Griffinmere BaCC - The Rules

[deedee_sims]

So, I finally got to write down my BaCC rules. I think there’ll be a lot of stuff to add, so little details in the rules will likely to change from time to time. Many of the rules are not strict (basically most of them is like: do however you want), because I think the purpose of playing a BaCC is to enjoy it. So feel free to change these to your liking!

Starting out:

Start with an empty, clean neighborhood, I recommend using clean templates (to prevent Pleasantview townies to generate), and those hacks that prevent random townies (maybe strays if you want). I also use the antiredundancy hack, so I have only one mail carrier, etc.

Of course, you can choose a custom terrain that you downloaded from somewhere. You can decorate it with trees, and basic stuff like that, but no deco buildings yet.

Create settler families: you can choose how many of them you want to start with (in my opinion, 4-6 families are enough for a good start) Roll a dice about how many sims will be in a family if you want (1-2: 1 sim, 3-4: 2 sims, 5-6: 3 sims). You can roll their gender, aspirations, personality, or you can just make however you want them.

I also use a trait system, now the working ones by Hexagonal-bipyramid's Traits Project. Every child inherits a trait from their father, and one from their mother. And with every transition, they earn a new random trait, until they grow up to adults.

The first family you play should contain the town’s mayor. In the first day, you should arrange a meeting for the settlers, so they can get to know each other.
You can add townies whenever you want (you can make custom townies with the SimBlender). However, I advise not to add too many townies at first. But it’s really up to you (I said these rules are not really strict)

As the original rules says, you can add CAS sims after every owned business lot (well, I don’t really use this opportunity)

Oh, and I recommend using the Lot Sync Timer to help with keeping track of the days, because you should play every family for the same amount of days (I play 5 days = 1 season as a round)

The Mayor and the town funds:

The mayor is the person who collects taxes, funds community lots, and operates the Town Hall.

Everything depends on money: I don’t use restrictions that requires skill points or stuff like that. If the town has enough money to build up this or that, they could!

You can unlock power with buying a power plant (a lot with many solar panels or wind turbines on it - or a decorative one) And you can also make up something to unlock water if you want (maybe a water tank, but I skipped it, and water was unlocked from the first day)

As I said, the mayor should operate the Town Hall. You can make it to any kind of business, mine sells souvenirs, different plaques and newspapers. You can also make a public wedding venue here if you want (or another lot if you’d like that better)

The town should pay for community lots: the mayor should buy the lot and then donate it back to the public (I have this donate lot mod for that purpose). You can build as many community lots as you want, until the town has enough money to pay for them. Community lots are not retail lots: they’re just simple parks, and stuff like that.

If you’d like to use decorative buildings, you could figure out a price for them that the town will pay. (For example when I put down a bus terminal, the town payed 50.000 simoleons) But it’s optional.

No services are available in the beginning, you have to build community lots for each service to make them available (Fire Station, Police Station, Orphanage, etc)

Institutions:

The institutions are service buildings that help the town operate. The town can give tax refunds and financial support to these institutions (if there’s enough money, of course).

The leaders of the institutions can have proper jobs, meanwhile they have to operate the institution lot as well. I recommend using the job blocker to prevent promotions (for example, they can’t be University Guest Lecturers, if there’s no university attached to the town) I also recommend some additional jobs that you can download here.

Also, some employees of these institutions can have a job, if the lot is not a proper business lot (like the school in my case).

More about certain institutions, below.

Businesses:

Besides these, no one can use the standard Eaxis jobs: everyone has to run a business, or be employed in an other business. Or stay at home.
Every business must have been visited by its owner at least once in a round. Even if it has a manager.

The residents can take loans to help them opening a business. I use Monique’s hacked computer for that purpose.

Taxes:

Every household must pay tax to the mayor every round. The amount is up to you (I add the household funds, the savings and the lot price and then calculate it’s 10%)

Apartments:

Every apartment lot has to be „owned” by the town, or a landlord. Which means, you have to substract the lot price from their funds. The occupants have to pay their rent to the apartment’s owner (which means you have to fiddle a lot with money XD)

Schools:

There should be a community lot where the kids can learn stuff. They can’t go to school if there’s no school – they have to be homeschooled. If the lot have been built, they can attend school normally. I recommend using Inge’s school hacks.

If there are a bunch of kids, you can separate the classes, but each class has to have a head teacher. These teachers are not employed on the "business" lot, but they're employed in the Education carreer.

When the town grows, you can separate the school to elementary and high school. But each have to have a principal, and the required amount of teachers.

(I’ll figure out the other school types later)

Hospital:

The hospital / clinic is owned by a resident, who is employed in the Medicine carreer. There are a lot of benefits for having a hospital: it unlocks birth control, the twin thingy aspiration benefit, and other medicine related businesses (like vet, pharmacy...). I also added +5 days to elderhood after the clinic was built.

Bank:

The bank also unlocks a bunch of stuff: savings (on Monique's hacked computer), separate bank accounts, and the stock exchange benefit thingy. On the business lot itself, you can sell piggy banks and ingots (and whatever you like, really).

Connection to subhoods: (these will likely to change later)

To connect your main hood to subhoods, there must be some kid of public transport (like bus or train connection – explained in the funds part above)

The subhood connections cost money (of course):
Downtown: 500.000 simoleons
University: 500.000 simoleons (and you need a properly working school system)
Shopping District: 1.000.000 simoleons
Vacation Destination: 1.000.000 simoleons (or not, I haven’t decided yet)


Well, I’ll definitely change and add more stuff in the future! Have fun :D

Comments

[deedee-sims.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, these rules are heavily affected by my previous gameplay habits. I just blended it with some more strict rules, and I like the result! I seriously admire those who play with the original rules: I couldn't keep track of all the details and scores and everything :D (and personally I find the maxis jobs a bit boring after many years of playing, so that's what led me to the "businesses for everyone" thing)

Thank you for the suggestions! :D

Help me

[polly .g.h furbys (from livejournal.com)]

Hi was wondering if clening the hood from townies will delete my existing sims ?

Re: Help me

[deedee-sims.livejournal.com]

Hi! If you install the clean templates properly, it won't affect your existing neighborhoods, just the ones you create after that. But if you're unsure, make backups of everything, so you can restore the files if anything goes wrong :)