The Hacker's Legacy

[A.G.Doren]

Hi everyone. One thing that really bothers me when I play my legacy household is how short the childhood period is. The majority of children come home from school with fun in the red and perhaps they are hungry, sleepy and could stand a bath plus they still have to do their homework and their little friends go home at 6pm. The eight day time frame means that most child aged sims will see only one weekend and won't actually be a child in every season. For this and a few other reasons I've been thinking of creating a hacker's legacy.

Now I know what you're thinking the legacy challenge is about not cheating and I agree with this. IMHO its absolutely unnecessary to cheat to get sim kid into private school or use maxmotives to have your sims do the things that you intend them to do.

When I say hacks I am thinking of things that add layers of reality or expand game play. For example ACR and Inteen, most legacy players (online anyway) use both of these mods and I've never seen an update to the challange rules that said don't use any mods, but Inteen and ACR.

Obviously I don't have to ask permission to do a Hacker's Legacy its my game after all however I was wondering if other simmers would be interested in this as well.In addition to Inteen and ACR I plan to use spring and summer break, longer lifespan and harder skilling, homework sometimes, sleep/skill on comm. lots and some type of higher bills mod.

Each hack used would have both up and downsides,example: no homework means a sim kid can come home and play however it also becomes a bit harder to reach or A or A+. If the grade drops during the teen stage you may not be able to raise it before the teen is due to transition or go to college. Wanna use monique's computer to enroll children in private school rather than go through the whole headmaster visit scenario that's fine, but children must be enrolled immediately. Enrolling children in private school with C grades means higher daily private school fees.

Stricter requirements would be enacted to score points, more strigent or difficult handicaps could be used and I would ban all career rewards if the sims have a longer lifespan. What do you guys think?

[123blissb]

I think it would be nice for the rules to be expanded to include minor hacks such as InTeen and ARC. Its sort of like chocolate, you need to eat it in moderation. There might be rules that have been updated, though.

Anyway, nice idea.

~123blissb

[AllenMark]

This is very nice information you provide and the attachment is really useful.

[grammapat]

Do the rules say no hacks? BOO! I have hacks I would love to see challenges for: large families, lot full of pets, ACR (which allows Sims to autonomously form relationships, even have babies!). There's lots of hacks, and if your challenge used one that one that I have, and that seem like it would add a lot to the game (as hugh numbers of Sims & pets does) I would play. The little age modification hack is one I think is quite sensible, but there are many differant ones; MINE extends toddler & childhood, and shortens elder.

P.S. Unlike InTeen (which I don't use) ACR is NOT "X-rated", it doesn't allow any activity that the game doesn't do anyway.

"Attachment" - what attachment?

[katalina522]

I think if you want to make your idea universal, you should pick a few specific hacks, or allot points based on certain *categories* of hacks. Because otherwise you'll be here for months trying to create bonuses/penalties for every different one. It's hard enough just accounting for all of the different EPs!

Example: ACR, InTeen (or similar), and Random Trips/Quads are very common. Those could have points/handicaps of their own, or you can just say they are acceptable to use. Same with the MATY director's cuts, hacks to allow more sims/pets on a lot, or hacks that prevent/control ghosts.

Example 2: Things like homework hacks. Some people have No Homework, Homework Sometimes, or Harder Homework. Some people Do Homework Now or Partial Credit mods. You can't predict who will have what, so maybe add a generic penalty or bonus depending on the intent of the hacks. Other categories might include hacks for jobs, bills, NPC behaviors, etc.

[A.G.Doren]

The original legacy rules say no hacks, but most people use common hacks like ACR,Inteen,trips & quads etc...My though process was to come up with a list of hacks that would open up game play more without subverting game play itself. I made this post because I wanted to see if there was enough interest for me to sit and formally write it all down. Which I think I may do as there certainly seems to be some interest.

[dieKristina]

I think it sounds great. I want to start a legacy, but I don´t want to play without my hacks. Honestly a can´t understand why you can´t use small hacks like "no what´s this". On the other hand a very importent hack for me is the no social worker patch, which changes the game pretty much. But since the social worker-system sucks IMO I don´t want to play without it. So I would like to have the oportunity to play a legacy with that hack, but perhaps there could be some kind of penalty since the hack gives you some big benefits.