#bacc rules

Starting Out

Start with however many played sims you want. I’m personally starting with 15 sims and here’s why.

It’s a lot more than most simmers have started with in the past, but since I don’t allow unplayed townies in my game I thought having a nice gene pool early on would help me immensely down the line. I also figured it’d keep me from getting bored if I have a lot of different households to play through, each with their own storylines and dynamics.

Another option is to roll a 12-sided dice to figure out how many sims will be moving into your ‘hood. Divide them into houses or put them all together on one lot. It’s up to you.

Please remember, in my version of the BACC, townies/unplayed sims are not allowed. All of my sims will be played rotationally.

Service sims such as maids, police officers, firefighters and delivery sims can become playable upon moving into a played household — either as roommates or romantic partners. 

Roll a 10-sided dice to figure out how many simoleons your household(s) will be beginning with. Everyone gets the original 20,000 simoleons and up to 10,000 simoleons extra depending on the # rolled.

Once you’ve set up the financial situation, you are allowed to build your initial house(s) with the basic necessities. I choose to begin my ‘hood with electricity.

A phone.

A refrigerator, counters and stove. 

A toilet, sink, shower/bathtub. 

Enough beds for all sims in the household.

A couch, a bookcase, a TV and a hobby item or two.

Once you’ve built your original house(s) you will no longer be allowed to go into the build catalog on residential lots — at least not until your sims have access to computers. There’ll be more info on computers later.

Careers

I will be maxing the # of positions in a career at 10. The odds of me actually getting to the point in the challenge where I have 10 sims in a single career are pretty slim, but it’s better to establish rules right away — just in case!

If careers have a * next to them, it indicates my custom careers. 

Adventure: The first position is unlocked when a sim-owned museum opens up in the 'hood. New positions open up every time sims discover a treasure chest while digging.

Architecture: A position opens up each time there is a multiple of 10 business lots in the 'hood.

Artist: A position is opened every time a sim maxes the creativity skill.

Athletic: The career is unlocked for one sim once there is a player-owned sports-themed community lot in place. A subsequent position opens up each time a sim maxes the body skill.

Bartender*:  A new spot opens every time there's a new bar in the ‘hood.

Business: A new position opens up every time a player-owned business of any kind reaches rank 5.

Cleaning*: A new spot opens up every time a sim maxes the cleaning skill.

Criminal: A new position opens up every 5th burglary or every 5th charlatan pickpocket.

Culinary: For every 1 café or restaurant in the 'hood, 1 position is made available. Pick between culinary and pizza delivery, you can’t unlock both!

Dance: The first position opens when a player-owned dance studio or nightclub reaches Rank 5. Subsequent positions open up every time a sim maxes enthusiasm in Music & Dance.

Education: A position in the career opens up every 10th child that is born in the 'hood.

Entertainment: A position opens up every time a sim maxes the charisma skill.

Exterminator*: A new spot opens every time 5 sims get the flu from cockroaches.

Firefighter*:  The first spot opens up after 3 fires. After that, a new spot opens every time a sim dies in a fire.

Gamer: A position opens up every time a sim maxes enthusiasm in Games.

Intelligence: A position opens in the Intelligence career whenever a sim reaches the top of the Military, Criminal, or Science career.

Journalism: A position opens up every time a sim maxes enthusiasm in Film & Literature.

Law: A position opens up every time an even numbered position is opened up in the law enforcement career.

Law Enforcement: A position opens up with every even number of criminal positions, so there should a 1:2 ratio of cops to criminals.

Medicine: The career opens up once 5 sims have gotten an illness. Subsequent positions open up every time the population reaches an increment of 50. (50, 100, 150, etc.)

Military: The first position opens up when a sim maxes enthusiasm in fitness AND science. New positions open up every time a sim reaches rank 5 of the military career.

Music: The career opens up when a music store opens in town. New positions open up every time a sim maxes enthusiasm in Music & Dance.

Natural Science: A position opens up whenever a sim earns a golden garden badge.

Oceanography: A position opens up whenever a sim earns a golden fishing badge.

Paranormal: The career opens when there is a community cemetery lot with at least two graves in it. A new position opens up every 10 graves.

Pizza Delivery*:  A spot opens up every time a restaurant opens in the ‘hood. Pick between culinary and pizza delivery, you can’t unlock both!

Politics: A position is available when the 'hood is founded. Only one opening available at a time. Elections are held upon the current Mayor’s passing.

Repairman*: A new spot opens every time a sim gets maximum enthusiasm in tinkering.

Science: The career is unlocked when a sim maxes out their logic skill and their science hobby enthusiasm. A new position is unlocked whenever the logic skill is maxed.

Slacker: A position is opened with every 5th sim-owned business in town.

Show Business: A position is unlocked whenever a sim maxes the slacker or entertainment careers.

Social Worker*: A spot is unlocked every 3rd child that gets adopted into the 'hood

Please use your own discretion when giving your sims jobs. If you’re focusing on telling a story, you might want to go for realism and refrain from using careers that wouldn’t be feasible in such a small ‘hood. If you don’t care and just want to give your sims whatever pops up in the newspaper… then feel free to do that. If you want to lock careers altogether and use my rules, you can do that as well.

Services

Adoption: 10 babies must be born in the ‘hood. 

Animal Control: The Law Enforcement Career must be unlocked.

Bartender: There must be a bar in the ‘hood.

Butler: A fortune sim must complete their lifetime want.

Caterer: There must be a restaurant in the ‘hood.

DJ: There must be a nightclub in the ‘hood.

Exterminator: A sim must get the flu from cockroaches.

Gardener: A sim must get a gold talent badge in gardening.

Grocery Delivery: There must be a grocery store in the ‘hood.

Maid: A sim must max out the cleaning skill.

Matchmaking Service: A romance sim must complete their lifetime want.

Nanny/Babysitter: The Education Career must be unlocked.

Obedience Trainer: There must be a pet shop in the ‘hood.

Pet Adoption: There must be a pet shop in the ‘hood.

Pizza Delivery: There must be a restaurant in the ‘hood.

Repairman: A sim must get maximum enthusiasm in tinkering.

Businesses & Community Lots

Your entire ‘hood should be completely empty at the start of the challenge. You should only have your initial houses and a park (your only free community lot). Do not build businesses or community lots before playing through your first rotation.

The way you’ll be getting items from this point forward is through sim-owned businesses. If you want baby supplies or pet supplies, you’re going to need someone to open up a store that sells those things. If you want a bar in town, one of your sims will have to own it.

You cannot use buy mode on residential lots but you can build freely on community lots and owned businesses. You are only allowed to use build mode on residential lots once you’ve unlocked the architecture career. After that you can expand your home, paint the walls, add floors, do some landscaping, etc.

There are no limits to what types of businesses a sim can run or how many they can own at once. If they’ve got the simoleons to afford the lot and buy the merchandise, they’re free to do whatever they want. 

You can build community lots such as parks or beaches that aren’t owned by sims if you have the tax money to afford the construction. You can only create one public community lot per rotation (provided you have the tax money). A rotation is when you’ve played through all of your households once (usually for an entire season, which is 5 days). 

What qualifies as a public community lot?

Park

Beach

Graveyard

City Hall

Courthouse

Everything else should be owned by a playable sim.

Played Sims

Townies are not allowed in my version of the BACC. You can use mods to disable them or the visitor controller to keep NPCs and townies from your lots. An exception is made for service sims once they’ve been unlocked.

There are different ways to move in new playable sims. You can add a sim every time:

A new sim-owned business opens up in town

A new household gets added to the rotation (made up of existing playable sims).

A sim completes their aspiration

You desperately need new genetics in your ‘hood.

Until your population reaches 25 sims, these new playable sims will not get any simoleons when first moving into the ‘hood. It’s best to place them with an existing household. You can use the No20kHandouts mod or edit the family funds in SimPE or with Sim Blender.

Simoleons & Taxes

This section is optional and works best if you use a spreadsheet. 

Once your population has reached a total of 25 sims, you can begin to roll a 10-sided dice to see how many simoleons your new playable sims will get upon moving into the ‘hood, 1 being 1,000 simoleons and 10 being 10,000 simoleons.

Another way to do this is to give your new playable sims simoleons from the tax pool. In this case, you can give them however much you have available.  

Your Sims don’t have to pay taxes until you’ve got 10 total households and 3 local businesses in your ‘hood.

Once you’ve reached that point, each household will have to contribute financially to help with further ‘hood growth. The households must pay on the first day that they are played during each rotation. A % of their household funds is deducted and added to the community pool.

Sims must pay taxes...

10% of their household funds.

12% of their household funds if they are business owners.

7% of their household funds if the household consists only of retired sims.

5% if their household funds exceed 100,000 simoleons.

Sims may donate extra simoleons to the tax pool if they feel inclined.

Sims receive benefits only if they have under 1,000 simoleons...

Pregnant sims get 100 simoleons from the government if they are still pregnant on tax day.

Parents get 100 simoleons if they have between 1 and 4 underage (meaning baby, toddler, child or teen) children in the household.

Parents with 5+ underage children living in the household get 200 simoleons.

Unemployed sims get 100 simoleons if there are no employed sims in the household. Business owners do not count as unemployed.

If your sims have less than 100 simoleons (before receiving benefits) in their household funds, they are exempt from paying taxes that week.

Sims that do not pay their taxes (and have more than 100 simoleons) may be penalized however you see fit. You may send them to your prison lot if you have one in your ‘hood.

If you use Monique’s Hacked Computer (which I highly recommend) then household funds include simoleons that were put away through the online banking feature.

Computers

Once you’ve opened up an electronics store in your town, sims will finally have access to computers. These unlock a ton of new features for your sims to enjoy.

One of these perks is finally being able to use the buy catalog… but there are still limitations. These are put into place to encourage shopping in local businesses.

With computers, sims can now shop online… but delivery to such a remote ‘hood isn’t cheap. Sims are only allowed to purchase 3 items per household every rotation. Everything else you have to purchase locally. Whether or not there is a computer, sims cannot purchase an item from the build catalog if there isn’t a store in town selling those types of items already.

For example, you cannot shop for pet supplies online (in the buy catalog) if you don’t have a pet store established in the ‘hood.

Until there is a grocery store in town, sims will have to grow their own produce so that they can stock the fridge. There are no restrictions on garden plots. Sims can plant any seed they have access to. 

Sub-hoods

Each sub-hood will cost 500,000 simoleons in taxes. The adventure career must be unlocked before these become available.

University

A university sub-hood is available when a sim maxes the education career. 500,000 simoleons in taxes must also be donated for the cause. 

I’ll be honest with you, I don’t really play with university that much. I don’t know if I will be sending my sims there once I do unlock it... but we’ll keep the option available!

Other / Misc.

Fire Alarms are unlocked after 3 fires. Burglar alarms are unlocked after 3 burglaries.

Only one sim in the ‘hood is allowed to dig for treasure during an entire rotation. For example, if a sim from Household A dug for treasure during that rotation, then Household B and Household C cannot do it until the following rotation. So choose wisely!

Money Trees are only allowed for fortune sims OR sims with nature as their one true hobby. One money tree per sim. If a sim has the fortune aspiration and the nature hobby they get to have two.

The most important changes I’ve made are:

I allow CAS-sims to marry each other. I don’t use townies in my game (at least not now, at the beginning of the challenge). I also play with ACR to let the sims choose their partners themselves, so not allowing CAS-sims to marry would be impossible.

My goal is to play a semi-integrated hood. Meaning – maids won’t be unlocked until there’s an actual cleaning service company in town, and someone’s working there. There will be exceptions to this rule (which is why it’s semi-integrated). For example, there won’t be a playable babysitter or exterminator in the neighborhood. Instead of strictly following the population goals, I’ll unlock the services when it makes sense. Food services will be unlocked when there’s a corresponding restaurant for example. There will also be restrictions to the services. Butlers will only be used by the richest of the richest sims. Same with the gardener.

Smoke detectors are unlocked when there’s a fire department selling them (which also unlocks the ability to call the fire department). Fire extinguishers will also be sold and can’t be used until a sim actually owns one. The same goes for the burglar alarm, it’ll be unlocked when there’s a police station selling them.

Buy mode is locked until there’s a store selling the specific objects. Meaning –appliances can be bought from buy mode when there’s an appliance store, furniture when there’s a furniture store, and hobby items when there’s a hobby store. (I won’t do specific themed stores like a music store, painting store, and so on).

The store’s business rank also determents how expensive objects you can buy from buy mode. At level one, only the cheapest objects can be bought. If possible, buying the objects from the actual store is preferred, but obviously, they can’t hold every single object from buy mode.

School is unlocked when there’s a teacher in the neighborhood and enough funds to build a school. There might only be an elementary school in the neighborhood for a while. High school unlocks when there's enough funding for a second school. Private School has to be built as separate building too, and only rich families can send their kids there.

My goal is to build every building myself. And I really suck when it comes to building so… Good luck to me…

I might lower the cost of the university to §500000, or just unlock it whenever there are enough funds to build all the necessary buildings. Maybe the neighborhood can take out a loan to build the university at a proper time, and then charge the students to pay it off (and once the loan is paid in full uni is free to attend). I haven’t fully figured this one out yet. However, the population will matter either way. It makes no sense for a town of 10 sims to have its own university.

Traveling is unlocked when there are an airport and a travel agency selling tickets. I might “unlock” a few townies at this point too, to act as tourists.

Randomized lifetime wants actually matter… whatever they’re given by the game is their lifetime want. If they want to reach the top of a locked career, they have to do whatever they can to unlock it. If it’s impossible… Well, too bad for them. Life isn’t fair anyway :) The only exception I have is if too many sims end up with the same LTWs… Then I’ll randomize it again. I’ll never choose their LTW for them (I’m leaving some room for some exceptions though).

Also, I play wants-based (to an extent). It’s most important when it comes to the sim’s relationships. I let their wants (and fears) and their autonomous decisions decide who becomes friends, enemies, or lovers/partners. When it comes to work and skilling, I might make a few decisions for them here and there, otherwise, we’ll be stuck with no unlocked careers and only level-one businesses forever.

At the start of the game, all careers are locked… with the exception of one position in the political career, which is occupied by the chosen mayor (btw, if the mayor is fired because of a bad chance card, they’ll actually be fired, and a new mayor has to take their place).

How to unlock the rest of the careers:

(Just FYI. From here on, a lot of the text is copied from The Redmond Flats, with a few tweaks from me).

Adventure: The first position in this career opens when a museum community lot is placed in the main neighborhood. (Not in any sub-hoods that you've earned and attached.) It doesn't matter if the museum is player-owned or not. What matters is that it must be placed on the largest lot possible in your game. The career is unlocked for all Sims once the first Sim in the career reaches the top of the career track.

Architecture: The first position opens when there are 10 lots (residential or community) in the main neighborhood. Lots in sub-hoods don't count for this. It is always freely open to any Sim with an Art, Physics, or Mathematics degree. The career is never unlocked.

Artist: This career is only open to Sims with an Arts degree. There are no other restrictions, however. The career is never unlocked, but you can have as many Sims in the Artist career as you have Sims with Art degrees.

Athletics: This career is unlocked for all Sims once a player-owned sports-themed community lot is in place. The sport in question can be just about anything: Bowling, darts, ice/roller skating, basketball, soccer, mini-golf, or swimming. Whatever. There must be equipment available to participate in some sort of sport, though. You can't have just a "sports bar."

Business: A new position in this track opens every time a player-owned business of any kind reaches Rank 5. It is unlocked to everyone once someone becomes a Business Tycoon, the top of this track.

Criminal: Unlocks when there’s a police station and a prison in place in the hood. The only sims who can join the career are the ones who either have the LTW to become a criminal mastermind or the trait kleptomaniac. I haven’t downloaded any mod to make the trait functional, this way it still serves a purpose.

Culinary: The first position opens when there’s a restaurant in town. The career is unlocked when there’s a downtown.

Dance: The first position opens when a player-owned dance studio reaches Rank 5. When that first person reaches the top of the career, the career is unlocked for everyone.

Education: One position is opened when an elementary school building is in the hood. Then there’s one position for the high school and one for the private school. The career is unlocked when there’s a university attached (but only to those with an appropriate degree).

Entertainment:  Any Sim who has maxed their Charisma skill may enter this career. It is never unlocked.

Gamer: In order for a Sim to enter the Gamer career, they must personally own at least one of each of the following: an expensive computer, a video game console, a pinball machine, and an arcade game. There can be unlimited Gamers if you want, but each must personally own all of the above equipment. The career is never unlocked.

Intelligence: A position opens in the Intelligence career whenever a Sim reaches the top of the Military, Criminal, or Science career. The career is never unlocked.

Journalism: Any sim who has maxed the writing skill can join the career. The newspaper is unlocked with this career.

Law: The career is only open to Sims with a degree in Political Science, Business, Economics, or Psychology. It is never unlocked.

Law Enforcement: This career is never unlocked, but a position opens whenever one of the following happens:

A burglary Three Sim-started fires A playable Sim reaches the top of the Criminal career Also, there can only be one Police Chief and one Captain Hero at a time.

Medical: The first position opens when there’s a hospital. Once uni is unlocked the career is open to anyone with a degree in biology.

Military: The town must be connected to a downtown and there has to be a military base, built with tax funds. Only sims with at least 5 athletic skills can join. Only one sim can be general at any given time.

Music: The career is unlocked when a community lot including a stage and three musical instruments is placed. This lot does not have to be player-owned.

Natural Science: Open only to Sims with a degree in Biology or Mathematics. The career is never unlocked.

Oceanography: Open to any Sim with a gold fishing badge. The career is never unlocked.

Paranormal: One position opens when there’s a graveyard with 5 gravestones. Every time an occult sim (witch, alien, werewolf, zombie) moves in/sim gets turned an additional position opens.

Politics: The career is completely unlocked once the population reaches 1,000. However, there can only be one mayor at a time.

Science: Any Sim who maxes out both their Logic skill and their science hobby enthusiasm may enter the Science career. The career is always open to Sims with a degree in Biology, Mathematics, or Physics. The career is never unlocked.

Show Business: The career is open to any Sim with a degree in Political Science, Drama, Economics, or Literature, so long as there is already either a Prestidigitator (top of the Entertainment career) or Professional Party Guest (top of the Slacker career) residing in the city. The career is never unlocked.

Slacker: A position is opened whenever a "club" community lot is placed. It is unlocked once the city has a Downtown.

Careers for Pets:

Security: This is unlocked for all pets once there are 5 positions filled in Law Enforcement. Or it is always open to any pet owned by a Sim in Law Enforcement.

Service: Unlocked once the majority of phone services are opened.

Show Business: Open only to talented pets. Talented pets are those who have learned all their commands, except toilet training for cats.

Some other important information/rules:

Unlocking business districts:

You need:

5 player-owned businesses

1 Business Tycoon Sim

When you have 10 player-owned businesses and 2 Business Tycoon Sims you unlock a second business district, and so on. For every business district, you earn 5 CAS-sims.

Unlocking Downtown: Unlocks when the population reaches 25,000. You can only have one attached. It earns you 20 CAS-sims.

Calculating your population: The actual number of sims in the hood X your current multiplier = your population

The first multiplier is given for founding the town, so you start out with 1. Then you get:

+1 for the first community lot you place

+1 each time you reach a multiple of 5 community lots (So, you add one to your multiplier when you reach 5 community lots, then one when you reach 10, then 15, then 20, etc.)

+5 for adding a Downtown

+5 for each Business District

+5 for each University

Expanding your town: You expand your town by creating new households, which in turn earns you community lots, and the community lots earn you new Sims to create.

With every new community lot (player-owned or otherwise) you earn 1 CAS-sim, with every fourth new household you earn a community lot (children moving to their own place, or sims separating, counts as new households).

Have I forgotten something? Most definitely. I might also tweak the rules as I go. Any suggestions? Feel free to share :3

The Beginning

I will be starting out with 12 sims all of which will be played rotationally. Side note: townies and service sims are allowed in the hood but will not be allowed to become playable through marriage or moving in. All households start with the original 20,000 and upon moving in, I will roll a 10-sided die to determine how many additional simoleons will be added to their funds (1,000-10,000). With this new balance to work with, I will then build the initial houses and include the following in their homes:

a phone

a refrigerator, stove, and necessary countertops

a toilet, sink, and shower/bathtub

bed(s)

a couch, bookcase, and 1-2 hobby items

The build/buy catalog will then be closed until further progress has been made in the challenge (as described below).

Careers

The number of positions within a given career will be maxed out at 7.

Adventure: An initial position opens up once a sim-owned museum is established. Every 2 treasure chests discovered, a new position is unlocked. Architecture: A new position opens up every 5 established business lots. Artist: A position opens up every time a sim maxes the creativity skill or maxes enthusiasm in arts & crafts. Athletic: An initial position opens up after a sports-themed community lot is built. A new position opens up every time the body skill is maxed by a sim. Business: A new position opens up every time a sim-owned business reaches rank 5. Criminal: A new position opens up every 3rd burglary or 3rd charlatan pickpocket. Culinary: A position opens up for every sim-owned food-related business lot in the 'hood. Dance: A position opens up once a sim-owned dance studio or nightclub reaches rank 5. Subsequent positions open up every time a sim maxes enthusiasm in music & dance. Education: A position opens up every 6th child born in the 'hood. Entertainment: A position is unlocked every time a sim maxes the charisma skill. Gamer: A position is unlocked every time a sim maxes enthusiasm in games. Intelligence: A position opens up every time a sim reaches level 7+ in the Military, Criminal, or Science career. Journalism: A new position opens up every time a sim maxes enthusiasm in film & literature. Law: A new position opens up for every even numbered position opened up in the Law Enforcement career. Law Enforcement: A position opens up with every even number of Criminal positions open. Medicine: A position opens up once 5 sims have gotten an illness, subsequent positions open for every increment of 10 within the population. Military: The initial position opens up once a sim maxes enthusiasm in both fitness and science--a new position opens every time a sim reaches level 5 in the career. Music: The initial position opens up once a sim-owned music store has been established in the 'hood--a new position opens every time a sim maxes enthusiasm in music & dance. Natural Science: A position opens every time a sim earns a gold gardening badge. Oceanography: A position opens up every time a sim earns a gold fishing badge. Paranormal: The initial position opens once there is a community cemetery lot with at least two graves--a new position opens every 5 graves. Politics: The initial position is available at the start of the 'hood, this is the mayor. Once the mayor dies, a new sim is able to take over the position. Science: The initial position is unlocked after a sim maxes out both the logic skill and enthusiasm in science. A new position is unlocked after a sim maxes out the logic skill. Slacker: A position opens for every 3 sim-owned businesses in the 'hood. Show Business: A position unlocks after a sim has reached level 7+ in the slacker or entertainment career.

Services

Adoption: 6 babies must be born in the 'hood. Butler: A fortune sim must complete their lifetime want. Exterminator: 2+ sims must get the flu from cockroaches. Gardener: A sim must achieve a gold gardening talent badge. Grocery Delivery: A grocery store must be established in the 'hood. Maid: A sim must max the cleaning skill. Matchmaking Service: A romance sim must complete their lifetime want. Nanny/Babysitter: The Education career must be unlocked. Obedience Trainer: A pet store must be established in the 'hood. Pet Adoption: A pet store must be established in the 'hood. Food Delivery: A restaurant must be established in the 'hood. Repairman: A sim must max enthusiasm in tinkering or max the mechanical skill.

Businesses and Community Lots

In the beginning, the 'hood will be empty save for the initial houses and a free park community lot. Businesses and lots will not be built prior to the first rotation.

As stated previously, the build/buy catalog will not be available on residential lots, but can be used on business/community lots. Build mode will be unlocked after the Architecture career has been unlocked and a sim has filled the position.

A sim can own as many businesses as they want provided they have the simoleons to run them.

Community lots can be built once enough tax money has been raised to fund the construction-- the creation of a single community lot per rotation is allowed. *An entire rotation will be 5 days--the length of an in-game season.

Simoleons & Taxes

Sims pay taxes starting with the first rotation--taxes are taken out at the very beginning of each rotation.

Taxes:

- 10% of household funds. - 12% of household funds if they are business owners. - 7% of household funds if they are strictly retired sims. - no taxes if the household has below 500 simoleons.

Aid:

- 100 simoleons/day for pregnant sims if it is tax day. - Unemployed sims recieve 100 simoleons on tax day if there are no other employed sims in the household.

Computers

Computers will become available to purchase once an electronics store opens up within the 'hood. After a household has purchased a computer, they will gain access to the buy catalog, however, a sim must pay an additional cost (0.5x the cost of the item purchased, e.g. if an item originally cost 300, the sim will have to pay an additional 150 for a total of 450). In addition, a type of item from the buy catalogue will have to be sold elsewhere in the 'hood before a sim can purchase it from the catalog.

Sub-Hoods

A new sub-hood will cost 350,000 simoleons in tax revenue from the 'hood. Before a sub-hood can be added, the Adventure career must be unlocked.

A university sub-hood becomes available to add once a sim maxes the education career and 350,000 simoleons from the 'hood's tax revenue is used to fund its establishment.

Other

Fire Alarms and burglar alarms are unlocked after 3 fires and 3 burglaries respectively and must be sold on a business lot.

Only two households can attempt to dig for treasure every rotation.

Money trees are only allowed for fortune sims or sims with nature as their one true hobby. There is no limit to how many can be owned.

Starting Out: - Start with a new, empty neighborhood terrain. It may be a Maxis pre-made or custom, or you can download a custom Neighborhood from sites like MTS. - Create a random number of settlers (use the dice, random integrer or just decide by yourself from 1-6 families: either single sims or couples) to start populating your city. You can use any kind of sims, meaning that also downloaded sims are allowed. Or you can make your settlers yourself. Your settlers can look however you want them to look, so get creative! ;) Settlers can have any aspiration and personality you choose. - In order to make progress you'll need to have a mayor in your hood. This can be a CAS sim or a sim you've downloaded. The Mayor is there to collect taxes and optionally be also the banker of the city. Mayor can work at home or you can build a City Hall for them. - Adding CAS sims goes by the same rules as in the original challenge: from every owned business lot you'll get an option to add new CAS playable to your hood. - You must play each family the same amount of sim-days. It doesn't matter in what order you play them, but they must age in sync. Tip: To help keeping track of days, you can use synctimer hack from MATY (link at the end of this page) - Houses: You can build them yourself or use pre-build houses, no restrictions here :) Of course, building from scratch is always encouraged. - Community lots: Same as with residential lots. However, community lots must be owned by playable sims (with couple of exceptions,see below). So your sims may only visit owned community lots. Exceptions: You are free to add a un-owned grocery store or kiosk to your hood if you have a sim who runs a similar store. This is because the owner of grocery store can't buy groceries from their own store (stupid, I know!). This un-owned shop is only for that family, all other playables must buy their food from the owned business lot. The other exception is the Fire Station, more info in Career rules. - In the beginning you cannot use services by phone, with the exception of Pet Adoption Center and Taxi. So no pizza, chinese food, maids, repairmen, butlers etc. Using a nanny is only allowed if there's absolutely no other way of preventing kids from being taken by social worker. Also calling the Police or Fire Department are allowed only if you do one or both of the following actions: 1. Have a playable sim who sells fire or/and burgular alarms at their business (on a community lot, so you can take other playables there) 2. Build a community lot for the profession (Police Station and Fire Station, more about these community lots in Careers) Note: Alarms can only be bought from a playable business lot, not from the buymode! Townies: You can create custom townies in CAS, spawn them with testingcheats or add downloaded sims as townies. If you want to, you can also use Eaxis townies (known as the Pleasantview townies such as Benjamin Long, Goopy and the gang). Full freedom here too! ;) Careers: - No standard Eaxis careers! This means that your sims have to make money either by owning businesses, craft items, dig for treasure, grow products, fish, paint or have any other non-standard jobs. Use your imagination! :) You can also use few custom careers, which can be found at MTS (link below): stay-at-home parent and Base Game's NPC careers (such as a firefighter, police, social worker etc.). However, these are exceptions and can be used only according to these rules: 1. Stay-at-home parent career can be used at any time. It's especially helpful is your single sim gets pregnant and doesn't have their own business yet. 2. Base game's NPC careers can only be used, if you build a community lot for the career. For example, in order to have a sim working as a fire fighter you must build a Fire Station! The Fire Station doesn't have to be an owned community lot, but Police Station has to be either owned business or residential lot (that's the only way you can keep prisoners in your jail). There can only be 1 playable per NPC career. Tips about Police Station:

Build the Police Station with a jail by using Inge's prison hacks (link below). Make atleast couple of cells for burgulars and playables who refuce to follow the law. When you are playing the Police Station lot, you can sentence all the burgulars that got cought. Schools: - Each playable child and teen must go to public school. You must build a school house and make it as an business lot. To do this, use Inge's school hacks and objects (link below). You can be as creative as you want with the school, as long as you make sure there's a classroom for gradework, food and skilling objects...And don't forget the bathrooms! Public school is funded either by tax money or by a loan from the City Bank and by the Business Reward Grants. - Only kids from wealthy families can attend to Private School. Private school has to be an owned business lot, just like Public school. You can decide what kind of payments parents have to make for the Private School owner. - Adding University requires that your city can build one. Which leads us to the rules about... Funding subhoods and institutions: Subhoods: Adding subhoods requires tax funds. Here are an example of the amounts: University = 100 000§ Shopping District = 150 000§ Downtown = 200 000§ - You can add BV hoods at any time. Use Maxis pre-made's or create your own! - If you choose to use the Uni in Main hood-mods (links below), you can "spend" the 100 000§ by building/adding Uni community lots worth of 100 000§. - Community lots at campus don't have to be owned business lots, but if you have a sim who's willing to run a campus business (such as a café for YA's), you are free to try that. (currently in playtesting) Institutions (optional): Retirement Home = 50 000§ Orphanage = 30 000§ Teen Center = 35 000§ Orphanage (optional): The social worker at the Orphanage can be a playable or semi-playable (played only when needed) sim. You can build or download a house for this purpose. The Orphanage is funded by the City (=tax refunds and donations, plus a child bonus: 200 § / baby or toddler, 300 §/ child and 400 §/ teen). Payments will be send from the City funds once a week/round. The children coming to the orphanage can be added by spawning them with Tombstone of L&D. You can also set your own rules for playable sims giving babies up for adoption, if the pregnancies are unwanted (for example: if your sim doesn't roll a want to have a baby before they give birth, if the pregnancy is resulted by risky woohoo or alien abduction, or if a teen gets pregnant (Inteen). You will have to keep the Orphanage in sync with the rest of the families (play with it the same amount of days as rest of the households). Children aged up at the orphanage (teens-adults) may be turned into townies or you can make let them join the rest of the playables the same way as new CAS sims. If a playable sim or couple wants to adopt, you can invite or spawn them to the lot and let them interact with their potential child/children. When it's time to adopt, use Sim Blender (or similar hack object) to give the child up for adoption. Then make the parent/parents call to the adoption agency (by phone Services > Adoption Center) and the child they chose will come to the lot with a social worker. Your sim's want to adopt/have a child will be fulfilled and the child will get new family ties and the family last name. (Tip: use TwoJeff's Have/adopt child want fix -mod which lets your sims to fulfill their "Have a baby" want by adopting and "Adopt a baby" want by having a biological child) Teen Center (optional): Teen Center is an optional place for you to move in orphans, who have aged up to teens in the Orphanage. Teen sims can live there with the social worker, go to work after school and build their skills. The social worker has to be either adult or elder, made in CAS or moved in from a playable household. Teen Center is funded by the City (=tax refunds and donations, plus a teen bonus: 400 §/ teen). Payments will come from the City funds once a week/round. You will have to keep the Teen Center in sync with

The beginning.

This challenge takes place on an island or islands neighborhood, so create a new one using empty neighborhoods tamplates and mods like antiredundancy and no townie regen.

Now you need some Sims. Create as many as you want - I like to play with the fewest possible, becasue it makes things harder (well mostly gaining simoleons). Also your founder can live with a spouse, sibling or roommate. It’s not important.

I play my households for one season and then switch to another one, starting from founders cottage. This way it’s easier to remember when I should stop, pay taxes, etc.

Restrictions.

- no electronics, like tv’s, stereos, computers, alarms, etc. Only cheapest stoves and fridges are allowed. Your Sims can have cellphones, but only one cellphone per household and this thing I consider as walkie talkie or something like that.

- no running water, so this means no showers & sinks. Most preferably no toilets too. My sims can use baths and Port-a-potty before running water is unlocked.

Now I think that you can go even further and during the first seasons allow your Sims to sleep only in tents and don’t build them cottage at all. Or even you can change starting amount of money, so building them a house is impossible. But who would be this cruel? I dare you >:)

- no cars, services or delivery services.

- no hobby and community lots.

- no townies. So this means that future spouses must be found on University, Vacations or among the settlers/unlocked townies.

- no patterned wallpapers, carpets, shiny IKEA furniture AND new clothes.

Unlocking neighborhood add-ons.

Running water - at least one sim or two sims must have 6 mechanical points and 3 logic points. 10.000 $ must be paid from town funds. On every occupied lot must be placed at least one water collector.

Unlocks cheap toilets, sinks, showers, etc.

Basic electricity system - at least one or two sims must have 10 mechanical points & 6 logic points. 20.000 $ must be paid from town funds. On every occupied lot must be placed windmill. + 1 new townie.

Unlocks simple & cheap stereos, lamps, phones, cash registors, etc.

Basic airport - unlocked with basic electricity system. A small airline decided to take a risk and land on the island. They need a clean land and lots of fruit punch, so 50.000 $ must be paid from town funds.  + 1 new townie.

Unlocks non wood/stone wallpapers, furnitures, pets, etc.

Advanced electricity system & sewerage - available with basic airport. 50.000 $ must be paid from town funds for plans and skilled construction crew that will do all the dirty work. + 2 new townies.

Unlocks tv’s, computers, fancy lightning, stereos, toilets, showers, etc.

University - available with basic airport unlocked and every sim who wants to go on University must pay 10.000 $ from family funds.

Because this university is not owned by the town, you are allowed to create as many Young Adults, as you want/need.

Sims can build their own campus - 250.000$ must be substracted from town funds. With its built,  University is free.

Downtown - 500.000$ - big island with lots of space for future lots (15 or more). Unlocks 15 townies.

Shopping district - 250.000$ small island or islands, with less than 10 lots. Unlocks 5 townies.

Community lots - like parks, playgrounds, bars, etc. can be build by Sims with basic electricity system unlocked. Lot value must be substracted from town funds.

Vacations - unlocked with basic airport.

Clothes - basic clothing is unlocked with silver badge in Sewing (so its rather important to start working on this skill as soon as possible or your kids will be dressed in something game chooses ;) ). Basic means no H&M stuff or anything this fancy. This stuff unlocks with basic airport.

Careers.

For first two seasons Sims are not allowed to have a job (unless specified condition stated below occur). In third season they can start unlocked career, preferably only one Sim per household can go to work (to make things even harder).

In most careers level 6 is the highest, before University is unlocked. I recommend using Cyjon’s Job Stopinator.

Some careers need special buildings to be built for certain amount of Simoleons. It can be either hood decoration or community lot. See list below for more details.

High priority careers.

High priority jobs means that when the specified condition occur one of available Sims must take a job & from now on in neighborhood must be at least one Sim, that works in such occupation.

Medicine - available when first Sim got sick and will spread his/hers disease to at least one Sim. 6 level is top, with Uni (Biology major) - all levels are unlocked.

When Sim becomes General Practitioner (6 lvl)  he must build a Clinic.

Clinic - 15.000$, Hospital (available at 10 lvl) - 60.000$.

Law Enforcement - available when first robbery occur. 6 top, with Uni - all.

Building - 30.000 (standalone). Can be merged with town hall, office, court, etc.

Education - first spot available when at least one kid in neighborhood hits child stage. 6 - top, with Uni (any major) - all.

Simple playground (6 lvl) - 15.000$

School (10 lvl) - 60.000$.

Private school - available with airport built and every Sim must pay a fee of 2.000$.

Early openings:

Science - when first sim gets obducted by Aliens - first spot is ONLY available to Knowledge Sims. 6 top, with Uni (Physics/Biology/Mathematics major) - all. Available to Sims with predistined hobby in Science.

No special building needed, school will do.

Business - available to anyone when first player-controlled business hits rank 6. Only one slot per business. (so if in neighborhood there’re 2 player controlled businessess, 2 slots are available).

Military - available when at least 3 obductions occured and there was at least one robbery. 6 top, with Uni (History/Political Science) - all.

No special building needed, town hall or police station will do.

Natural Scientist - first spot available to a Knowledge Sim when at least one sim becomes a plantsim. 6 top, with Uni (Biology major) - all. Later it’s available to anyone with predistined hobby in Nature.

Paranormal - available when sim was scarred by a ghost at least 3 times. 6 top, 7 and rest available with police station built.

Law - one spot available when for the very first time one sim gets furious with another (but NOT with burglar). 7 top, with Uni (History/Political Science major) - all.

No special building needed, town hall will do.

Adventurer - available to one sim from a start, but 6 is top. When airport was built - all. Only one spot available.

Journalism - available to anyone when first robbery, fire, childbirth, death and obduction occur. Basic electricity must be unlocked.

Hobby/skill points limits:

Athletic - first spot available when first sim gets 6 points in sport and with predistined hobby in Sport or Fitness. Later available to anyone  with predistined hobby in Sport or Fitness.

Any sportground (can be merged with Gym).

Culinary - first spot available when first sim gets 6 points in cooking with predistined hobby in Culinary - he must build a restaurant to actually start this track though.

Restaurant - no money limit, after restaurant was built this track is available to anyone with correct predistined hobby.

Artist - first spot available to any sim with 6 points in creativity and with predistined hobby in Arts&Crafts with airport built. Later available to anyone with predistined hobby in Arts&Crafts.

Show business - first spot available when airport was built and to a Sim with high charisma AND creativity (at least 6 points each). Later available to anyone with predistined hobby in Arts&Crafts or Sport.

Music - first spot available to any sim with 6 creativity points and with Music&Dance predistined hobby with built airport. Later available to anyone with predistined hobby in Music&Dance.

Dance - first spot available to any sim with high creativity AND sport (6 points each) and with Music&Dance predistined hobby with built airport. Later available to anyone with predistined hobby in Music&Dance.

Population limits:

Criminal - available to anyone when population hits 20 playable sims and any aspiration failure occured.

Political - available when population hits 20 playable sims - then one Sim with highest charisma gets a job (preferably most outgoing). 6 top, with Uni (Political Science major) - all. 

Town hall - 60.000, can be merged with office, police station, court, etc.

Slacker - available when population hits 20 playable sims and there was in neighborhood at least two sims who never got any job.

Gamer - available with unlocked electricity and at least 20 playable sims in neighborhood to a sim with predistined hobby in Games.

Entertainment - available to anyone when airport was built and there are at least 20 playable sims.

University only:

Architecture - available to anyone with finished Uni (Art/Mathematics major).

Intelligence - available to anyone with finished Uni (History/Political Science major) and with built police station.

Oceanography - available to anyone with finished Uni (Biology major) and with predistined hobby in Nature.

Taxes.

At the beginning households pay as much as they can, so neighborhood add ons can be unlocked. I don’t care if it is 500$ or 5.000$ per season. With basic airport build this thing is replaced with Nepheris’ rules:

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 $25,000) Each tier earns the city tax per season based on the number of sims in that household: Upper Class: 1.000$/Sim Middle Class: 500$/Sim Lower Class: 250$/Sim Poverty: 100$/Sim

Recommended downloads.

- anything from Castawy Stories Conversions as it perfectly fits this theme.

- mods: antiredundancy and no townie regen, Cyjon’s Job Stopinator.

- to pay taxes: Money Order.

- Batbox Lot Debugger.

- Summer Vacation Mod.

- Default neighborhood terrains and roads replacements - for more immersive gameplay. I can't recommend you anything because I wanted to play so badly, that I skipped this thing. But there are plenty of things like that on internet, just use google.

Autumn: We’ve had a new baby, a pregnancy, birthdays, romances and an engagement. We’ve had a home business become a community lot, and a community lot become a home business. We have a place where sims can buy groceries finally. We have the town’s first cat! It’s been an eventful season. The double lifespan mod is working really well as I don’t feel like everything is rushing by too fast. Yes there’s a lot of skill crunching and job grinding going on, but there’s also time for things to progress - like being able to have multiple dates before getting married, something I’ve never felt like I have enough time for in previous bacc games.

Taxes: I’m still playing with very loose ‘taxes’. I just couldn’t get on with calculating a percentage or remembering to add up values to work out brackets, especially when there are bank accounts and loans etc. Maths makes me feel bad (I have dyscalculia) and I’d rather not force myself to do something I hate when I’m meant to be having fun playing a game xD. So I’m simply having the sims transfer what feels like a reasonable amount into Danny’s account. For example, Nate and Nora got the §50000 business reward this season, so they sent §20000 of that to Danny. The Westons, on the other hand, are still struggling with money, so they only paid §200 this turn. I am pretty certain that Danny will have enough for a City Connection this turn but he needs to reach the rank of Mayor before it’s unlocked and he still has 3 ranks to go.