The March of Civilization--Now With Agriculture!

[CaptainChaotica]

Pretty much.  It's like:

MAMA Goose:  Say, this _is_ a nice place!  Thanks!

ME:  ...

MAMA Goose: It's got food and a nice carpet, great place to raise the kids...

ME:  ...you just wait until the next hound wave. 

...Notorious

[CaptainChaotica]

So!  Here we are, in the spring of the third year, and absolutely nothing untoward has happened.

Hangin' at the base, with all my old stuff (some of which you can't see because of the darkness), including even the stagehand and time jump?  what time jump?

Here are some more things that didn't happen along our way here:

Apparently, my lying down with ONE FOOT right on the fire was enough to block that hand.  XD  When asked for her opinion on this, Walani was quoted as saying:  "Ow."  (Well, a bunch of notes that translated as "ow", but...)

Earmuffs, morsels, fire...we are livin' the winter HIGH LIFE!  YEAH!

Me and my lizard buddy.    You may have noticed the endo fire there--yep, it's summer.  But _I_ didn't skip an entire season('s worth of screenshots)--the GAME did!  Go to sleep freezing, wake up the next day roasting...that's 21st-century real life random seasons for ya!

On the other hand, this meant that there were lots of still-full-sized mini-glaciers around for me to cool myself off/slake my thirst with.

DUDE, it's almost fall _already_?  I'll take it!

My new "arbor" area--I mean, um, exactly the same one.  Yep.  Nothing has changed.

On the night of her (second) adoption, Fluffbutt decides to explore her goth side.

It's winter!  Let's show that with...rain?

That, is some thick-ass snow.  Either that or nature is trying to start a snowball fight with me (seriously, look at some of those things!)

And that's all I have to say about that.  For now. 

...Notorious

[minespatch]

13 hours ago, CaptainChaotica said:

On the night of her (second) adoption, Fluffbutt decides to explore her goth side.

Wendy would like that kittykit.

[CaptainChaotica]

Oh, definitely.  XD  The pet den is right in the middle of a mixed rockland area that also contains some graves and itty bitty swamplets, so when it got towards nighttime I deliberately aimed for rocks I could mine by firelight? AND got a free gravestone in the shot as a bonus.

...Notorious

[Maxposting]

On 2. 2. 2018 at 6:34 AM, CaptainChaotica said:

Spoiler

 

So...after losing my original server where I was trying this because the new code for the Forge made one of my mods incompatible, I've decided to try it again.  Why is this called (dramatic voice) The March of Civilization?  Because the idea is to gradually unlock things based (ish.  kinda.) on when they were invented in actual history as opposed to when they open up GAME-wise.  Hence, for example, while the Thermal Stone is an alchemy engine, aka Tier 2, recipe, I'm allowed to have one in the "stone age" part of the challenge.  Because...it's a rock.  : P  (Magic and things that just plain don't make sense (endothermic fire, anyone?) will have to be fudged in where necessary.) 

So basically...think of this as Don't Starve meets Civilization.  Two of my favourite great tastes--will they taste great together?  Who knows!  But it'll at least be interesting to find out. 

The rules are complicated and still probably need tweaking, I'm sure, but some overall basics are:  Mods should be...moderate (ba-dum-tish!) and if you use Wickerbottom, you may ONLY use her walking-science-machine trait to make stuff that's useable in your current stage.  If you FIND something that you aren't allowed to make yet, you are allowed to use it...but not prototype any more, so once it runs out it runs out.  Each stage takes at least a normal-length game year (70 days) or four seasons, whichever is longer.  Because I'll be randomising my seasons, like always!    Nothing's more fun than being a stone-age nomad all alone in the elements in a harsh world...unless it's being a stone-age nomad all alone in the elements in a CRAZY world.  : P

The mods I'll be using:

Actual Season Randomiser, Animal Variety, Auto Re-Equip Weapon, Auto Health Adjust, Gnome Variety, More Pets <3 (seriously that's part of the name), My Birds and Berries, No Thermal Stone Durability (I come from singleplayer, dangit.  How do rock break on rock's own?), Painted Pig Houses, Pickle It!, Shipwrecked Characters, and Thirst.

Some of these are beneficial (Pickle It and My Birds and Berries both add more food around, and the former allows you to preserve veggies because seriously, why only meat?) some are...why doesn't the game have this already (Auto Re-Equip Weapon), some are purely aesthetic (variety, pets, painted houses) and a couple actually make things MORE difficult (Thirst and the Season Randomizer)!  Note that you don't have to use any of these yourself, but I would reccommend Pickle It!  Preserving foods by different spices/storage methods _is_ pretty old, and fits well into the "marching through history" thing.

Last but not least--not actually a rule, but I like to stay in the _spirit_ of the thing by wearing primitive fur/leather looking stuff in the first stage.  Forge stuff works well for this.

This is just the intro post--actual beginning and pictures coming up next!  (This is long enough already.)

...Notorious

 

 

Can you list all the year round things?

[CaptainChaotica]

Oh, you mean the different steps, or "eras"?  Well, it still needed tweaking as I went along, but the basic structure was like this:

First year:  Stone Age/Nomad, with the rules shown above (under your spoiler).

Second Year:  Settling (Agricultural Revolution, baby!)

Third Year:  Early Civilization (Bronze Age) The second and third year are kinda...ish? similar eras in real life, but I seperated them 'cos otherwise there'd be too much new stuff to remember at once.

Fourth year:  Classical Era (Greek/Roman type stuff, so BUST OUT THE TOGAS!  if you have 'em.)

Fifth Year:  Medieval times.  Optional challenges:  Mongol Hordes! (LET something totally wreck your camp, on purpose), Black Death (the closest I could think of for this was "let your plants get diseased".  I'm still workin' on it.  : P)

Sixth Year: Age of Exploration...ish.  One challenge here is to make maps of the world for everyone, for example.

Seventh year takes us up to Don't Starve's modern day, aka you can now use and make anything in the game that might not have been available before (there ARE still some things, weirdly enough!)

Aaaand if you wanna be really ambitious, you can carry on into the "future" with, say, the Electricity Mod.  I've never gotten that far myself but it sounds like an idea.

I never really _solidly_ settled on the idea of each era really being a year--that was just a working thought.  Also bear in mind that since I randomise the seasons, MY "years" might be all different lengths--making some parts of this fly by and others potentially drag on forever.  In the original version I didn't randomise the seasons, but that was boring, so I do now.    I also include that as a way of throwing more difficulty in to make up for the more plants (therefore food) I have growing around due to the Pickle It mod and so forth.  Others can try other things, such as maybe turning up hounds or killer bees or somesuch--or just not use one of the nicer mods, whatever.

The original idea I got a long time ago, 'cos I like the Civilization games; the refined version came from watching that cool video, where they show you what all the civilizations on Earth were doing, through map borders/colours, across all of human history?  and at the bottom, they put what the important innovations were for each year (as far as we know, in the case of things from really far back)?  Um...this one.  Yeah.

And then I translated that timeline of what was invented/discovered when to Don't Starve items and practices as well as I could...which wasn't very well, but hey the whole point was to have fun.  : P

If you want the WHOLE thing--like, all the individual rules--that'll take a bit more and probably a spoiler, as it's pretty long.  Also bear in mind _some of the years haven't been playtested yet_.  At all.  Due to crashes and restarts--I'm sure I'd be in at least medieval times by now if that hadn't kept happening.  But I am flattered that people have an interest! 

...Notorious

[Raspberry Shake]

Wait... then wheres Arda?

Spoiler

For anybody who didn't get that joke normal people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arda_(Tolkien)

 

[CaptainChaotica]

Well I guess technically that'd be the first year, since it's after people but before civilization.  : P  Pre-history in the literal sense, if you will.  (History ACTUALLY means once we started _making accounts of things_...not just the past in general.  I'm looking at YOU, History Channel, having dinosaur documentaries and such!) 

If you mean ancient civilizations that existed and made great things and then died out long ago leaving only mysterious ruins behind, well, we already have that too.  The Ancients.

...Notorious

[Raspberry Shake]

 

12 hours ago, CaptainChaotica said:

Well I guess technically that'd be the first year, since it's after people but before civilization.  : P  Pre-history in the literal sense, if you will.  (History ACTUALLY means once we started _making accounts of things_...not just the past in general.  I'm looking at YOU, History Channel, having dinosaur documentaries and such!) 

If you mean ancient civilizations that existed and made great things and then died out long ago leaving only mysterious ruins behind, well, we already have that too.  The Ancients.

...Notorious

You could always cheat in a manipulator first year to get some magic stuff. Or, because it's pre-history, it could be the last year. Then you can spawn a few thousand pigs and fuelweaver's to re-enact Dagor Dagorath.

[CaptainChaotica]

Well, I'm not enough of a Tolkien fan to actually know what that is--I had to click on the Wikipedia link to even find out what "Arda" meant.  Heh.  As for magic stuff...I do make an allowance for endothermic fire (the small ones) in the first year, and I count that as magic. Since, yaknow, it doesn't make any realistic sense 'n' all.  : P  I mean, you don't need a magic machine in-game to make it, but...it's clearly not normal.  I assume Dagor Dagorath would be the equivalent (ish) of when the Ancients accidentally wiped themselves out with their own hubris?  Ish.  But most likely, if you spawned a few THOUSAND _any_things your game would probably just keel over and die, though.  : P

(I originally was gonna have the endo fire show up in medieval times, as in "I'm an alchemist and look at this strange new blue flame I discovered!" but then I discovered just HOW nasty it is trying to survive in the caves without a crockpot.  Oh, sure, lots of monster meat and non-filling mushrooms that you can't use as filler!  Yum.  And of course summer on the surface without ever cooling down is a no-go.  So my new rule is:  If you find--not make, that's not available yet--FIND any magical item before summer hits, you're now like, the shaman/high priest/wise person of the tribe and have discovered the ways of the strange blue fire.  I mean, I gotta story it in there SOMEhow.    Hence the "High Priestess of Starvania" thing, 'cos Starvania is the kinda lame name I came up with for my "civilization" a long time ago and it just kinda stuck.)

As for actual magic items in the in-game sense in the first year...nah, don't need 'em.  The idea is to play as simply and travelling-lightly as possible.  The only things you're allowed to make are:  Both kinds of small fire, regular firepit (preferably the plain one with stones, as most of the skins look too advanced), grass suit, log suit, spear, axe, pickaxe (nothing golden yet, you don't know metalworking), basic bunny trap, earmuffs, thermal stone, torch, beefalo hat if you feel up to killing one and...I think that's it?  Oh, and primitive wood-and-grass water carrying/collecting items, if you're using the thirst mod.

You're allowed to use more advanced things you find laying around but not make them yourself yet when they break, and anything purely from nature you can use whenever.  Example--tentacle spikes as a better weapon.  You can also read blueprints but probably won't be able to DO much with the knowledge from them yet.

Aaaanyway.

...Notorious

[Raspberry Shake]

1 hour ago, CaptainChaotica said:

I assume Dagor Dagorath would be the equivalent (ish) of when the Ancients accidentally wiped themselves out with their own hubris?  Ish.  But most likely, if you spawned a few THOUSAND _any_things your game would probably just keel over and die, though.  : P

Dragor Dagorath is the battle at the end of the world, hence the game crash.

[CaptainChaotica]

Well, that would make sense then.  : P  (Although I'd consider the ACTUAL End of the World in this case to be a server wipe.  "REPENT!  THE GREAT FORMAT IS COMING!")  Ah.  Ragnarok.  Armageddon.  Judgement Day, etc.  Yeah...I guess if I really wanted to, I'd spawn in several Deerclopses and Beargers, wake up the Bee Queen, crank up the lightning and wildfires and just let everything GO TO TOWN, at the end of the very last year (which would usually be in summer, hence the wildfires).  After all, if I actually DID make it that far (8 freaking years!), I'd deserve to go out with a bang. 

...literally, if I also include gunpowder. 

And then, if I DON'T die, I can despawn everything (or wait until they all kill each other) the next day and try to pick up the pieces in a post-apocalyptic world.  MAD MAX DON'T STARVE WHOO!  And it wouldn't _quite_ be the same as the first year?  because there'd still be BITS and ruins of the more advanced civilization left around...maybe...

...Notorious

[Raspberry Shake]

3 hours ago, CaptainChaotica said:

And then, if I DON'T die, I can despawn everything (or wait until they all kill each other) the next day and try to pick up the pieces in a post-apocalyptic world.  MAD MAX DON'T STARVE WHOO!  And it wouldn't _quite_ be the same as the first year?  because there'd still be BITS and ruins of the more advanced civilization left around...maybe...

That's a really nice idea. You could make a custom map of mostly desert, then litter it with something like the house ruins from the Gorge to create a fallen civilization vibe. 

[CaptainChaotica]

!  And I know just the mod to help me out with part of that--the Desert Enhancement mod!  It has an option to make a mostly-desert world _built right in_, so you don't have to configure anything!  Also oases with different themes, like here's the one where Glommer is, here's the one full of MOTHERBLANKING BEES, here's the one full of--ahem--moonstone or marble _ruins_...

So, that'd help with the landscape, at least. Other stuff I'd probably have to console in, but that's a start...

...Notorious

[Raspberry Shake]

27 minutes ago, CaptainChaotica said:

!  And I know just the mod to help me out with part of that--the Desert Enhancement mod!  It has an option to make a mostly-desert world _built right in_, so you don't have to configure anything!  Also oases with different themes, like here's the one where Glommer is, here's the one full of MOTHERBLANKING BEES, here's the one full of--ahem--moonstone or marble _ruins_...

Thanks for sharing that mod with me! Turns out the guy made a full-on world config one, and I have got to try it out.

[CaptainChaotica]

Oh yeah, I got that one too!  I forgot it was by the same person.  And yes, I have indeed tried playing in the (almost) all-desert world. Like, this picture:

aka COME ON DOWN TO WINONA'S TREE EMPORIUM! If you've seen this one before (such as in the Screenshot Showcase thread) and were wondering why there are so many cacti scattered among the pine trees...that's why.  I was trying to green up the desert. 

On the one hand, cactuses are pokey.  On the other hand...FREE SANITY ALL OVER THE DARN PLACE!  : P

(unless you're Wigfrid.)

...Notorious

[Raspberry Shake]

1 minute ago, CaptainChaotica said:

[CaptainChaotica]

Yeah, basically that.  : P  In this case, I think I started out with hardly any pine trees in that world, just birch ones?  ('Cos that's what grows at the oasis, so...that's what was at ALL the oases.)  So it was this weird situation where, when a catcoon spit out a pine cone just as I was walking by, I was like "THANK you, kitty!  Good kitty!" and picked it up*.  It was like "OOH PINE CONE WOOT!" instead of them being totally common.

...and so _that's_ how I grew the most in-bred pine forest ever.  : P

(now I'm trying to imagine what that picture would've looked like if I'd also been using the Giant Horkin'** Trees mod(s).  THAT'd be fun...)

...Notorious

*The pine cone, not the catcoon.  That might've gone rather...ouchily.

**It's a technical term.  Actually I think the mods are called "Bigger Birch Trees" and "Evergreens 2gether." (what, are the evergreens signing each other's yearbooks?)  One does, duh, birch trees, one does all the piney ones, and one of them, I'm not sure which, also makes ginormous honkin' twiggy trees.  And, if you have Shipwrecked, there's a singleplayer mod for palms too. )

[Raspberry Shake]

14 minutes ago, CaptainChaotica said:

(now I'm trying to imagine what that picture would've looked like if I'd also been using the Giant Horkin'** Trees mod(s).  THAT'd be fun...)

 

Now you know

[CaptainChaotica]

Well I meant the original picture, like, Winona happily selling GIANT DEMON TREES FROM HELL, but that works too.  Of course, I can make that work myself by just starting a world with both mods and the all-desert setting, and then waiting a while.  I've already found out that those two mods have no trouble with each other, so...

Speaking of Giant Demon Trees from Hell--have you frickin' _seen_ these things?!

Yeesh.  I think the biggest ones in the first two pictures are at the maximum (modded) size (out of nine possible heights).  They block out a lot of the scenery, but damn if it doesn't make it look more like a proper ancient, wild, nature-doesn't-give-an-eff-about-your-little-problems forest.

(And yes, I stopped to pose for a cute picture while starving to death.  Shut up.  : P  Oh, and that's a potato--but NOT a Gorge potato!  It's from the Pickle It mod, and predates the Gorge veggies by like, a couple years. )

Also I forget which, but one of my giant-tree-featuring screenshots (not any of these) has the filename "Mirkwood".  Hee.

...Notorious

[Maxposting]

Yeah I would like excact stuff I can craft and not in those years...

[CaptainChaotica]

Okay.  This is gonna be a LONG-arse post.  You might want to copy it down for future reference, although with all complicated challenges, remembering all the rules while you're actually playing can be difficult no matter what.  (I should know, I mean, I've at least _started_ the Apocalypse Challenge in the Sims multiple times, and that thing is BRUTAL!  Both in terms of complication and actual difficulty.)

General rules: 

1. Each stage takes a year--whether standard length or some weird length due to randomised seasons is up to you.  Note that while messing with the seasons CAN make some years super-short, it can also make them super _long_ and/or make your least favourite season take forever.  It's, well...random what it skips or lengthens; that's the point.  Anyway, from the start of your chosen starting season to the start of the _next_ of those, whenever that is.

2.  Anything you find on the ground can be used no matter what stage you're in, but you might not be allowed to make another one when it breaks.  If you're playing as Wickerbottom, you may use her walking-science-machine trait to make only stuff that's allowed for your current stage, no more.

3.  Mods are allowed but they should be...moderate.  if you have a bunch of ones that make things a bit easier, try throwing in one that makes the game harder again to balance it out (or tweak a game setting--putting hounds on More, for example.)  Nothing along the lines of extra equipment slots, wear a backpack, torso clothing, and armour at the same time, stacks of up to 99, super-chests or magic fridges that food NEVER spoils in.  Also no resusable long-range weapons or overpowered mod characters.  Also no cheaty world settings like no (dangerous thing here), no night ever, no winter, etc. 

Exception:  If you're using a mod that has Shipwrecked stuff, you CAN turn off poison (if that's an available option), 'cos f that s.  (Seriously, my least favourite part of that expansion pack...well, I'm also not fond of wind putting my fires out.  Or monkeys.)

4.  Not necessary, but it's fun to try and dress in outfits that fit whatever era you're in. 

Anyway.  First stage--Hunter-Gatherer/Stone Age.  GO!

Spoiler

--PREHISTORIC AGE

You start off as a nomad, making only basic tools and firepits, and always exploring, for the first entire year.  You are a hunter/gatherer.  (For extra authenticity you can spend the first half of the year eating your meat raw if you want, but it's not required.)  Prehistoric weapons that have been found in real life include spears, blowdarts, and boomerangs, so you can make those.  Fishing exists with spears but not the rod yet...up to you if you want to do that.  Grass and log suits are both okay.

You will need to make a science machine (actually an alchemy engine) for some of the ingredients you'll need (rope, the bird traps, etc.) but after that you won't be allowed to prototype anything else.  You can keep it for presents, though.  Your "base" at this point will be just a firepit with (most likely) stuff you've found but can't use yet just lying around it on the ground.
You'll be carrying a lot of rocks probably, since mining is one of the few common tasks you can do (pickaxes are allowed), so you might as well use those to make other permanent firepits around the place as you move around.  These are both handy for later and also "evidence of ancient settlements" for the people of THE FUTURE to find.  It's also sometimes a good idea to have different living locations in different seasons anyway, i.e. being closer to the frong ponds when the rabbit holes close up in spring, so you can continue to get non-monster meat.

What you can make in this stage:

I originally had endothermic fires not available until much later, in the medieval stage, when "the king's alchemists" discovered this strange new blue flame one day...but THEN I discovered that with crockpots also not being allowed _too_...living in the caves was not all that feasible, as there's not much _good_ food down there, unless you're lucky and find a good supply early on.  Mushrooms don't really fill you up and monster meat doesn't work well unless you can turn it into meatballs/are Webber...

(shrugs) So...endo fires are The Sacred Magic Fire of the Gods, I guess.  I dunno.  Thermal stones are also allowed even though they're an alchemy-engine recipe because...come on.  It's a rock.  : P

--You can work furs. So, beefalo hats (if you can safely kill one! or find a way to make other things kill it) and earmuffs, as they look more primitive than the other warmth items.  Hibearnation vest & cat cap are okay too.  (This means you also have to invent the razor, but hey!--ancient stone skin-processing tools go back to the Neanderthals.)  No cute snowflake design knitted hats or '80s looking puffy vests, though.

List of things you can make:

--Basic and bird traps
--Grass and log suits
--Spear
--Normal, firepit, and endothermic (small) fires
--Torches
--Axe and pickaxe
--Basic water-collecting/carrying items if using the Thirst mod
--Palmleaf shelter if using a Shipwrecked-stuff mod that has it
--(Fishing pole?)
--Straw hat
--Parasol
--Earmuffs and/or beefalo hats

With console commands, you may get the materials needed to get a pet at any time, since they're purely cosmetic really.  But if you wanna role-play it correctly, cats shouldn't be gotten until the next chapter, since they didn't start living with humans until they started killing the rats in our granaries and granaries require farming, which we don't have yet.  (The dog-human bond is WAY stone-age, though, so you can get a Vargling whenever.)

So, those are the actual rules for the first stage.  Go do that for an in-game year (normal or randomised) and then get back to me. 

...Notorious

[Raspberry Shake]

2 hours ago, CaptainChaotica said:

Apocalypse Challenge in the Sims

Whats that? I kinda want to know, I must do it.

[CaptainChaotica]

Well, first of all:  What version of the Sims ya playin'?  I'm more familiar with the Sims 2 version; I know it's been adapted for 3 and...think it _might_ have also been rewritten for 4? but I haven't tried those yet.  So I can't vouch for how difficult they are.

But you're in luck 'cos I found all 3!  (Don't know if it'd work for Sims 1...well, it's a legacy challenge as well, and Sim-children never grow up in the original game so that counts it out right there okay forget I said anything.  There's also no weather or seasons.  : P)

The Apocalypse Challenge!  For:

Sims 2

Sims 3

Aaaaaand Sims 4!

Now if you don't wanna read all that--and I don't blame you, it's like holy BEEP long (I had to write down shortened notes that had to do with just "the stage I'm on now" so I could refer to them without always minimizing the game, in order to play it at all) the basic crux, for all of them, is that an apocalypse has hit the city/neighborhood and you have to live under an insane number of restrictions (and possibly also underGROUND--basements are popular in Apocalypse Shacks) to reflect that fact, rather than being able to build, buy and do anything you want the second it's available & affordable.  The overall idea is that it starts off super-hard and then you work your way back up to NORMAL gameplay, which at that point will seem so easy you'll feel like you're cheating.

IF you make it that far.

So, like, no showers or watering crops/garden, because the water is poisoned, rationed food so you can only prepare one meal a day (baby bottles excepted, 'cos the game will send the Social Worker after you at a moment's notice), hardly any entertainment...ya gotta be real creative in how you live in the first days.  How do you make things better?  Well, every time a main character (founder/heir--which is the oldest kid, no exceptions.  Even if the oldest kid is a jerk, or ugly, etc.) or their spouse gets to the top of a career track, we say that they've become so brilliant at (their job's category) that they've solved that problem, and a whole set of restrictions that have to do with that are taken away. Bam, in a chunk.  I often go for medical first 'cos I think that's the one that cleans the water...that and culinary, so you can EAT MORE THAN ONCE A DAY (don't starve indeed).  Oh, and you're not allowed to use electricity at first either, did I mention that? so no putting the leftovers away in the fridge; if you wanna eat again that day you'll have to eat the rotten food...

Did I mention it's also a nuclear winter?  It's a nuclear winter.  That means ALL WINTER ALL THE TIME, so you always have to worry about cold when outside (well at least the Sims HAVE an "inside"!*) and things won't grow (well), and you can only do the activities that don't require other seasons.  Like, no swimming, or jumping in a pile of leaves for fun, etc.  And it is gonna be dark and gloomy as hell, being all winter with no indoor lights.  (I used MAGIC lights from my main dude being a warlock, 'cos ha ha, that's not on the grid! but I'm sure the original writer would've raised an eyebrow at that.)  Needless to say the nuclear winter is also another restriction you can lift. 

I should also mention here that I was using an older version of the rules from before Apartment Life's restrictions were added, so by the new standards I was cheating. However, at the _time_, I wasn't.  Heh.  I think the best I ever did was get to the third generation? that is, the third gen kid was born; I don't think I ever got them married.  I tend to lose interest or just forget about my longer-term families sometimes when SHINY!

(Hmmm, start off with weird/harsh weather and a lot of restrictions, and you gradually lift them over time to get back up to normal gameplay?  Where have I heard that idea before...?    But seriously I just like that pace/style of challenge.  Same difficulty all the time or start easy-get harder isn't my thing, with the Sims.  I like to start off miserable and then EARN my happy ending.  See also: The Asylum Challenge and Land Rich, Cash Poor.)

...Notorious

*Unless you're evil like me and, say, make Willow live on a "wilderness lot" in Sims 3, where she has to get by through gardening, fishing and beekeeping (!), live/sleep in a tent, and her only source of winter warmth is a firepit.  : P

[Raspberry Shake]

I don't have any sims games, I was just curious.