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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 17th Dec 2018 at 5:18 PM Last edited by Danjaley : 12th May 2019 at 9:36 AM. Reason: Minor update on fire and building. Gems can count as iron now.
Default The Banished Build a City Challenge
Banished Build a City Challenge

Inspiration

This version of the Build a City Challenge is loosely based on Trough the Times Challenge by Inubasket on MTS . Mostly I adapted their requirements for unlocking buildings. Once the Banished settlement is completed and you feel it’s time to move on, you can also switch back to this challenge and let your town grow modern.
The other inspiration is of course Banished , which is a historical themed city-building/survival game. What I particularly like about it is its realistic approach to resource management. Every unit of material actually is somewhere in the game-world and has to be distributed to the workshops or the end-user. If you want to build a house, material has to be brought to the construction site first. Similarly, every house has a bit of info about the inhabitants and what they currently have in storage. The settlers are not an anonymous mass, but miniature personalities who are born, age up and die. You have to make sure they get enough food, stay warm in winter and even that they live on a healthy diet. They have adorable fictional names generated from syllables of real names. I named my settlers after actual Banished citizens, but this is of course optional.

Getting Started
Recommended gameplay-mods for this challenge:
Ani’s Woodcutter’s Tree, SimsMX Autosoils, Icarus_allsorts Transmogrifier (to disguise functional items), Archery Station (Store+add-on), Bohemian Fruits (Store), Nraas Mods (Mastercontroller, Storyprogression, PortraitPanel, DebugEnabler, Register, Retuner)
World Adventures and Ambitions are essential EPs for this challenge.
(And then of course all those mods and custom items that make the game more historical-looking generally, or disguise modern appliances)

Ideally start in an empty world with a good amount of spawners. Roadless- and non-readless worlds both have their advantages and drawbacks. If there are lots already placed, keep the lots (because you may not be able to place them again in game), but bulldoze any buildings.

Forests: Prepare some forest lots with a number of Ani’s Woodcutter Tree spawners and some Woodcutter’s trees already grown. I'd recommend 1 to maximum 4 tree-spawners per lot, for density/polygon count reasons.
Place sufficient autosoils for
- carrots (=”roots”)
- berries (alternatively grapes)
- mushrooms
- garlic
- onions
- herbs (from University Life or Supernatural)
Particularly useful herbs are: Basil, Ginseng, Lavender, Licorice, and Sweetgrass. (See herb-info here )
You may add more forest lots or plants later if they don’t yield enough to feed the town. It can be helpful to fence the plants in, so they won’t be eaten by wild animals. You can use invisible or nature-themed fencing and gates to make this less obvious. Also there should be a space with meat-producing autosoils (by SimsMX) or a grocery rabbithole rug, with a locked gate, to simulate hunting later.
If there’s no convenient fishing opportunity already in the world, you may also add a pond with a fish-spawner.

Stone&Iron: If you’re going to use the WorldAdventures rubble-heaps for stone-collecting, place a number of these on a public lot. You can use corner-heaps to create round piles of four, which will be helpful with keeping track of how many you’ve removed. Also place trash-piles from Ambitions, if you want to use those for iron-collecting. It’s possible to make WA rubble-heaps work as trash-piles, with the Transmogrifier mod, which looks more natural. The challenge can also played without these EPs by collecting spawned gems, iron and rocks, but in this case it may be necessary to add more spawners from buydebug so it won’t get too frustrating.

Settlement: The starting lot for settlement should be central and not too small. Place a travelling cart (for the right feeling), a treasure chest, some unobtrusive plumbing and at least one fire-pit. (To set up Nraas settings, place a computer in a cellar.) I also gave all settlers a sleeping-bag.
The starting lot will later become a marketplace. Smaller lots for housing should be nearby.

Sims to start with
Start out with four families, making up around 12 Sims in total. In the beginning they all live in one household on the big lot. Alternatively, for example if your computer can’t handle this, you can go for what’s called an Easy Start in Banished and place some houses before you start. In the beginning, the settlers all work together on gathering enough resources to build the necessary structures. Once the families start moving into separate households they’ll be made active rotationally. Especially at the beginning they should only be played for 1-2 days each, so there won’t be a shortage of whatever the other households are producing. Storyprogression must be on for the inactive households to age along. Set it up according to your town-story preferences.

I was asked on tumblr whether I could share my Storyprogression settings, which I did here.
In my game ageing is currently set to:
Baby 3 days, Toddler 7, Child 14, Teen 21, Young Adult 28, Adult 28, Elder 21.
Spring 3 days, Summer 4, Autumn 3, Winter 4
All these are just my personal preferences though!


Gathering
In the beginning the Settlers will mainly survive by harvesting from the forest lots and fishing. Later these jobs will go to the Gatherers, Hunters and Fishers, but more on that later.
- Wood collected from cutting trees can either be used as firewood or as building wood.
- If a Sim removes a rubble-pile, they’re assumed to have created one unit of stone.
(I set up house-costs to be multiples of four, so you can easily place the required number of corner-heaps and once they’re removed you know there’s enough stone for the house. You can also place the required stone piles on the lot you're going to build on, which makes it even easier to keep track.)
- Gems can be used as stone or as iron. If you're playing without WA, you'll need some source of stone. If you're using rubble-heaps, it may be more fun to count the gems as iron, to make collecting faster.
- One bit of metal, one spacerock or ten pieces of scrap metal count as one unit of iron. Scrap-metal can be directly used to complete the building if inventions are required. You can also use it up to train your Sim in inventing, even after the required inventions for the building are done. Also, if it says "two inventions" it's enough to invent one thing and then craft another of the same kind. You don't have to invent two new things.


Unlocking and Building New Lots
Basic structures such as housing, gathering- and production places don’t require special unlocking, apart from providing the building material. In the chart are unlocking requirements, building costs and requirements to complete the building process. All relevant lots have a treasure chest placed on them. The central lot has the town inventory with food from which everyone gets what they need. In order to build on another lot, sufficient building materials must be placed in the lot’s chest first. Once the material is complete, you can build an unfinished looking structure on the lot. It may even be inhabitable a bit, for example if you upgrade a wooden house to a stone-house. Also place a sculpting station and (where required) an inventing bench and an easel. Before you’re allowed to build the proper building, your settlers must craft the required number of items on the construction site. You can sell those or keep them to decorate the finished house. I find it easiest to flag the construction-site as a public lot (making any necessary changes with “testingcheatsenabled true” and shift-clicking on the lot to enter buymode there). When the building process is complete, I flag it as a residential lot, move in the family and finish the build with their funds. The building material must be removed from the lot-chest and sold, but you may wait until the family is moved in and use the money for furnishing.
To be allowed to start saving for the more advanced buildings, at least one Sim in the settlement must meet the unlocking requirements.

BuildingUnlocking RequirementsMaterials (wood/stone/iron)Building ProcessNotes
House Woodnone16 / 8 / 02 clay sculpturesnot too big (10x10 footprint); can be upgraded to a stone house
House Stoneat least 1 wooden house24 / 16 / 104 wood sculptures 2 inventions16 wood, 12 stone, if you upgrade a wooden house. In this case, construction-site may be inhabitable; may have upgraded fireplace
Boarding Houseat least 1 normal house; homeless settlers40 / 32 / 108 wood sculptures 4 inventionsCan be set up as an apartment (if you figure out how to :p). Rooms should have a temporary feeling to them
Storage Barnall Sims moved away from starting lot /into own houses25 / 16 / 04 clay/wood sculpturesCan be on Market lot.
Market4+ houses35 / 24 / 205 clay/wood sculptures 2 inventionsGathering place. Can have simple enjoyments like a swing. Could be set up as a festival ground, but in this case don't combine it with the storage barn!
Trading Post4+ houses35 / 28 / 203 clay sculptures 2 wood sculptures 2 inventionsFor Banished-purists it should be a landing-place on the shore But can also be on dry land really. Has a grocery rabbithole-rug, which is only used in special circumstances.
School20+ inhabitants 4+ children*40 / 16 / 166 wood sculptures 4 inventionsRabbithole(rug), unlocks teacher career for 1 Sim
Hospital15+ inhabitants 2+ births*40 / 32 / 322 wood sculptures 2 stone sculptures 6 inventionsRabbithole(rug), unlocks medical career for 1 Sim
Chapel20+ inhabitants 5+ charisma skill*50 / 40 / 308 stone sculptures 4 paintingsNo definite rules about how to set up and play this lot.
Cemeteryboth founders died* (couple from original group of settlers)1 (per unit)1 stone sculpture per 10x10 squareLot flagged as a cemetery. Can have a mausoleum. Gravestones go there. Unlocks grave-yard keeper career if you want
Pasturecows, sheep, (chicken) horses1 (per unit)1 wood sculptureCan also be on a farmer's homelot
Fishing Docknone16 / 8 / 02 clay/wood sculpturesShore-lot with pier, shelter and good fish-spawners
Hunting/Gathering/Forester Hutnone12 / 4 / 02 clay/wood sculpturesBuilt on the collection site. Provides shelter.
Herbalistnone16 / 12 / 04 wood sculpturesCan be an alchemy shop
Blacksmith Workshop(2+ handiness skill*)20 / 24 / 322 wood/stone sculptures 4 inventionsCrafting stations; can also be a consignment store
Tailor2+ painting skill Sheep30 / 20 / 162 wood/stone sculptures 2 inventionsCan be a stylist salon, if you want to play it that way.
Tavern6+ houses30 / 24 / 201 wood sculpture 3 stone sculptures 3 inventionsLot flagged as pub or similar. May also be run with an NPC barkeeper.
Minemining machine has been invented40 / 36 / 04 stone sculptures 4 inventionsIdeally underground. Must have mining machine.
Quarrynone40 / 0 / 404 wood sculpturesNo big difference from stone-collecting-lot, but may have shelter and workplace conveniences
Town Hall20+ inhabitants 5+ charisma skill*50 / 40 / 483 wood sculptures 3 stone sculptures 2 inventions 2 paintingsRabbithole(rug); unlocks politics career for 1 Sim.

* from Through the Times Challenge by Inubasket @MTS



Everyday Life
Every home must have a fireplace. During spring, autumn and winter, this fireplace must be lit at least once a day, which will require one unit of wood (literally, thanks to Ani’s mod!). Fridges and stoves are allowed, but you’re not allowed to upgrade anything to be unbreakable. Stone-houses may have an upgraded (fireproof) fireplace. Electronics are allowed as long as they come in historical disguises.
Easier variation: Every household is allowed to grow two potted plants for food. These must be grown from found seed or fruits, not bought as autosoils.
Advanced: In Banished, housing conventions are rather strict. In a wooden home, couples can only get up to two children, in a stone-house three. Grown up children can marry and move out, but only if an empty house is available. Otherwise they can still be in a relationship, but have to stay with their parents and usually don’t have children of their own. For an extra challenge you can apply these rules to your Sims settlement as well.

Like in Banished, the townspeople will work in several professions to keep the settlement alive. However, settlers also shift between the professions a lot. Especially in food-gathering everyone can participate if needed. To be on the safe side, it may be a good idea to make your Sims technically self-employed to be sure the game doesn’t distribute them to the rabbithole-careers.
- Fisherman/woman: Spends their days angling. This can be done at suitable places all over in the world, or you can build a fishing dock. This lot may have fish-spawners of your choosing. They can build a boat to reach better angling places (Similar to house-building, this costs them 4 wood, 1 wooden sculpture).
- Gatherer/Herbalist/Hunter: Collects food from the forest lot(s). In Banished these are three separate professions, but for Sims they work better combined. You can also bring bee-keeping and alchemy into the mix. For hunting, place an archery range (or alternatively a darts-board ). Once the hunter achieves a good result at this, they’re allowed access to the forest’s meat-plant(s) for the day. The same applies if they manage to get close enough to a deer to stroke it. (Variation: Sadly there's no 'natural' way to acquire turkeys and sausages. But if you have a grocery-rabbitrug in town, Sims who caught a wild bird may sell the bird and buy a turkey. Also you can chose to buy sausages instead of harvesting steaks.)
- Farmer/Herds(wo)man: Once the town has purchased seeds, lots can be dedicated to farming. Don’t forget to fence them in and lock the gate against wild animals! The farmer collects food from these lots and tends to the livestock on pastures. Farmland may also be on the farmer’s homelot.
- Blacksmith/Builder: Crafts items with the game’s various crafting stations. If there’s a construction in progress, they’ll do the work there (although anybody may help). Later in game they can for example cut gems, to make them worth more in trade with the merchant (or for decoration). With the Store’s glassblowing station, they can also melt metal into bars or produce luxury goods. Also Ani has a very promising sounding anvil-mod.
- Miner/Stonecutter: Specializes in gathering stone and iron for the builders and blacksmith. Once a mining machine has been invented in town, you can build them an actual underground mine where they can work.
- Tailor: Unlocked once the town has sheep. Draws clothing at the sketching desk. If this isn’t too much hassle to you, they may work in the stylist career or run a clothes shop. I know there are mods for this, but I never worked out how exactly to set them up.
- Teacher: Rabbithole career in the schoolhouse.
- Physician: Medical career in the hospital. Should occasionally hold public events, if Ambition is installed (you can trigger them with “testingcheats”+shift-click on a public lot, I think).
- Major/Priest: Once a townhall is built, the Sim who unlocked it with their charisma skill may pursue the politician career. A priest is optional, because there’s no direct Sims equivalent and I don’t want to dictate people whether or how to incorporate religion in their gameplay. Priests might for example give speeches at the chapel, walk around and do good or go to work in a rabbithole, but really it’s up to you.
- Brewer: Makes nectar from fruits they got off the town inventory. May also run a public-house, or you can set up an NPC tavern for your town.
- Pets: The townspeople can purchase cats, dogs or horses from the merchant. Try to feed them with self-made petfood as much as possible. They may in turn learn to hunt and help gathering resources.

Randomized Events

Merchant
Once a trading post is built, a merchant will arrive once a week (alternative: after each rotation-round). Anything you want to trade in from the town-inventory is placed in the trading-post inventory, and at the end of the week you estimate what it’s worth in goods. (Coming up with a proper calculation of values was too complicated for me!)
The chart below is about what the merchant will have on offer. First roll a six-side dice to determine the general category, then a six- or a twelve-side dice to decide which items are on sale (if the number is not in the chart, roll again).
(Note: I picked a twelve-side dice because I actually own one, but of course a random generator will work just as well)

- In the livestock category, there will either be the opportunity to adopt a playable pet, or to buy a chicken-coop, a cowshed or sheep. (Sheep are decorative items who don’t do anything but to unlock the tailor (dl here and here)
- If the merchant sells food, a representative of the town will have one-time access to a grocery rabbithole(rug) and place the purchased food in the town inventory. Remember you have to trade in goods of roughly the same value as a payment!
- Similarly, if it’s general goods, this gives access to the bookstore (or possibly another shopping opportunity from the game). If a 6 is rolled, you either get to pick whatever merchant you need, or a number of Nomads arrive in the town. For the Banished players: Nomads only require a trading post to arrive!
- The items listed under Seeds are only a suggestion. You can exchange them with other harvestables you have installed. Similarly, once a seed is purchased you can replace it with another that hadn’t been listed yet.
- For Material purchases, you can buy Ani’s wood from the catalogue (under ‘trees’). For Stone, buy decorative objects to remind you how many units you’ve got. Metal can be bought from an inventing table.

1. Livestock: 1=Cows; 2=Sheep, 3=Chicken; 4=Horses; 5=Dogs; 6=Cats
2. Food: One-time access to grocery
3. Seed: 1=Pepper; 2=Tomato; 3=Grapes; 4=Melons; 5=Potatoes; 6=Apples; 7=Limes; 8=Salad; 9=Pumpkin; 10=Pear (Store); 11=Pecan (Store); 12=Corn (Store) [or fill in what you have installed]
4. Materials: 1-2 Stone; 3-4 Metal; 5-6 Wood
5. General: Access to bookstore
6. Either pick whatever merchant you need, or: Nomads arrive: 1-6 = Number of Nomads

Disasters
After each week, there is also a disaster-roll for the next week:
First determine the day of the disaster. You can leave further rolls until then or determine the details straight away. Roll whether disaster strikes at all, with the 12-side dice. On 1-10 nothing happens, on 11-12 a disaster is chosen with the 6-side dice. You can of course tweak the chances
Workplace-death in Banished means that a citizen dies due to an accident at work. This again leads to a 12-side-dice roll to determine from which profession an unlucky Sim will die. The distribution is to reflect that some jobs are more dangerous than others, even in Banished. If needed, also randomize which of the Sims working in a profession will be the victim.

Disaster when: 1 Monday, 2 Tuesday, 3 Wednesday, 4 Thursday, 5 Friday, 6 Saturday, (Sunday is disaster-free)
Disaster Yes/No: 1-10 Nothing happens; 11-12 Disaster strikes
Which disaster: 1-2 Workplace death; 3-4 Fire / Hurricane; 5-6 Infestation
Workplace death: 1 Gatherer/Vendor; 2 Fisher; 3 Builder; 4 Herdsman; 5-6 Hunter; 6-9 Miner; 8-12 Stonecutter
(Note: I'm aware this doesn't work properly with settlers shifting between occupations. You can also just pick an inhabitant randomly.)

Fire as a disaster destroys one house (or more if you let it spread...). If you're playing with non-upgraded fireplaces, actual fires in game will most likely be rather frequent, but in my game I'm not counting "routine-fires" as disasters as they're usually put out rather quickly.
For hurricane, I’m thinking about drawing a random line across a screenshot of the map, and destroy whatever buildings (and Sims?) are hit. Infestation destroys a pasture or a field.

If a Sim gives birth or catches cold in winter, a simple 12-side dice-roll determines whether they make it through. Having herbs in inventory, or a hospital in town increases the chances of recovery. (Note: The Nraas Vector mod adds more realistic diseases to the game of you want to play with those)

Birth: 6 out of 12 chance of death without herbs in inventory; 3/12 chance of death with herbs, but without hospital; 1/12 with hospital
Optional: 1/12 chance of death by cold (or even guaranteed healing) if the cold is cured with a ginseng broth from the modded canning station

End of the Challenge
Obviously the challenge ends immediately if you should manage to have your settlement die out . In general, there isn’t any definite goal for this challenge. But I’d say at latest when you’ve completed all the Banished-inspired stuff you’re free to call it finished or set yourself a new goal for your growing community.

(A little self-promotion: I'm playing the challenge on my Simblr; this is usually where I first post about adjustments to the rules. I also made an extra tag for technical questions about the BBaCC.)
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Test Subject
#2 Old 19th Dec 2018 at 2:59 PM Last edited by Yuiri : 6th Jan 2020 at 1:41 PM.
I will definitely try this out during the holidays! It's beyond detailed, which I really appreciate ❤️

I could imagine that the Transmogrifier would also be extremely useful for "activating" different animals; apart from having sheep for decoration and unlocking purposes only, one could try and turn them into a cheese plant. Or other decor animals like pigs & cows could be turned into meat resources; meat and burger patty/cheese plants respectively (if people don't have the Cow corral from the store). The same goes for your lovely hen mod, if the chicken coop is not installed The possibilities are almost endless!

The kids of tommorrow don't need today,
when they live in the sins of yesterday...
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#3 Old 19th Dec 2018 at 7:19 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Yuiri
I will definitely try this out during the holidays! It's beyond detailed, which I really appreciate ❤️

I could imagine that the Transmogrifier would also be extremely useful for "activating" different animals; apart from having sheep for decoration and unlocking purposes only, one could try and turn them into a cheese plant. Or other decor animals like pigs & cows could be turned into meat resources; meat and burger patty/cheese plants respectively (if people don't have the Cow corral from the store). The same goes for your lovely hen mod, if the chicken coop is not installed 😉 The possibilities are almost endless!


That's very true! I made a great effort not to go into the technical tweaks too much - the text was so long already - but the possibilities truly are endless! I only wish SimsMX had made autosoil scripts for all types of ingame meat! These are needed for tricks like the hen-mod.
And I'd love to see you give this challenge a try!
Field Researcher
#4 Old 2nd Jan 2019 at 2:58 AM
I like the idea of this challenge a lot, even if I can't start a new one right now.
Also about the in-game sickness, Butterbot's overhaul of the canning station can produce double-boiled ginseng broth which heals the germy moodlet. So it could be a part of the apothecary, or even the general store and you can use it to curb sickness, especially if you're playing with some kind of epidemic modifier. It can also make rations out of any dish in the game (including some CC and many store items) which is storable food for later. I was able to beta test it a while back and it's a solid mod with good coding. You can also make and sell CAStable candles which is not only a great business for this kind of challenge, you can use them to eliminate the need for indoor electricity. Depends on how early in the challenge you'd want to unlock it though.

The sheep as meat is a great idea, as well as the use of the archery station to facilitate that.

I'd want a world without roads for this challenge I think, and then I could set up horse-riding skill as a way to unlock a mail system (pony post), inns, or even a travelling medical or apothecary type person to bring life saving medicines to other communities.
Great challenge idea. Wish I could play more :p. I'd love to see people's pics.

Bread edges.... are the new white meat.
READ the Sparrows Random Legacy Challenge Blog
READ the Sparrows WISHACY Challenge Blog
WATCH the Test of Time Challenge Let's Play! Videos
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#5 Old 2nd Jan 2019 at 2:36 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Frogsnack
I like the idea of this challenge a lot, even if I can't start a new one right now.
Also about the in-game sickness, Butterbot's overhaul of the canning station can produce double-boiled ginseng broth which heals the germy moodlet. So it could be a part of the apothecary, or even the general store and you can use it to curb sickness, especially if you're playing with some kind of epidemic modifier. It can also make rations out of any dish in the game (including some CC and many store items) which is storable food for later. I was able to beta test it a while back and it's a solid mod with good coding. You can also make and sell CAStable candles which is not only a great business for this kind of challenge, you can use them to eliminate the need for indoor electricity. Depends on how early in the challenge you'd want to unlock it though.

The sheep as meat is a great idea, as well as the use of the archery station to facilitate that.

I'd want a world without roads for this challenge I think, and then I could set up horse-riding skill as a way to unlock a mail system (pony post), inns, or even a travelling medical or apothecary type person to bring life saving medicines to other communities.
Great challenge idea. Wish I could play more :p. I'd love to see people's pics.


I LOVE the idea about the pony-post!! I think I'll incorporate that into my own BBaCC save!
The canning-station overhaul is fantastic! I've been using it for historical gameplay for a while now - I even made an invisible canning station station to use it with normal stoves. I haven't really thought about when and how to obtain bees... There's another great object if they should life freely in the forest, otherwise, I guess the merchant could offer beehives as well
Field Researcher
#6 Old 3rd Jan 2019 at 2:16 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Danjaley
I LOVE the idea about the pony-post!! I think I'll incorporate that into my own BBaCC save!
The canning-station overhaul is fantastic! I've been using it for historical gameplay for a while now - I even made an invisible canning station station to use it with normal stoves. I haven't really thought about when and how to obtain bees... There's another great object if they should life freely in the forest, otherwise, I guess the merchant could offer beehives as well

Right! Can't take credit for the pony post, our original mail system in the US was called the pony express, and spare horses were kept at post stations which evolved into taverns with inns.
I'd forgotten about this item, but I've never downloaded it, so if you're a purist you could toss one or two of these into a denser forest to unlock the hive. You could even set a standard of animal friendship for it, assuming that some outdoorssim eventually observed bears eating honey.

Bread edges.... are the new white meat.
READ the Sparrows Random Legacy Challenge Blog
READ the Sparrows WISHACY Challenge Blog
WATCH the Test of Time Challenge Let's Play! Videos
Test Subject
#7 Old 20th Jan 2019 at 10:00 PM
Ohhh I love this! I played Banished so many times! I have too many challenges right now but I think I'm going to try to do this in a casual game. This is perfect as a base for some BACC or something similar.
Test Subject
#8 Old 12th Oct 2019 at 2:41 PM
I'm doing this in my simblr. If someone is interested to read from the beginning a leave a link A New Dawn BACC
Screenshots
Test Subject
#9 Old 24th Jul 2020 at 3:15 PM Last edited by mammut : 4th Aug 2020 at 11:33 AM.
Thank you for your wonderful idea of playing,Danjaley, and for the matching story on your simblr (I've just read the first chapters) - I love it ♥
This is the first time I'm playing with Mastercontroller - what a challenge - I still have to learn how to use it!
I'm just wondering how to let my poor sims die if the dice lets them loose, is there a mostly human way to get rid of them (don't want to wall them in a pool)? And theses rubble piles (in debug) from Adventure, I do have to place them again after my sims having removed them, right?

So, this is just the start of my challenge - it's in German as my English is not so eloquent as it should be - sorry...


Come and visit Blackys Sims Zoo
Field Researcher
#10 Old 26th Nov 2020 at 8:46 PM
This challenge is so much fun!!

The world I’m using is Côtes d'Ambonnay. I didn’t bulldoze all the buildings because a) I usually stink at building, and b) it came with absolutely beautiful lots (although there are some fences along the lot borders, routing difficulty at the beach, etc.), so I removed all the rabbit holes and changed the lot assignments to “no visitors allowed”. Even so, I still find sims ending up in the buildings (what are you people doing in the firehouse?! There’s exercise equipment on the market lot! ), so I’ll have to start locking doors, I guess.

I decided I’ll have to unlock some of the lots before I start using them. For example, there’s a lake with a bridge and a tiny building, so I’m gathering wood and a little stone before my sims can use it.
One lot I have built, though, is a “laundromat” inspired by the washhouses in Sandy Valley and Vintage Champs les Sims. I’m still testing it out, but all that’s there now is a semi-enclosed building over a tiny pond with 3 washing machines, recolored in wood, and two clotheslines.

The houses are really nice, and I can’t bring myself to really mess with them, so until I’d upgrade it to a stone house, I’d keep sims from going into the basement and they weren’t allowed to have a real stove; just a grill.

I also decided for my own game that sims couldn’t own or use rowboats until I unlocked the dock (which just happened, yay!!). I’m also using Cinderellimouse's version of the Cooking and Ingredients Overhaul along with SimsMatthew’s Unused EA Meshes as Custom Food (forest berry salad is so perfect!), so if a sim catches a large bird they sell it and buy a turkey, but if it’s a small bird they sell it and buy a chicken breast.

A couple houses that came with it gave me some more ideas: The Cheesemaker’s House and Le Boulanger. With my cheesemaker sim, I’m buying her autosoils until she gets the opportunity that’ll allow her to plant them herself. I’ve given her one of Ani's market stalls to sell them with. So far, so good!

I’m still trying to figure out how to play my baker…. I had her bake several servings of country bread and gave her a market stall too, but all the inactive sims who bought it let it go bad in their inventories. There’s an “unspoil” option, but maybe it only works when the food is in the stand’s inventory? I might have my baker learn to grow the Omni Plant and have her grow the bread ingredient that comes with the Cooking and Ingredients Overhaul. I also might see how it works if she makes rations with the Canning Station Overhaul.

Hey- if you said something to me in a post and I didn't write back, I'm sorry. Sometimes I don't feel good enough to post and by the time I'm able to the thread's old enough that I feel kind of weird about bumping it just to post one or two sentences. So please don't take it personally! :)
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#11 Old 26th Nov 2020 at 9:00 PM
Hi Macaroodle! These are some great takes on the challenge, and I feel really touched and flattered that you're going into such detail organizing your villagers' tasks. I love the idea of the laudromat! I used to have one in my Victorian save, as a public washing area. Also I love Côtes d'Ambonnay; I've used it as a storytelling location from time to time. All this makes me really miss my own Banished Save - it's still there and everything, but I've been so busy this year, in real life, that I keep forgetting where I was with everything in this save.

Quote: Originally posted by Macaroodle
This challenge is so much fun!!

The world I’m using is Côtes d'Ambonnay. I didn’t bulldoze all the buildings because a) I usually stink at building, and b) it came with absolutely beautiful lots (although there are some fences along the lot borders, routing difficulty at the beach, etc.), so I removed all the rabbit holes and changed the lot assignments to “no visitors allowed”. Even so, I still find sims ending up in the buildings (what are you people doing in the firehouse?! There’s exercise equipment on the market lot! ), so I’ll have to start locking doors, I guess.

I decided I’ll have to unlock some of the lots before I start using them. For example, there’s a lake with a bridge and a tiny building, so I’m gathering wood and a little stone before my sims can use it.
One lot I have built, though, is a “laundromat” inspired by the washhouses in Sandy Valley and Vintage Champs les Sims. I’m still testing it out, but all that’s there now is a semi-enclosed building over a tiny pond with 3 washing machines, recolored in wood, and two clotheslines.

The houses are really nice, and I can’t bring myself to really mess with them, so until I’d upgrade it to a stone house, I’d keep sims from going into the basement and they weren’t allowed to have a real stove; just a grill.

I also decided for my own game that sims couldn’t own or use rowboats until I unlocked the dock (which just happened, yay!!). I’m also using Cinderellimouse's version of the Cooking and Ingredients Overhaul along with SimsMatthew’s Unused EA Meshes as Custom Food (forest berry salad is so perfect!), so if a sim catches a large bird they sell it and buy a turkey, but if it’s a small bird they sell it and buy a chicken breast.

A couple houses that came with it gave me some more ideas: The Cheesemaker’s House and Le Boulanger. With my cheesemaker sim, I’m buying her autosoils until she gets the opportunity that’ll allow her to plant them herself. I’ve given her one of Ani's market stalls to sell them with. So far, so good!

I’m still trying to figure out how to play my baker…. I had her bake several servings of country bread and gave her a market stall too, but all the inactive sims who bought it let it go bad in their inventories. There’s an “unspoil” option, but maybe it only works when the food is in the stand’s inventory? I might have my baker learn to grow the Omni Plant and have her grow the bread ingredient that comes with the Cooking and Ingredients Overhaul. I also might see how it works if she makes rations with the Canning Station Overhaul.
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