dice, use Random.org)
For Secondary Aspirations with Free Time
For your FOUNDER you can choose the secondary aspiration. However for your heirs, spares, and spouses you need to roll for the secondary aspiration. The numbers are the same for each aspiration (Wealth = 1, Knowledge = 2, Family = 3, Romance = 4, Popularity = 5, and Pleasure = 6). If the secondary that you roll for ends up being the same as your primary aspiration you must choose Grilled Cheese for a secondary.
-The challenge ends after 10 generations
-The 10th generation child must be able to trace their bloodline back to the founder
-If something very bad happens, you may quit without saving and reload from your last save, but doing so may give you a penalty.
-You earn points in this challenge, known as Legacy Points, for completing certain tasks or fulfilling certain conditions.
-Each Category is worth a maximum of 10 points.
-To determine your current score, you divide your current points by the maximum number of points possible. Your score is the % that results. A perfect Legacy will have a score of 100%
Category: Legacy
-You get half a point the founder. (you earn this automatically)
-You get half a point for each generation born except the 10th
-You get a full point for the birth of the 10th generation
-You get half a point if a founder or heir has their portrait painted and hanging somewhere in the house.
The heart of the challenge, this category will slowly earn points just for producing the generations. You can double the worth of an heir by painting a portrait of them and having it hanging somewhere on the lot. Portraits must be painted while the sim is alive. Because the challenge ends the moment the 10th generation is born, you obviously cannot paint a portrait of the 10th generation baby. For that reason, the 10th generation earns a full point when born.
Category: Money
-You get one point for every $100,000 plus $50,000 for every Expansion Pack you have installed (So a person with all three packs installed would have to earn $250,000 for every money point). There are so many new ways to make money in the game that inflation has set in. The upside is that you may still round up, so you always start with at least 1 legacy point for money. Secondly, there is no more ‘college penalty’ you can move sims back from college with no penalty. The only caveat is that they must have gone all the way through college. The value of owned community lots is added to the household net worth for the purpose of this score. Once the amount earned per point is at 300,000 do not keep adding 50,000 per EP, 300,000 is the max simoleans earned per point.
Points over 10 carry over to the overflow category.
Category: Family Friends
-Keep track of the highest number of family friends your family has ever maintained at once. This number becomes your family’s family friends total, and remains at that number, even if those friends are later lost.
For example: If the founder makes 20 family friends in their lifetime, your family friend total becomes 20. If they later die and lose all the family friends…your family friends total would remain at 20. In order to score higher, the family would need to amass more than 20 family friends at once to raise the ‘highest amount’.
You’ll need to have 40 friends at the same time to max out this category.
-You get a quarter of a point for every family friend. Do not round partial points up or down.
-Points over 10 go into the overflow category.
Category: Impossible Wants
-You get 1 point for every impossible want earned by a sim in the family. A sim may only ever earn you 1 impossible want in their lifetime. Sims may only earn impossible wants related to their aspirations. A Romance sim that maxes all their skills will not earn a point, because the “max all skills” is a knowledge impossible want.
Here are the impossible wants by aspiration:
-Family:
--Have 10 children
--Have 30 grandchildren
-Wealth:
--Earn $100,000
--Open 5 level 10 businesses
-Knowledge:
--Max all skills
--Be abducted 3 times
-Popularity:
--Have 30 best friends
-Romance:
--Have 20 loves at once
--Woohoo 30 sims
-Pleasure Seeker:
--Have 50 first dates
--Have 100 dream dates
-Grilled Cheese:
--Eat 200 grilled cheese sandwiches.
Free Time Updates
You may earn points for a sim’s secondary aspiration if you fulfill an impossible want for that aspiration. This allows you to earn a possible 2 points per sim if you manage to meet impossible wants for both of their aspirations.
Points earned over 10 carry over to the overflow category.
Category: Platinum Graves
This is a really simple category. You get half a point for every platinum grave that remains on the lot. It does not matter which aspiration the grave is, only that it is platinum. To gain a platinum grave, a sim must die of old age while in platinum.
Points over 10 carry over to the overflow category.
Category: Ghosts
You get half a point for each different ghost color on the lot. If you collect all the ghost colors, give yourself 10 points for this category.
The ghost types are:
Old age
Fire
Fright
Drowning
Electricution
Cow Plant*
Scissors (download it at MTS)
Elevators*
Satelite
Illness
Flies
Starvation
Rally Forth*
Sunlight*
*if you do not have the EP that allows this death, you do not need this death to complete the collection.
You cannot gain overflow points in this category. The most you can get is the full 10 points by completing the collection of ghosts.
Category: Business
-You gain 1 point for every generation the “Family Business” is a level 10 business.
-The “Family Business” is defined as the very first business opened by the founder or heir of the legacy family. This may be a home-based or community lot business.
-The business will only start earning the family points once it becomes a level 10 business.
-If more than one generation is alive once the business becomes a level 10, it only counts for the youngest generation. (For example: In order for the business to earn the family 10 points for 10 generations, the founder would have to get it to a level 10 business before the 2nd generation was even born)
In addition, any sim that dies a platinum death with all 7 gold talent badges will earn 1 point in this category.
Points over 10 go to the overflow category.
If you do not own the “Open for Business” pack, ignore this category completely.
Category: Family Breed
Your Legacy family prides itself on creating a strong and brand new breed. Rather than trying for a strict pedigree, the family seeks to create a new breed, one with a diverse gene pool.
Pick an animal, dog or cat. This category will only count for one type of animal or the other.
If you created a pet with the Legacy Founder, that pet becomes the breed founder. If you did not create a pet in CAS, the first animal that joins the family by any means becomes the founder. The pet bloodline works exactly like the family bloodline. Each generation may only have one heir, and that heir must breed to produce the next generation.
Your goal is to build up the ‘breed strength’ of the family pet.
If you started with a custom animal in CAS, the breed strength starts at .5, otherwise it starts at 0.
If heir/founder’s mate is an adopted stray, they add .5 to the breed strength when the next generation is born.
If the heir/founder’s mate is an animal that joins the family in any other way, add .25 to breed strength when the next generation is born
For every heir (including the founder) that learns ALL of the pet skills and reaches the top level in one of the pet careers, add .25 to the breed strength. Non-heir siblings do not add points to the breed.
Your “Family Breed” points = your breed strength.
Like all categories, this one has a maximum of 10 points. Points earned over 10 go into the overflow category.
Category: Seasons
-Plant babies spawned from plant sims can be considered heirs if the plant sim is part of the Legacy bloodline.
-The weather in the neighborhood screen may be set however you wish, unless stated otherwise by a handicap.
-Death by heat stroke counts as a normal ‘death by fire’ ghost.
-Sims killed by lightning count as normal ‘death by electcution’ ghosts
-New ghost: Death by hail
“Plant sim” has been added to the “Black Sheep” bonus requirement.
The 6 new career reward objects have been added to the career reward collection point.
Legacy Tree
On the first day your founder moves into the Legacy Lot, you must purchase and place a fruit bearing tree. This can be any of the three fruit bearing trees. Once placed, this tree may never be moved or deleted. When the founder dies, their marker must be placed in a space adjacent to the Legacy Tree. The founder must actually die in order to earn points for the Legacy Tree For every generation, besides the first, the tree remains alive and un-moved, earn one point. Having the tree live until the birth of the 10th generation will net you 9 points.
Fish
If you have every single kind of fishable item mounted on the wall, and the wishing well… earn 1 point. This point can only be earned once.
Juice
If you are able to create every kind of juice, earn 1 point. This point may only be earned once.
Points over 10 go into the overflow category.
Category: Bon Voyage
1 point for every 9 unique vacation memories earned by the founder of an heir. This bonus works like the family friends score, where you only count the highest number of vacation memories earned, and keep that high score even after the sim dies. These points max out at 5 once a single sim has earned all 45 vacation memories.
2 points if the founder or heir purchases a vacation home. To earn this point, the generation who purchases the home and every generation afterwards must spend at least one successful vacation at the house. The vacation home may be located in any of the tree main vacation locations and may be pre-built if you wish.
1 point if your founder is the first to buy and vacation at this house.
2 points if you collect every single souvineer from vacation and display them in the house. This includes purchased and dug-up items.
-1 if you have a bad vacation. This is per vacation, regardless of how many Sims went on the vacation.
Category: Free Time
Family Pastime
To earn any of these points, the founder must reach the maximum interest level in at least 1 hobby before they die. This hobby does NOT have to be the founder’s “pre-destined hobby” assigned to them by the game, it may be any hobby you wish. The first hobby that the founder maxes their interest in becomes the “family hobby” for the rest of the challenge.
Earn half a point for every sim part of the bloodline that maxes their interest in the “family hobby”. These sims do not have to be heirs; sibilings and spouces may earn points in this category too.
Earn 1 extra point if the “family hobby” happens to be the founder’s “pre-destined hobby”
You may have your sims gain interest in other hobbies aside from the family hobby.
There is no penalty for a sim who is part of the bloodline not reaching maximum interest in the family hobby before death, you simply do not earn the half point for them.
If the founder dies before reaching the maximum interest in any hobby, you will be unable to gain any points in this category.
Category: Collections
1 point per Alien pregnancy
It does not matter if the pregnancy results in twins or not, it’s still 1 point.
1 point for each complete set of platinum graves.
A ‘set’ is 1 of each of the 7 different aspirations.
If you do not own Nightlife, a ‘set’ is 1 of each of the 5 different aspirations
1 point for getting all 25 career reward objects
This point may only be earned once
If you do not own one of the expansion packs that add new jobs, you do not need to count those jobs.
1 point per 25 bottles of unused elixier of life
Once you amass 25 bottles, you can delete them all, score 1 point and begin again.
The easiest way to keep track is to mark off a 5X5 area. Once the area is filled with bottles you know you have 25 and have earned 1 point.
Bottles that have been used even once may not count in the 25.
2 points if each impossible want is fulfilled at least once.
There are 12 different impossible wants. If you can fulfill each different one at least once, you earn this bonus. Impossible wants must be fulfilled by a sim of the proper aspiration, but a single sim may fulfill more than one for the purposes of this bonus.
Free Time Updates
1 point for having a complete bug collection
1 point for having a complete set of awards for hobbies.
Points over 10 in this category go into overflow.
Category: Master
The points in this category are harder than normal. You’ll work harder to earn 1 point in this category than you will to earn 1 point in any other. Good luck. Each bonus may only be earned once, even if you fulfill the conditions more than one time. If you are looking for a simple or casual Legacy Challenge, you may want to skip this category.
“Black Sheep”
1 point for having a black sheep in the family.
A “Black Sheep” is defined as an alien/zombie/vampire/werewolf/plant sim. The black sheep has to come from the legacy bloodline. You get the point once a sim is an alien/zombie/vampire/werewolf/plant sim. They do not need to remain alive once this is achieved.
If you do not have the packs required to make a black sheep, remove this bonus. Once you have earned the Black Sheep bonus, child sims in the household may choose the "Family" aspiration rather than rolling for one when they grow into teenagers.
“Social bunnies need love too.”
Working as an imaginary friend is hard work. Social bunnies are subjected to the whims of the sims that create them, and have to deal with whiny complaining sims. Nobody ever thinks about what a social bunny wants. A little on-the-job romance with a co-worker might help the social bunny’s job satisfaction.
How to Earn:
You must take a snapshot of a social bunny having romantic relations with another social bunny.
Notes:
You must have at least 2 social bunnies to pull this off, meaning two sims have to bottom out their social bar.
Social bunnies come in 3 colors: Yellow, Blue and Pink. Only a pink and a blue social bunny will romance with each other.
As far as I know, there is no way to influence which color bunny a sim will produce.
Once you have earned this bonus, you may have child sims grow up to be Romance sims without having to roll.
“Spotless Record”
You show the skills, managmement and mastery of a true sim god. You have managed to keep your family out of any sort of trouble during the 10 generations it has existed.
How to earn:
If you go all 10 generations without earning a single penalty, you earn this point. This point cannot be earned if a penalty is ever incurred, even if the penalty point is made up for by overflow points.
“Finish what you started”
You know not to bite off more than you can chew.
If you managed to not break a single handicap chosen at the start of the challenge, you earn this point. You must have selected at least one handicap to earn this point. HANDICAPS
“Child Prodigy”
Through good genes, better family support and the best education in the country, the family has produced a brilliant child, who’s mind is far superior to all other children, and most other adults.
How to earn:
A “Child Prodigy” must…
Be an heir(ess) to the family
Have grown up platinum from toddlerhood to childhoodHave learned all three toddler skills
Maximize all skills before they turn teenager.
Have an A+ in school when they become a teenager.
Have “learned to do homework” by the time they turn teenager.
Be attending a private school by the time they turn teenager
Have a 10 interest in “School” by the time they turn teenager
Be platinum when they grow up from child to teenager.
If all of these conditions are met, the Legacy family earns the child prodigy point when the child grows into a teenager.
When this child grows up, you do not need to roll for aspirations the child. You may select the knowledge aspiration just for this child. The knowledge impossible want of “Max all skills” is immediately fulfilled.
Note:
Unless prohibited by a handicap, you may use career reward objects and thinking caps to help fulfill the max skills requirement.
“Happy Birthday"
An heir must have a birthday party at every stage of life, from infant to elder. Every single party must be a roof raiser. The heir must grow up platinum at each life stage as well (except for infant). The heir must die a platinum death. Once all of these conditions have been fulfilled, you may earn this point.
Once the happy birthday point has been earned, sim children may choose the popularity aspiration rather than rolling.
“No regrets”
If a sim born into the legacy family is able to die a platinum death without having a single bad memory. Earn this point. The only exception to this rule is the “death of family member” bad memories. Those deaths must be platinum deaths. The sim must be an heir.
Once the No Regrets point has been earned, sim children may grow up to be pleasure seeker sims without you having to roll.
“Capitalist Master”
An heir must die a platinum death with all 25 business perks and all 7 gold talent badges. If all of those conditions are fulfilled, earn a point.
Once you have earned the capitalist Master point, you may choose wealth aspiration for your sim children without having to roll for it.
“Ivy League”
To earn this point you need:
-A teenage sim who is part of the bloodline, but not the heir.
-They must earn $14,000 in scolarships.
-They must attend college (any college)
-They must receive the memory “big man/woman on campus” before graduation.
-They must join the secret society before graduation.
-They must found a greek house and get it to the maximum level before graduation.
-They must graduate with a 4.0 (any major)
-They must have a “Roof Raiser” graduation party.
-You earn this point when they graduate with all of these conditions fulfilled.
Once you have earned the Ivy League point, you may select "knowledge" for your sim children when they grow up, rather than rolling for it.
"Hobby Horse" (Requires the Free Time expansion)
Awarded when a sim has reached a 10 interest in all hobbies.
“Finish Line!”
Finish the Legacy Challenge. You get this point just for reaching the 10th generation. You’ve earned it! Calculate your score and see how you did. Share your score with others. :)
Category: Handicaps
At the beginning of the challenge, before you have even created your founder, look at the long list of possible handicaps (see it here). You may choose as many or as few as you think you can handle. You may even choose 0 handicaps if you want a very simple challenge! Be aware that some handicaps make others impossible to obey. (Livin’ Very Large and Presidential Phyical fitness oppose each other, for example). If you are going for a perfect score, you need to choose at least 10 points worth of handicaps.
Unless the handicap says otherwise, you earn the point(s) at the END of the challenge, provided you were able to obey the restriction for the entire challenge.
If you break a restriction on a handicap, you will not receive its points at the end of the challenge, but there is no penalty otherwise.
Handicap points earned over 10 go into the overflow category.
Handicaps that require a specific pack to obey may not be chosen if you do not have that pack. The handicaps category is worth 10 points, no matter how many or few packs you own. (There are enough vanilla handicaps that a person with only the Sims 2 could still earn 10 points worth of handicaps)
Category: Overflow
Whenever you earn more than 10 points in another category, those points come into this category. Any penalties the family incurs are subtracted from this category. This category can become negative. Like all the other categories, this category has a max of 10 points. Overflow points earned when this category is maxed out may be cashed in* or wasted.
If penalties reduce this category below 10 points, additional overflow points can raise it back up to 10.
-1 per use the ‘kaching’ cheat. Each use carries a -1 penalty. *If an overflow point is about to be wasted, you may ‘cash it in’ using kaching for a free $1000.
-1 for each sim shrink visit.
If you manage to bring a sim out of aspirational failure before they break down and call the shrink, you can avoid this penalty.
-1 for each infant, toddler and child taken by the social worker.
Care for your children, no explaination needed.
-1 for each visit by the repo man.
Pay your bills, no explaination needed.
-1 for each sim that is expelled or drops out of college
This counts for any sim that came from the legacy house, heir or otherwise.
There is NO penalty for skipping college entirely.
-1 for each visitor that dies on the legacy lot.
Unless they are an infant or a controllable sim, a sim counts as a ‘visitor’.
-1 for each Diva or Mr. Big brought into the family
These sims bring so much money it’s unbalancing. This counts regardless of how they are brought into the family (marriage, move-in or resurrection)
-1 per reload
If you don’t want your legacy to end abruptly because of the accidental death of a heir, or something happens that completely cripples the family. Rather than re-start a new legacy, you may reload from your last save. Every reload carries a -1 penalty. If you have to reload to recover from a glitch or bug, there is no penalty.
-1 per aspiration change
-You lose 1 point every time you use the Re-nu-yu sphere to change aspirations.
-You may still use the sphere to change turn ons and offs without penalty.
-You may change your aspiration during the sophomore year of college without penalty, as long as you roll for it.
-The only exception to this rule is if a sim goes FROM a normal aspiration TO a grilled cheese aspiration. There is no penalty for using the sphere for this reason.
-1 for each animal taken from the house by the police due to neglect. (Willingly giving up animals to the adoption agency does not carry a penalty)
-1 for every animal that runs away. If you manage to get it back into the family, this penalty is only -.5
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The end! If you see any problems, typos or broken coding, please let me know.
But please remember that I didn't design this challenge, and I've never played it extensively. I cannot field any questions you might have about the challenge itself. Remember, you can get clarification or discuss the challenge at Mod The Sims.