The Sims 4: New World Challenge - The Story and Set-up

Please Note:  This challenge is in creation right now.  That means most of the rules have not been written yet, but I am in the process of testing and drafting it.  In my test save my young-ones have started aging up to children, but have not finished doing so... so theoretically, until that point, you can try to play along if you like.   

The Story:

“Alert, server failure imminent!" The ship’s computer spoke.  

AI-EV1 arose and looked around.  Beside her the children were still in incubation.  There was no reason for her to be activated until after landing, when the babies were removed from their pods.  She was a Nanny-Servo after all.  

“Status.” She turned around and demanded an answer from the nearest mechanical servo she could find.  

AI-ML4 seemed to jump to alertness.  He’d clearly not expected her to be activated either.  “Flying through space at .89 lightspeed.”  

“Alert, Server failure imminent!” The computer repeated the warning.  

“Has that been going off for a while?”  She asked.  

“No, it started 15 minutes ago,” he answered. 

“Shouldn’t you be doing something about it?”  Clearly running a ship was not part of her programming. 

“There’s nothing to be done.  The Server’s failure is imminent.”

“But without the ship’s servers, how are we to reach our destination?”  Clearly some of ML4’s programming was deficient.  She understood now why these Mech-bots were programmed to deactivate upon landing, when the rest of the ship was disassembled.  But she was insistent.  Her builders had manufactured her and her line, knowing that they couldn't save themselves, just hoping to save a portion of their own.

“Uhhh…We won't land for another 48 years.” 

That won't do at all, she thought.  “Let me see the ship’s scanners.  If we can find another planet nearby, we can at least save this pod, perhaps some of the others.”  

ML4 reached out and a download started for the information she had requested.  EV1 had stored in her memory files a brief sketch of the type of planet her builders thought ideal to send her to. Her and her cargo babes, that is.  Forming a checklist to compare the available planets to was easy.  Within moments her eyes lit up with a solution.  

“The planet designated XGC-23 has a temperate climate, ideal for the Sims species to survive on.  Make preparations to land,” she ordered.  

ML4 got straight to work.  So did EV1.  If there was a defect in the ships’ computer systems, it would affect other pods too, sooner or later.  They couldn’t save them all, but a message sent on the low-waves would be able to reach a few of them, who could send it to others.  It was the most she could do.  

Landing on a new world, one where their supplies hadn’t been sent to ahead of time would be difficult.  She might need ML4 to remain active upon landing, afterall.  He would be able to disassemble their small pod and build a structure to house the babies when they emerged from their incubation chambers.  

The world is definitely suited for sim-life.  It’s primitive population is evidence enough of that.  They stare at us as we deboard.  Though they look less intelligent, EV1 is sure she doesn’t want to put that to a test.  She will need to be vigilant to protect her charges.  

Challenge Set-up:

To start the challenge, find an empty save online.  There are plenty out there.  Alternatively you can delete the existing sim-families from the bin and buildoze all lots in every world in game.  You will want to turn off sim-stories, and de-activate NPC Voting for Neighborhood action plans too.  

I'm sorry for the messiness of the images on this page. I tried to drag them to where I wanted them, but the program just won't do it, and this is the best I can get them all to be lined up like it is. Anyways, these are the infants I created for my challenge:

Next you will make your sim-family.  Your two adults don’t matter much, because they will become servos by cheat codes.  Just their personalities and names is all they keep. Then the Six kids, make them all infants, and unrelated.  Other than this, you can design them as you wish.  I color coded mine with clothing and gave them the last name of their color.  And I did 3 boys and 3 girls, to be even.  Eventually you will be able to earn more settlers for your gene-pool, but until then…

Upon move in, select one of your adults, then pull up the Cheat box with Ctrl, shift, & C.  Type just what is in the brackets:  (Testingcheats True) and then hit enter.  The next cheat will turn the selected sim into a Servo, so make sure one of your adults is selected. next type in this: traits.equip trait_humanoid_robots_main) That’s with a space between equip and trait.

Above, I FINALLY learned how to color my 2nd servo differently than the first.  

The sim should immediately appear as a blue servo.  You can change their color by clicking the Servo, selecting Servo, then Modify servo’s name, and change appearance.  I wish I knew this right away, as it gets confusing wondering which one is in the room with your infant. I didn't figure it out until they were toddlers!  The easiest way to any sim do anything regarding infants is to click on the infant and choose to get fed by, or changed by, then select the adult sim.  

When you start, you have $34,000 starting funds.  Choose a lot and build a structure.  It's true that your servo Sims won't need beds or most other furniture, but I’d suggest building a separate room for quarantining your servos as they recharge, because a crying infant will wake them up still, and you may want to lock and unlock the door on them throughout the challenge too.  I’d also suggest an expensive trashcan, the one that will give you $80 for every diaper you ‘recycle’ in it.  Because this will be the only way you’ll make any money for a while. 

 Next, starting with 2 servos means you can conceivably raise these babies without hiring a nanny sim.  You’ll want to be careful not to let their charges run out at once.  Have them work in shifts.  My babies didn’t have the happy infant trait when they aged up, but I kept them all alive, and you can too. 

No nannies, but you are allowed to hire a repair-man when your servo’s break down. There is no way to avoid this, as they’ll need to be upgraded a few times before they can do their own maintenance. You can see him as someone who comes from the ships, if you want to. Though, if you buy them a computer, they can order the upgrade parts on the web, and can upgrade themselves as they earn it.

Progress- Upon Age Up:

You must wait until they age up naturally.  Yes, they’ll be sad for a bit, but there’s no birthday parties in space.  Parties will be something you’ll have to earn later on.  When they age-up, you must randomize their traits.

Once the kiddos become toddlers things will be much easier.  There is still a challenge, especially if you want to give the kid more advantages as they age up.  The difficult part will be taking the time to help each kid individually learn a skill.  

My family at Toddler stage.  As you can see, I STILL had identical servos.

Outfits will be random, you do not have the advantages of a designer to help your sim with their outfits.  But in the Sims, random outfits can be bad, so I will allow you to go to CAS and randomize their clothing with the dice buttons, as many times as you want.  I will even allow you to choose a color filter before you hit that random button, but it must be the same color filter for everything you randomize. So if the kids come with a nice neutral colored pants, you might want to keep those.  I was able to get acceptable outfits for all of my babies this way, and to keep their colors throughout their lives too.  There is a random button on the hairstyle page, but it can also randomize the hair color too, so use it at your own risk.  

My Eventual Floorplan at Toddler stage with separate girl and boy baby rooms.

When your kids age-up, you can sell any unwanted things, like cribs and play mats, and buy them what they need for the next life stage. Or you can do what I did and 'hide' a toddler slide behind the computer desk in the study, my default servo recharge room.  I do remember, I eventually decided to separate the babies into two crib-rooms, so one crying baby didn’t wake up all five of the others. And then when I wanted to try adding a second floor, so my kids can start to have their own rooms, that's when I started to struggle for cash the most. I am regretting my choices early on to build so big a kitchen.