Hello Simmers! Snowie here, the current... caretaker (I suppose) of the History Challenge. This challenge was originally created by Cloudseeker for TS4, and since he has been on hiatus for over a year, he gave me permission to keep the challenge updated until he returns. I don't have his express permission to post this here, but I wanted to spread this challenge to more communities and will happily have this discussion deleted if Cloudseeker asks me to. Below this (now overly long) note is Cloudseeker's blurb about the challenge, and links to the original post on the Sims 4 Forums, the updated rules in a Google Doc, and the updated spreadsheet in a Google Sheet. Please keep in mind that it is far easier for me to track down notifications on the Sims 4 Forums, but I will check here for new posts/suggestions as well. This challenge is in "beta", because we still need you, the Simmers, to go through the challenge and let us know if there is anything that feels unbalanced or just plain wrong to you. It is, however, theoretically done--in that it is playable from start to finish across all seven Eras. Ok, this pre-challenge note has gotten rather long. I'll shut up now, so thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the challenge!



About the Challenge
The Sims 4 History Challenge is a Legacy-style challenge that takes your Sims on a journey through the history of the world. It spans 7 major time periods, referred to as Eras, from prehistoric to modern, across multiple generations of Sims. The selection of aspirations, careers, and objects you may use will be quite limited at first, but as you progress through the Eras you will unlock more and more options. You will be challenged to not only succeed in the long run, through a set of challenge-wide goals, but also on a per-Era level, as each Era has individual goals that can only be completed while that Era is active. The challenge is designed to be historically accurate on a general, foundational level, with a few changes and personal touches to keep it challenging and dynamic. I have tried to keep available careers, objects, etc appropriate to each Era, making modifications only where things would conflict or when they would just make playing the game a pain.
The main inspiration for creating this challenge was the Through History Legacy Challenge for The Sims 3, as well as the Legacy Challenge. Many thanks to Cassalina and Pinstar/ImaginingMystic for inspiring me to do this.

Original Forum Post: Click here. (Outdated, see the Google Doc link below)
Up-To-Date Rules, Goals, and More: Click here.
Up-To-Date Scoresheet: Click here.

For those who are interested; permissions from Cloudseeker.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: After more than a year of trying to get back to updating this challenge, only for life to throw something new in my face, I have accepted that I won't be working on this for the foreseeable future. HOWEVER, the awesome @Snowie has taken it upon herself to step into my shoes and keep this challenge alive, and she has my complete blessing to do so. If and when I return, we will figure out how to proceed.

In the meanwhile, you can find the latest semi-unofficial updates here, and the matching scorecard spreadsheet here.

My apologies for not keeping this challenge updated, and for taking so long to accept it, but I hope you'll enjoy it now that it is in Snowie's capable hands.

/Cloudseeker

Hmm, it just occurred to me that people may want to just read through all the rules here, not on the Google Doc. I can copy-pasta the Google Doc here, if you would like. That document will always be the first thing updated, though. Let me know!

This looks like a lot of fun, but I can see it will take some time to set up (probably the entire weekend for me... likely will have to remove more mods than I need to install lol). Really appreciate the alternative mod links in the google doc for those of us who don't have Outdoor Retreat (at first I thought I was just going to have to wait til I could buy the pack). And thanks for sharing!

The first time I played this challenge, it was super tedious going through and deleting everything in the world I picked (Willow Creek). In the mods section, there's a link to an "Empty Worlds" mod, which is just a save file with the worlds already emptied out. I installed that and never looked back, lol. As far as setting up lots to visit goes, there's actually quite a few lots on the gallery that you can place that just have plants, etc, as well as some with outhouses (if you don't have Get Together). Sifting through all the CC created for the challenge may take a while, though.

Edit: Also, I just updated the fridge and grill CC links with some that look a bit more prehistoric (tree fridge, rock grill). The site that has the rock grill actually has quite a lot of good prehistoric CC, if you don't mind translating the site every time you go back to it.

this sounds really fun i might try it

The next update for this challenge will likely be when Cats & Dogs is released. I'm considering changing the Middle Ages goal: "Have the same Sim be father/mother to 8 children" to something to do with raising children, not just the sheer amount of them. Something like reaching the max level on all toddler/child skills with babies born in the household. My reasoning for changing this is that we already have a (very) similar goal for the Prehistoric Era, and the original descriptions for this Era reference watching your children grow up--which having a lot of different kids doesn't really feel like the perfect fit to me. I also find it rather un-fun to try to micro-manage that many Sims at once.

Let me know your thoughts on this, and of any other suggestions you've thought of! Thanks to everyone for their continued support, I hope you're all enjoying your challenges!

Does it *have* to be a 50x50 lot? I donĀ“t like seeing normal sims walk by, and the 64x64 lot on Windenburg is almost ideal since it has no roads or anything

It doesn't technically matter what size lot you start on, since you use cheats to set your starting funds anyway. Personally, I use the 64x64 Windenburg lot as it's definitely more immersive (and makes for great screenshots). The idea is just to pick a big lot, since you can't move after you've started and will probably want a big lot to build on by the end of the challenge.

Thank you for replying so quickly! I am having mad fun with this challenge - and it is pretty hard!

I'm glad you're enjoying the challenge! The Prehistoric Era has had a lot of changes from when it was first released, mostly because that's the era that everyone who tries the challenge plays. Still, be sure to let me know if you have any suggestions for the challenge.

Could you expand on the Era“s rules a little bit more? For example when my sims should/could start going to school, etc.

Cloudseeker had always left that up to the player. Personally, I start sending my kids/teens to school once the Middle Ages start.

It would be interesting to restrict it to perhaps, child boys could attend school starting in the middle ages, teen boys and child girls could attend school starting in the Old West, and everyone can go to school starting in the Roaring 20's--or something along those lines. Part of the issue is that without using a mod for it, you have to cancel the "go to school" action nearly every Sim day, and I wouldn't want to force people to do something so tedious for such a long time in their challenges unless a majority of people thought it was worth it.

What would be some of your suggestions for this?

What I'm doing right now is:
-Boys go to school during the Early Civilization (thinking more of an Ancient Greek setting) while Girls learn creativity/writing/etc
-No one goes to school during the Middle Ages but are home schooled (Probably making them to projects and homework for Immersion). I honestly don't know if there were schools in the Middle Ages, but I know writing was reserved for Priests and Religion was important so I thought "homeschooling" could fit nicely.
-I have no clue what the Old West was about so I might improvise since that's foreign culture to me hahaha

Also: I'm using a Mod that adds a Miscarriage chance just to add some difficulty. It's by LittleMsSam on her tumblr. I've added it in High chance and I plan on lower it until reaching Modern Day. This is just to add realism to my game and up the difficulty.

That mod sounds interesting! I'm always up for the game being more challenging and realistic (though I wouldn't want my Sims having miscarriages all that frequently).

For the sake of the challenge, it's usually best not to add some sort of gameplay in one era only to take it away in the next--it becomes too complicated for people and can restrict the way they play (many people pointed out that the progression of the relationship restrictions wasn't realistic due to divorces, etc, but I agree with Cloudseeker that it's best to keep things as simple as possible). I have been considering adding an "optional rules" or suggestions section to the challenge, with added rules and considerations that people can choose to play by if they wish.