BaCC: My Ruleset
I love the Build a City Challenge (BaCC) and have tried it a couple of times, but the playrules just don't suit the way I play very well.
That's why I've been trying to come up with my own set of rules. I didn't start completely from scratch and there's still quite a lot from the original challenge in there. It's also not playtested yet, and therefore just a rough draft of the rules, and certain requirements (like monetary or population wise) will probably change quite a bit once I've tried it out in game.
I've tried to make the rules more 'story-driven' than just ticking boxes, and the importance of player-owned businesses has lessened a bit.
For those interested in having a look at my own set of rules, jump behind the cut! Warning though, it's a long read :)
Starting Out
Some areas of SimNation are still uninhabited and mostly unexplored. Occasionally, a brave band of settlers will strike out to make a new home in these unchartered territories. Seeking fame or fortune, questing for knowledge or searching for a good place to raise their families, or just on the lookout for fun and new experiences, these pioneer Sims face many challenges while trying to carve out a new life for themselves.
Your founder is one of these Sims. He/she has gathered a small group of Sims willing to join them in their adventure, and they're ready to leave home and hearth to establish a new town. Each of them has their own motivations and reasons to leave their old life behind, and their own goals and dreams to fulfill. Will they be able to work together and turn their small settlement into a thriving city?
Create a new, empty neighbourhood, using empty neighbourhoodtemplates and Pescado's anti-regen mods such as NoTownieRegen and AntiRedundancy. No townies or other Sims apart from those automatically generated should be made. The only Sims present in the neighbourhood should be your founder and his friends.
Create your founder. The founder can't have any other sims in their household. Choose their looks, personality, aspiration and turn on/turn offs. You can randomize these if you want to.
Create the 4 households that are coming along on the trip. Every household can have a max number of 3 sims, and can only be adults or elders. Either choose the sims per household, and their looks, personality, aspiration, etc yourself, or go for the random method listed here. Go with what you prefer and would find most rewarding to play.
Roll a d6 to determine the number of Sims for every family:
1-2 : 1 sim
3-4 : 2 sims
5-6 : 3 sims
For every Sim, roll a d6 to determine their gender:
1-3: male
4-6: female
For every Sim, roll a d6 to determine their aspiration:
1: Pleasure
2: Romance
3: Knowledge
4: Family
5: Popularity
6: Fortune
For every Sim, roll a d6 to determine their personality:
1-3: Column A
4-6: Column B
Column A:
1: Aquarius
2: Pisces
3: Aries
4: Taurus
5: Gemini
6: Cancer
Column B:
1: Leo
2: Virgo
3: Libra
4: Scorpio
5: Sagittarius
6: Capricorn
Optional: For every Sim, roll a d6 to determine whether they're a creature Sim.
1-2: Your Sim's a creature! Move on to the next roll to determine what they are.
3-6: Your Sim's just the regular house and garden variety.
1: Zombie
2: Vampire
3: Werewolf
4: Alien
5: Witch
6: Plantsim
Create a backstory for your settler Sims. Write a short bio about all of them. Who are they? Where do they come from? What's their reason for signing up for the expedition? What are their personalities, their relationships with the other Sims in their household?
Go into the founder's lot. Randomise the gender preference of your Sims, if you like. Teleport (SimBlender) all the Sims to the lot, and let them socialise for a while. They all know eachother as they travelled to this location together, after all. Only control your founder as the Sims socialise, and let relationships form naturally.
Move your other households into their own lots and build everyone a house (make sure to follow the restrictions listed below). No money cheats allowed, the funds your household has represents what they could afford to take along when making the long trek to the new town.
Households are played in weekly rotation, with the founder being the first house of the rotation. No household can be skipped. While playing, several initial restrictions are in place.
Restrictions
- No electronics. There is no electricity yet in your newly founded town, as there's nothing to generate it nor any infrastructure to distribute it. This includes tv's, stereos, computers, electronic games, burglar and fire alarms. Your Sims came prepared with iceboxes (cheapest fridge) and woodstoves (shinytime cooktop or barbecue), so they have a place to store and cook food, but it's all pretty basic. Workstations are not included in this restriction.
- No running water. There's no reservoir in the area, and no plumbing to boot. Your sims can take baths, use the bathroom and cook with water from a local source (river, lake...) that they purified. But no showers, no garden sprinklers, no fountains, and definitely no swimming pools.
- No cars. When your settlers arrived in town they took along a supply of petrol to get this far, but the closest gasstation is simply too far away to make regular driving feasible.
- No delivery service of any kind. That includes groceries, pizza and chinese food.
- No services of any kind. That includes the maid, butler, repairman, gardener, exterminator, nanny, adoption service
- No townies. Your settlers are literally the only people in town as of yet.
- No fertilising gardening plots. The land is wild and has never been tilled before, and it will take a while before it can yield good crops.
- No community lots. Your settlers are far too busy trying to get their own houses in order to go around building other structures. This includes both Sim-owned and City-Owned community lots. Home businesses are allowed, but:
- No businesses that sell anything other than items you crafted/grew/caught yourself. Where would you get them from, anyway?
- No hobby lots. They're back in the city, miles and miles from where your settlers currently are.
All careers start out locked, with the exception of the Politics career. This is ONLY open to your founder Sim, and represents his/her efforts leading your band of settlers, making connections with close-by cities, trying to get a working infrastructure, etc. More info on this further below.
The Sim Multiplier
The SM is the number that you multiply your number of playable Sims by in order to get the city’s population. Servos count as playable Sims. Pets do not.
+1 for your first community lot
+1 when you reach a total of 5 community lots
+1 for every additional 5 community lots
+5 for your Business District
+5 for your Downtown District
+5 for your University
Unlocking Neighbourhood Additions
Community Lots
Unlocked when your Founder is promoted to Campaign Manager. There are two ways to get a new community lot: Either a playable sim buys a plot of land and starts a business on it, or one is built with the City Funds (more on those later)
Every community lot placed in your town generates interest from Sims in surrounding cities, and ensures them that it would be a safe place to settle. You earn 1 CAS Sim per community lot.
Connection to Downtown
Unlocked when your Founder reaches the top of the Politics career. He/She has successfully lobbied for a proper connection to SimCity, whether by train, bus, proper roadworks, ferry or monorail. Supplies are much easier to come by, and businesses can now sell items they didn’t craft themselves. Hobby lots can now be reached. The Mayor will be required to fund the start of the construction, costing the town 500.000$
With the connection to SimCity established, your town sees an influx of new Sims. You earn 5 CAS Sims.
University
Unlocked when your town’s teacher reaches the top of the Education career. He/She has gathered enough renown and connections to set up their own campus of Sim State University. The Mayor will be required to fund the start of the construction, costing the town 500.000$
The establishing of a new campus naturally draws new students to the area. You earn 5 YA CAS Sims.
Shopping District
Unlocked when your population reaches 25.000, and your town has 5 player owned businesses. The Mayor will be required to fund the acquisition and conversion of the new stretch of land, costing the town 1.000.000$ (If you do not want to actually add a shopping district to your neighbourhood, you can still earn the extra SM and CAS sims by fulfilling the requirements and removing the money from the town funds.)
More businesses means more job openings, and your town attracts Sims looking for work. You earn 10 CAS sims.
Unlocking Careers
Athletic: Going professional doesn’t just require skill, it also requires competitions and fans. Once the Mayor has managed to make a proper connection to SimCity, your town’s local team will be able to properly compete with other teams, and hopefully reach the big leagues.
Requirement: Add connection to Downtown and build a stadium with town funds (50.000$)
Business: Once one of your Sims’s businesses reaches top rank, the owner fancies themselves quite the entrepreneur, and decides to take their business on to bigger and better things. They make contacts with surrounding cities and other businesses, and work hard to reach their goal: building out their business into a state-wide emporium and become a Business Tycoon.
Requirement: The Sim entering the career needs to have a top rank business. When they reach the top of the career, they’ll begin hiring more personnel, and it is unlocked for everyone.
Criminal: In a town where everyone knows each other, there’s no need for locked doors. But once population numbers go up and anonymity kicks in, there are plenty of opportunities for Sims to make a dishonest living.
Requirement: Once the population reaches 100, a place in the Criminal career opens up. Once the top of the career is reached, the Evil Mastermind will start recruiting minions, and the career is unlocked for everyone. Only one Sim can be Evil Mastermind at any given time.
Culinary: Not everyone’s a gifted cook, and even those who are occasionally like to eat without having to do the cooking and dishes afterwards. Your Sim understands this fact of life, and has opened a restaurant to fulfil their neighbour’s need for food cooked by somebody else, starting them off in an undoubtedly blossoming culinary career.
Requirement: The Sim entering the career has to open a restaurant business. It does not have to reach a particular rank, but needs to be played at least one day a week. Once they reach the top of the career they can start hiring personnel, and it is unlocked for everyone.
Law Enforcement: The town is in an uproar after its first burglary! Sims aren’t feeling safe in their houses anymore, and something must be done. Your Sim finds they’re just the man/woman for the job, and vows to protect and serve the Sims of their community.
Requirements: A position opens when the town has had its first burglary. Once the Sim has reached the top of the career, they build a Police Station with town funds (30.000 $), and start recruiting more law enforcers, unlocking the career for everyone. Burglar alarms are unlocked. Only one Sim can be Captain Hero at any given time.
Medical: Your town is confronted with its first epidemic, and Sims fear for their health. Your Sim has spent hours reading books about the Simmish body, and seeing as there are no other viable options, elects him/herself as the town’s doctor.
Requirements: When one of your Sims has fallen ill, and has passed on their disease to at least 2 other sims, a position opens to one Sim who has studied Physiology. Once they reach the top of the career , they build a Hospital with town funds(70.000 $), unlocking the career for everyone with a University diploma in Biology.
Military: With the town now having proper access to the rest of SimNation, the Military has decided to build a new base here to station and train troops. Any Sim who thinks they’ve got what it takes can apply for military duty.
Requirements: Add connection to Downtown and build a Military Base with town funds (50.000 $). Only one Sim can be General at any given time.
Politics: Once the town settled in, they agreed to officially elect the Sim that led them here (the Founder) as their leader. He/She works tirelessly to improve the city in any way they can, and collects taxes to help them build out the town’s infrastructure.
Taxes:
Households are divided into tiers based on their total funds (check from neighbourhood screen):
Upper Class (net worth $100,000+)
Middle Class (net worth $50,000-$99,000)
Lower Class (net worth $25,000-$49,000)
Poverty (net worth below $25,000)
Each tier earns the city tax per week based on the number of sims in that household:
Upper Class: 1.000$/Sim
Middle Class: 500$/Sim
Lower Class: 250$/Sim
Poverty: 100$/Sim
Taxes are paid on the first day of the week, directly to the Founder, who manages the town’s funds. Use Pescado’s money order to send the correct amount to the Founder. The Founder’s income and the taxes come together into one big pool, and it will be up to them to decide whether to advance the town or build themselves a nice heated indoors swimming pool.
As the Founder works their way up the political vine, they unlock certain perks for their town. The founder cannot advance in the career without having fully unlocked the perks of their level. For example, to gain a promotion higher than Lobbyist, will need to have fulfilled all the requirements to unlock Electricity and Running Water. Use Cyjon's Job Stopinator to prevent your Founder from being promoted past the perk they're currently working on.
Lobbyist: One of the first issues your Founder tackles is that of a proper infrastructure for the town. He/She will have to become Best Friends with a Sim who has maxed out the Mechanical skill, to help them out with the planning. Once they’ve done so, Electricity & Running Water are unlocked.
Campaign Manager: With the town up and running, the Founder can start focussing on attracting more inhabitants and stimulating commerce. He/She will have to become Best Friends with a Sim who runs a home business, for their first-hand experience in all things commercial. Once they’ve done so, Sims will be bolstered to start their own businesses and the town prospers, attracting newcomers. Community Lots and Townies unlocked. (You can now generate Townies with the townie gun, or create your own)
State Assembly Person: Slightly overwhelmed with all the political work on their plate, your Founder starts recruiting Sims to help him/her with managing the town. The Political career is now unlocked for everyone, but only one Sim can be Mayor at any given time.
Judge: The town is now large enough that it will need its own courthouse. Your Founder will have to become Best Friends with the Sim who is highest up the ladder in the Law Enforcement career. Once a successful working relationship with the town’s vigilantes has been established, the way is clear to start doing things by the book. The Law career is unlocked.
Mayor: The Founder’s tireless work for their town has been noted by officials in Sim City, and they’re so impressed that he/she is officially instated as the town’s Mayor. The new Mayor now holds enough clout to propose and finance larger projects. Ability to finance a connection to Downtown unlocked.
Science: Simkind has always needed those with an enquiring mind trying to find out how the world works (and invent some shiny things along the way.) Your sim’s cold, hard logic and useful inventions have earned him/her a grant from the town to help them continue their research, for the betterment of all.
Requirements: The career is open to any Sim with maxed out logic skill and a golden talentbadge in Robotics. Once they reach the top of the career, they build a research facility with town funds(50.000$) and the career is unlocked for everyone with a University degree in Physics.
Slacker: A community that’s just getting established has no need for slackers in their midst. Everyone is expected to pull their weight, after all. But in a thriving town, there’s plenty of places in which a Sim looking for the easy life can fit comfortably.
Requirements: Once the population reaches a multiple of 500, a position in the career opens up. The career is unlocked to everyone when a connection to Downtown is added.
Adventure: The Founder has spent a chunk of the town funds (30.000$) to build a shiny new museum. Someone needs to go out there and find some stuff to fill it up with. Attracted by the prospects of a life of adventure, liberating relics, discovering ancient cultures and blowing them up, your Sim has enlisted to explore the region and bring back any treasures they find.
Requirements: A position in the career opens up when the town builds a museum. Once the top of the career is reached, it’s unlocked for everyone.
Education: Children are the future, and someone has to teach the town’s bright young minds all they need to know to live a successful life. Your Sim has felt this calling, and considers themselves the best option these youngsters have.
Requirements: A position opens up once the first child in your town reaches childhood (old enough for education). Once the town’s teacher reaches the top of the career, they build a school with town funds (20.000$), and the career is unlocked for everyone with any University degree.
Gamer: Now the town has electricity and internet available, your Sim indulges themselves with all sorts of electronical entertainment. They’ve become so good at it, in fact, that they’ve been offered a contract as a professional Gamer!
Requirements: After Electricity has been unlocked, the career is open to any Sim who owns a computer, tv + video game console and arcade game.
Journalism: The Founder dislikes news of the Dog Bites Man variety, and has forbidden anyone to report on events unless they’re actually newsworthy.
Requirements: A position opens up everytime there have been 5 burglaries where items have actually been stolen (burglaries interrupted by the burglary alarm do not count), 5 Sim-Instigated fires where an object actually burned down (fires put out by the fire department do not count), or a Sim reaches the top of any career. The career is unlocked once a connection to Downtown has been established.
Law: Wherever more than two Sims are gathered, there are bound to be conflicts. Your Sim has a special talent for negotiating conflict and finding their way in the complex jungle of legal matter, and has offered their services to help keep the peace in town.
Requirements: A position opens up every time a Sim gets furious at someone. To enter the career this way, a Sim needs to have studied Couples Counselling. The career is unlocked for everyone with a University degree in Political Science once the Founder has fulfilled his requirements as a Judge.
Music: As long as anyone has been making an idiot of themselves in public , people have paid them for it. Playing music isn’t any different in that respect. All your Sim needs to start out is an instrument and an audience willing to spare a few simoleons.
Requirements: The career is unlocked to everyone when at least 3 music instruments are placed on a community lot. (Community Lots will have to be unlocked for this)
University Careers:
Artist: As an artist, your most important ability is to get people to pay for your work. Once you’ve earned enough credibility in the scene, you can paint a garbage can red, call it art and sell it for a pretty price.
Requirements: The career is open for any Sim who has sold 5 Masterpieces, once a connection to Downtown has been established.
Natural Science: Your Sim has always had a fondness for plants of all kinds, and jumped at the opportunity to study them closer while at University. With the knowledge they gathered there, they’ve been able to greatly improve the town’s farming methods. Fertilising garden plots is unlocked.
Requirements: The career is open for any Sim with a golden gardening talentbadge and a University degree in Biology.
Paranormal: Your Sim always knew that the truth is out there. They’ve witnessed some strange things in their time, and have decided to devote their time to studying the paranormal. If they can earn some simoleons along the way, that’s a nice bonus.
Requirements: A position opens when the town builds a cemetery and 5 graves have been sent to it. Additional positions open whenever a Sim is turned into a creature (vampire, werewolf, witch, zombie) or an alien is born.
Show Business: Your Sim is tired of living the quiet life in a small town. They want to escape to the Big City, get discovered, and become a star. So they can return to their hometown and swank about in front of everyone, of course.
Requirements: The career is unlocked once a connection to Downtown has been added.
Freetime Careers
Architecture: When the settlers first came to the town, they built their own houses any old how with the supplies they could find. Now the town has access to better building materials, your Sim thinks the time is ripe for someone to step up and draw some plans before a structure gets built.
Requirements: The career is unlocked once a connection to Downtown is established, but is only open to Sims with an Art degree.
Dance: Your Sim has always had a passion for Dance, and now the town has funded the building of a brand new Cultural Center, he/she finally has a chance to perform in front of an audience that isn't restricted to their cat.
Requirements: The career is unlocked for everyone once a Cultural Center (50.000$) has been built.
Entertainment: Making a twit of themselves in front of an audience is just one of the many fears your Sim utterly lacks. When the town built a Cultural Center, they were no longer restricted to doing standup comedy in the local pub, and can now try to fulfill their dreams of entertaining the masses.
Requirements: The career is unlocked for everyone once a Cultural Center (50.000$) has been built.
Intelligence: The Sim City Intelligence Agency doesn't exist, of course. And the top brass of town has absolutely no knowledge of the secret devision that's rumored to have been instated in the area. That's paranoid conspiracy theories for you.
Requirements: The career is unlocked once the top of the Law Enforcement and Military career have been reached, but is only open to Sims who graduated college with a GPA of 4.0.
Oceanography: Big fish, small fish, cuttlefish, starfish... Fish are pretty much your Sim's whole life. The neighbours might think they smell a bit funny, but they're living the dream, and that's what's important.
Requirements: The career is open to any Sim with a golden fishing talent badge. Once the first Sim reaches the top of the career, it is unlocked for everyone with a University degree in Biology.
(If you move in a townie that has a job in a career that does has not been unlocked for everyone, they MUST quit.)
Pet Careers:
Show Biz: Only pets who have learned all commands (excluding toilet training for cats) may enter this career.
Service: The career opens once phone service options are unlocked (when the population reaches 500).
Security: Only pets whose owner works in Law Enforcement may enter this career.
Wow, you read all the way through this? Congratulations on your stamina! :D
Edit 07/05/11:
- Added in Hobby Lot restrictions
Edit 15/04/11:
- Added in Cyjon's Job Stopinator to prevent progress in Political career when requirements for perks haven't been fulfilled yet
- Added higher requirements for opening positions in the Journalism career
- Added in monetary requirement to build the Cultural Center (50.000$)
- Fixed some typos and things
Questions for testers/players/anyone who has a go at this:
- How are the monetary requirements for various things? (like building a school or science research facility, connection to Downtown, etc.) Too hard? Too easy?
- I realised I never added in anything to unlock fire alarms. I'm guessing this would need a 'fire department' of some sorts. Any suggestions?
- Any other remarks/ideas/thoughts?
That's why I've been trying to come up with my own set of rules. I didn't start completely from scratch and there's still quite a lot from the original challenge in there. It's also not playtested yet, and therefore just a rough draft of the rules, and certain requirements (like monetary or population wise) will probably change quite a bit once I've tried it out in game.
I've tried to make the rules more 'story-driven' than just ticking boxes, and the importance of player-owned businesses has lessened a bit.
For those interested in having a look at my own set of rules, jump behind the cut! Warning though, it's a long read :)
Starting Out
Some areas of SimNation are still uninhabited and mostly unexplored. Occasionally, a brave band of settlers will strike out to make a new home in these unchartered territories. Seeking fame or fortune, questing for knowledge or searching for a good place to raise their families, or just on the lookout for fun and new experiences, these pioneer Sims face many challenges while trying to carve out a new life for themselves.
Your founder is one of these Sims. He/she has gathered a small group of Sims willing to join them in their adventure, and they're ready to leave home and hearth to establish a new town. Each of them has their own motivations and reasons to leave their old life behind, and their own goals and dreams to fulfill. Will they be able to work together and turn their small settlement into a thriving city?
Create a new, empty neighbourhood, using empty neighbourhoodtemplates and Pescado's anti-regen mods such as NoTownieRegen and AntiRedundancy. No townies or other Sims apart from those automatically generated should be made. The only Sims present in the neighbourhood should be your founder and his friends.
Create your founder. The founder can't have any other sims in their household. Choose their looks, personality, aspiration and turn on/turn offs. You can randomize these if you want to.
Create the 4 households that are coming along on the trip. Every household can have a max number of 3 sims, and can only be adults or elders. Either choose the sims per household, and their looks, personality, aspiration, etc yourself, or go for the random method listed here. Go with what you prefer and would find most rewarding to play.
Roll a d6 to determine the number of Sims for every family:
1-2 : 1 sim
3-4 : 2 sims
5-6 : 3 sims
For every Sim, roll a d6 to determine their gender:
1-3: male
4-6: female
For every Sim, roll a d6 to determine their aspiration:
1: Pleasure
2: Romance
3: Knowledge
4: Family
5: Popularity
6: Fortune
For every Sim, roll a d6 to determine their personality:
1-3: Column A
4-6: Column B
Column A:
1: Aquarius
2: Pisces
3: Aries
4: Taurus
5: Gemini
6: Cancer
Column B:
1: Leo
2: Virgo
3: Libra
4: Scorpio
5: Sagittarius
6: Capricorn
Optional: For every Sim, roll a d6 to determine whether they're a creature Sim.
1-2: Your Sim's a creature! Move on to the next roll to determine what they are.
3-6: Your Sim's just the regular house and garden variety.
1: Zombie
2: Vampire
3: Werewolf
4: Alien
5: Witch
6: Plantsim
Create a backstory for your settler Sims. Write a short bio about all of them. Who are they? Where do they come from? What's their reason for signing up for the expedition? What are their personalities, their relationships with the other Sims in their household?
Go into the founder's lot. Randomise the gender preference of your Sims, if you like. Teleport (SimBlender) all the Sims to the lot, and let them socialise for a while. They all know eachother as they travelled to this location together, after all. Only control your founder as the Sims socialise, and let relationships form naturally.
Move your other households into their own lots and build everyone a house (make sure to follow the restrictions listed below). No money cheats allowed, the funds your household has represents what they could afford to take along when making the long trek to the new town.
Households are played in weekly rotation, with the founder being the first house of the rotation. No household can be skipped. While playing, several initial restrictions are in place.
Restrictions
- No electronics. There is no electricity yet in your newly founded town, as there's nothing to generate it nor any infrastructure to distribute it. This includes tv's, stereos, computers, electronic games, burglar and fire alarms. Your Sims came prepared with iceboxes (cheapest fridge) and woodstoves (shinytime cooktop or barbecue), so they have a place to store and cook food, but it's all pretty basic. Workstations are not included in this restriction.
- No running water. There's no reservoir in the area, and no plumbing to boot. Your sims can take baths, use the bathroom and cook with water from a local source (river, lake...) that they purified. But no showers, no garden sprinklers, no fountains, and definitely no swimming pools.
- No cars. When your settlers arrived in town they took along a supply of petrol to get this far, but the closest gasstation is simply too far away to make regular driving feasible.
- No delivery service of any kind. That includes groceries, pizza and chinese food.
- No services of any kind. That includes the maid, butler, repairman, gardener, exterminator, nanny, adoption service
- No townies. Your settlers are literally the only people in town as of yet.
- No fertilising gardening plots. The land is wild and has never been tilled before, and it will take a while before it can yield good crops.
- No community lots. Your settlers are far too busy trying to get their own houses in order to go around building other structures. This includes both Sim-owned and City-Owned community lots. Home businesses are allowed, but:
- No businesses that sell anything other than items you crafted/grew/caught yourself. Where would you get them from, anyway?
- No hobby lots. They're back in the city, miles and miles from where your settlers currently are.
All careers start out locked, with the exception of the Politics career. This is ONLY open to your founder Sim, and represents his/her efforts leading your band of settlers, making connections with close-by cities, trying to get a working infrastructure, etc. More info on this further below.
The Sim Multiplier
The SM is the number that you multiply your number of playable Sims by in order to get the city’s population. Servos count as playable Sims. Pets do not.
+1 for your first community lot
+1 when you reach a total of 5 community lots
+1 for every additional 5 community lots
+5 for your Business District
+5 for your Downtown District
+5 for your University
Unlocking Neighbourhood Additions
Community Lots
Unlocked when your Founder is promoted to Campaign Manager. There are two ways to get a new community lot: Either a playable sim buys a plot of land and starts a business on it, or one is built with the City Funds (more on those later)
Every community lot placed in your town generates interest from Sims in surrounding cities, and ensures them that it would be a safe place to settle. You earn 1 CAS Sim per community lot.
Connection to Downtown
Unlocked when your Founder reaches the top of the Politics career. He/She has successfully lobbied for a proper connection to SimCity, whether by train, bus, proper roadworks, ferry or monorail. Supplies are much easier to come by, and businesses can now sell items they didn’t craft themselves. Hobby lots can now be reached. The Mayor will be required to fund the start of the construction, costing the town 500.000$
With the connection to SimCity established, your town sees an influx of new Sims. You earn 5 CAS Sims.
University
Unlocked when your town’s teacher reaches the top of the Education career. He/She has gathered enough renown and connections to set up their own campus of Sim State University. The Mayor will be required to fund the start of the construction, costing the town 500.000$
The establishing of a new campus naturally draws new students to the area. You earn 5 YA CAS Sims.
Shopping District
Unlocked when your population reaches 25.000, and your town has 5 player owned businesses. The Mayor will be required to fund the acquisition and conversion of the new stretch of land, costing the town 1.000.000$ (If you do not want to actually add a shopping district to your neighbourhood, you can still earn the extra SM and CAS sims by fulfilling the requirements and removing the money from the town funds.)
More businesses means more job openings, and your town attracts Sims looking for work. You earn 10 CAS sims.
Unlocking Careers
Athletic: Going professional doesn’t just require skill, it also requires competitions and fans. Once the Mayor has managed to make a proper connection to SimCity, your town’s local team will be able to properly compete with other teams, and hopefully reach the big leagues.
Requirement: Add connection to Downtown and build a stadium with town funds (50.000$)
Business: Once one of your Sims’s businesses reaches top rank, the owner fancies themselves quite the entrepreneur, and decides to take their business on to bigger and better things. They make contacts with surrounding cities and other businesses, and work hard to reach their goal: building out their business into a state-wide emporium and become a Business Tycoon.
Requirement: The Sim entering the career needs to have a top rank business. When they reach the top of the career, they’ll begin hiring more personnel, and it is unlocked for everyone.
Criminal: In a town where everyone knows each other, there’s no need for locked doors. But once population numbers go up and anonymity kicks in, there are plenty of opportunities for Sims to make a dishonest living.
Requirement: Once the population reaches 100, a place in the Criminal career opens up. Once the top of the career is reached, the Evil Mastermind will start recruiting minions, and the career is unlocked for everyone. Only one Sim can be Evil Mastermind at any given time.
Culinary: Not everyone’s a gifted cook, and even those who are occasionally like to eat without having to do the cooking and dishes afterwards. Your Sim understands this fact of life, and has opened a restaurant to fulfil their neighbour’s need for food cooked by somebody else, starting them off in an undoubtedly blossoming culinary career.
Requirement: The Sim entering the career has to open a restaurant business. It does not have to reach a particular rank, but needs to be played at least one day a week. Once they reach the top of the career they can start hiring personnel, and it is unlocked for everyone.
Law Enforcement: The town is in an uproar after its first burglary! Sims aren’t feeling safe in their houses anymore, and something must be done. Your Sim finds they’re just the man/woman for the job, and vows to protect and serve the Sims of their community.
Requirements: A position opens when the town has had its first burglary. Once the Sim has reached the top of the career, they build a Police Station with town funds (30.000 $), and start recruiting more law enforcers, unlocking the career for everyone. Burglar alarms are unlocked. Only one Sim can be Captain Hero at any given time.
Medical: Your town is confronted with its first epidemic, and Sims fear for their health. Your Sim has spent hours reading books about the Simmish body, and seeing as there are no other viable options, elects him/herself as the town’s doctor.
Requirements: When one of your Sims has fallen ill, and has passed on their disease to at least 2 other sims, a position opens to one Sim who has studied Physiology. Once they reach the top of the career , they build a Hospital with town funds(70.000 $), unlocking the career for everyone with a University diploma in Biology.
Military: With the town now having proper access to the rest of SimNation, the Military has decided to build a new base here to station and train troops. Any Sim who thinks they’ve got what it takes can apply for military duty.
Requirements: Add connection to Downtown and build a Military Base with town funds (50.000 $). Only one Sim can be General at any given time.
Politics: Once the town settled in, they agreed to officially elect the Sim that led them here (the Founder) as their leader. He/She works tirelessly to improve the city in any way they can, and collects taxes to help them build out the town’s infrastructure.
Taxes:
Households are divided into tiers based on their total funds (check from neighbourhood screen):
Upper Class (net worth $100,000+)
Middle Class (net worth $50,000-$99,000)
Lower Class (net worth $25,000-$49,000)
Poverty (net worth below $25,000)
Each tier earns the city tax per week based on the number of sims in that household:
Upper Class: 1.000$/Sim
Middle Class: 500$/Sim
Lower Class: 250$/Sim
Poverty: 100$/Sim
Taxes are paid on the first day of the week, directly to the Founder, who manages the town’s funds. Use Pescado’s money order to send the correct amount to the Founder. The Founder’s income and the taxes come together into one big pool, and it will be up to them to decide whether to advance the town or build themselves a nice heated indoors swimming pool.
As the Founder works their way up the political vine, they unlock certain perks for their town. The founder cannot advance in the career without having fully unlocked the perks of their level. For example, to gain a promotion higher than Lobbyist, will need to have fulfilled all the requirements to unlock Electricity and Running Water. Use Cyjon's Job Stopinator to prevent your Founder from being promoted past the perk they're currently working on.
Lobbyist: One of the first issues your Founder tackles is that of a proper infrastructure for the town. He/She will have to become Best Friends with a Sim who has maxed out the Mechanical skill, to help them out with the planning. Once they’ve done so, Electricity & Running Water are unlocked.
Campaign Manager: With the town up and running, the Founder can start focussing on attracting more inhabitants and stimulating commerce. He/She will have to become Best Friends with a Sim who runs a home business, for their first-hand experience in all things commercial. Once they’ve done so, Sims will be bolstered to start their own businesses and the town prospers, attracting newcomers. Community Lots and Townies unlocked. (You can now generate Townies with the townie gun, or create your own)
State Assembly Person: Slightly overwhelmed with all the political work on their plate, your Founder starts recruiting Sims to help him/her with managing the town. The Political career is now unlocked for everyone, but only one Sim can be Mayor at any given time.
Judge: The town is now large enough that it will need its own courthouse. Your Founder will have to become Best Friends with the Sim who is highest up the ladder in the Law Enforcement career. Once a successful working relationship with the town’s vigilantes has been established, the way is clear to start doing things by the book. The Law career is unlocked.
Mayor: The Founder’s tireless work for their town has been noted by officials in Sim City, and they’re so impressed that he/she is officially instated as the town’s Mayor. The new Mayor now holds enough clout to propose and finance larger projects. Ability to finance a connection to Downtown unlocked.
Science: Simkind has always needed those with an enquiring mind trying to find out how the world works (and invent some shiny things along the way.) Your sim’s cold, hard logic and useful inventions have earned him/her a grant from the town to help them continue their research, for the betterment of all.
Requirements: The career is open to any Sim with maxed out logic skill and a golden talentbadge in Robotics. Once they reach the top of the career, they build a research facility with town funds(50.000$) and the career is unlocked for everyone with a University degree in Physics.
Slacker: A community that’s just getting established has no need for slackers in their midst. Everyone is expected to pull their weight, after all. But in a thriving town, there’s plenty of places in which a Sim looking for the easy life can fit comfortably.
Requirements: Once the population reaches a multiple of 500, a position in the career opens up. The career is unlocked to everyone when a connection to Downtown is added.
Adventure: The Founder has spent a chunk of the town funds (30.000$) to build a shiny new museum. Someone needs to go out there and find some stuff to fill it up with. Attracted by the prospects of a life of adventure, liberating relics, discovering ancient cultures and blowing them up, your Sim has enlisted to explore the region and bring back any treasures they find.
Requirements: A position in the career opens up when the town builds a museum. Once the top of the career is reached, it’s unlocked for everyone.
Education: Children are the future, and someone has to teach the town’s bright young minds all they need to know to live a successful life. Your Sim has felt this calling, and considers themselves the best option these youngsters have.
Requirements: A position opens up once the first child in your town reaches childhood (old enough for education). Once the town’s teacher reaches the top of the career, they build a school with town funds (20.000$), and the career is unlocked for everyone with any University degree.
Gamer: Now the town has electricity and internet available, your Sim indulges themselves with all sorts of electronical entertainment. They’ve become so good at it, in fact, that they’ve been offered a contract as a professional Gamer!
Requirements: After Electricity has been unlocked, the career is open to any Sim who owns a computer, tv + video game console and arcade game.
Journalism: The Founder dislikes news of the Dog Bites Man variety, and has forbidden anyone to report on events unless they’re actually newsworthy.
Requirements: A position opens up everytime there have been 5 burglaries where items have actually been stolen (burglaries interrupted by the burglary alarm do not count), 5 Sim-Instigated fires where an object actually burned down (fires put out by the fire department do not count), or a Sim reaches the top of any career. The career is unlocked once a connection to Downtown has been established.
Law: Wherever more than two Sims are gathered, there are bound to be conflicts. Your Sim has a special talent for negotiating conflict and finding their way in the complex jungle of legal matter, and has offered their services to help keep the peace in town.
Requirements: A position opens up every time a Sim gets furious at someone. To enter the career this way, a Sim needs to have studied Couples Counselling. The career is unlocked for everyone with a University degree in Political Science once the Founder has fulfilled his requirements as a Judge.
Music: As long as anyone has been making an idiot of themselves in public , people have paid them for it. Playing music isn’t any different in that respect. All your Sim needs to start out is an instrument and an audience willing to spare a few simoleons.
Requirements: The career is unlocked to everyone when at least 3 music instruments are placed on a community lot. (Community Lots will have to be unlocked for this)
University Careers:
Artist: As an artist, your most important ability is to get people to pay for your work. Once you’ve earned enough credibility in the scene, you can paint a garbage can red, call it art and sell it for a pretty price.
Requirements: The career is open for any Sim who has sold 5 Masterpieces, once a connection to Downtown has been established.
Natural Science: Your Sim has always had a fondness for plants of all kinds, and jumped at the opportunity to study them closer while at University. With the knowledge they gathered there, they’ve been able to greatly improve the town’s farming methods. Fertilising garden plots is unlocked.
Requirements: The career is open for any Sim with a golden gardening talentbadge and a University degree in Biology.
Paranormal: Your Sim always knew that the truth is out there. They’ve witnessed some strange things in their time, and have decided to devote their time to studying the paranormal. If they can earn some simoleons along the way, that’s a nice bonus.
Requirements: A position opens when the town builds a cemetery and 5 graves have been sent to it. Additional positions open whenever a Sim is turned into a creature (vampire, werewolf, witch, zombie) or an alien is born.
Show Business: Your Sim is tired of living the quiet life in a small town. They want to escape to the Big City, get discovered, and become a star. So they can return to their hometown and swank about in front of everyone, of course.
Requirements: The career is unlocked once a connection to Downtown has been added.
Freetime Careers
Architecture: When the settlers first came to the town, they built their own houses any old how with the supplies they could find. Now the town has access to better building materials, your Sim thinks the time is ripe for someone to step up and draw some plans before a structure gets built.
Requirements: The career is unlocked once a connection to Downtown is established, but is only open to Sims with an Art degree.
Dance: Your Sim has always had a passion for Dance, and now the town has funded the building of a brand new Cultural Center, he/she finally has a chance to perform in front of an audience that isn't restricted to their cat.
Requirements: The career is unlocked for everyone once a Cultural Center (50.000$) has been built.
Entertainment: Making a twit of themselves in front of an audience is just one of the many fears your Sim utterly lacks. When the town built a Cultural Center, they were no longer restricted to doing standup comedy in the local pub, and can now try to fulfill their dreams of entertaining the masses.
Requirements: The career is unlocked for everyone once a Cultural Center (50.000$) has been built.
Intelligence: The Sim City Intelligence Agency doesn't exist, of course. And the top brass of town has absolutely no knowledge of the secret devision that's rumored to have been instated in the area. That's paranoid conspiracy theories for you.
Requirements: The career is unlocked once the top of the Law Enforcement and Military career have been reached, but is only open to Sims who graduated college with a GPA of 4.0.
Oceanography: Big fish, small fish, cuttlefish, starfish... Fish are pretty much your Sim's whole life. The neighbours might think they smell a bit funny, but they're living the dream, and that's what's important.
Requirements: The career is open to any Sim with a golden fishing talent badge. Once the first Sim reaches the top of the career, it is unlocked for everyone with a University degree in Biology.
(If you move in a townie that has a job in a career that does has not been unlocked for everyone, they MUST quit.)
Pet Careers:
Show Biz: Only pets who have learned all commands (excluding toilet training for cats) may enter this career.
Service: The career opens once phone service options are unlocked (when the population reaches 500).
Security: Only pets whose owner works in Law Enforcement may enter this career.
Wow, you read all the way through this? Congratulations on your stamina! :D
Edit 07/05/11:
- Added in Hobby Lot restrictions
Edit 15/04/11:
- Added in Cyjon's Job Stopinator to prevent progress in Political career when requirements for perks haven't been fulfilled yet
- Added higher requirements for opening positions in the Journalism career
- Added in monetary requirement to build the Cultural Center (50.000$)
- Fixed some typos and things
Questions for testers/players/anyone who has a go at this:
- How are the monetary requirements for various things? (like building a school or science research facility, connection to Downtown, etc.) Too hard? Too easy?
- I realised I never added in anything to unlock fire alarms. I'm guessing this would need a 'fire department' of some sorts. Any suggestions?
- Any other remarks/ideas/thoughts?