Sims 4 Legacy Challenge: Animal Crossing Style!

    I love Animal Crossing, and one of the
things I always joke is that it’s my goal in every game to play
Animal Crossing. Whether that’s decorating my dream house,
befriending my neighbors, or trying to catch all the unique fish in a
game, the ways I play my other favorite games all resemble Animal
Crossing gameplay when it gets down to it. And, probably to nobody’s
surprise, the Sims is no exception. I’ve spent years making an Animal
Crossing world in my Sims 4 game, and I’m finally ready to play it!
So I made a legacy challenge to capture the heart of Animal Crossing,
and thought I’d share it with others. Starting in September, I’ll be
uploading my own playthrough of this challenge on my YouTube channel, so
check it out if you want to see it in action!

    As a note, I started this build in
2018 so it’s based on New Leaf, and yes I will cry if you make me
update all the buildings for New Horizons. I probably wouldn’t finish
until the next Animal
Crossing game if I tried to do that. But if you’d like to use my
buildings to fill out your world, they’re all CC free and on the gallery under EA ID “fuchsiarascal”. I’ve also got some Animal Crossing NPCs up there, and will be making more as I play
more.

Video more your style? Check out the challenge (and lots of shots of my Animal Crossing world!) here!

SETUP 

1. In Create a Sim, make your Sim for generation 1. Specific guidelines are down below, but you’ll be starting with a “normal” personality, any gender.

2. Evict all townies, and refill homes with villagers and NPCs.

3. Turn auto-age and stories OFF for non-played household. This makes it easier to keep our iconic NPCs around and unchanging as shopkeepers and neighbors as our own story progresses.

4. Create a single room (plus bathroom) Animal Crossing-inspired house to start, and place it on a 20×30 lot. I have a starter house also uploaded to the gallery for this if you want.

5. Set lifespan to normal.

6. Make a museum to house collections. As a lot of the goals are collections oriented, this will be very important! At the moment, I’m still working on my functional museum so it’s not on the gallery yet (just the New Leaf inspired one), but any place to put items that isn’t your home lot will do!

RULES

Okay,
with setup all done, let’s go over the rules of the challenge!

1. Start
   with a single young adult sim with “normal” traits, move them
   into the Animal Crossing starter lot, and then zero out your money.

2. Each
   generation has a specific personality with their own aspirations and
   collections to focus on. Each personality has one defining trait
   that they must
   have; choose one other from the list, and the third trait can be
   your choice or randomized. Also, personalities do not have to be
   tied to gender!

3. A
   sim can have multiple children, but only one can be the heir. You
   can choose who this will be, as long as they have the defining
   traits for the next generation. The others must move out upon
   becoming young adults.

4. The
   current generation progresses when the heir becomes a young adult;
   parents can either stay and contribute to the household with
   collections, aspirations, etc. or move out – that’s up to
   you! If they move out, they can no longer contribute to the
   collections, and they must be played occasionally to age up or die,
   or do this manually. Because of this, you may want to keep them in
   the household – so it’s a good thing that you’ll be able to expand
   your house!

5. Each
   personality and generation has a few careers to choose from. Some
   fit multiple personalities, so you can choose, but only one
   can have that career. So, for example, if your Normal sim in
   generation 1 is a gardener, your Uchi sim in generation 6 has to be
   something else.

6. You
   can marry placed villagers, and you can bring your spouse’s funds
   into the family, with a maximum of 20,000 simoleons. Remember, we
   kicked all the rich townies out, so nobody should have more than
   that.

7. House
   expansions are based on money, not generations. This does not
   include the lot value, but rather how much money your sim has in
   spending cash.

8. You
   can move lots twice: at the 3^rd
   expansion to a 30×40 lot, and at the final expansion to a 60×60 lot.

COLLECTIONS RULES:

• Each
  generation has specific collections to complete; see details later
  in this video or in the blog post. Obviously, only count the
  collections for DLC that you own. I tried to split them up evenly
  but also fit with what each personality would be interested in.

• Items
  collected in previous generations count as inheritance, but that
  generation’s collections must be completed before they move out or
  die.

• To
  “donate” something to the museum, edit the museum in build buy
  mode to place the item, and then delete,
  do not sell, that item from your sim’s inventory. A bit clunky, but
  unless you want your sim to own the museum as a retail store and pay
  bills on it, this is the best way.

The
goal of this challenge is to experience different personalities and
ambitions in the lens of the sims while also completing the many
collections the game has to offer. Enjoy!

 GENERATIONS

    Now,
onto the generations, what personality accompanies which and what
you’ll be focusing on with each one! 

GENERATION 1:
NORMAL

You are sweet and well-rounded, but mostly focused on
establishing a solid foundation for your family – friends, career,
education, bonding.

career options: gardening, writing, or culinary
arts
goals: best friends with 8 villagers (excluding family); read
20 books
aspiration: family
collections: frogs, fossils,
decorative eggs, village fair ribbons
required trait:
cheerful
optional traits: creative, art lover, bookworm, foodie,
animal enthusiast (or cat/dog lover), neat

 GENERATION 2: CRANKY

Your parent(s) instilled a strong sense of learning,
but growing up with little made you want more. you value success over
relationships.

career options: physician, business, scientist,
politician
goals: no more than 2 best friends (excluding
family); reach top of chosen career
aspiration:
knowledge
collections: microscope prints, space prints, aliens,
batuu records, moonwood relics
required trait: loner
optional
traits: gloomy, unflirty, genius, socially awkward, paranoid

 GENERATION 3: SNOOTY

You learned from your parent(s) to be selective with
relationships, but you are more social than them. you enjoy
the finer things in life and society.

career options: home decorator, critic, style
influencer
goals: join 3 clubs; travel on 5 luxury
vacations
aspiration: fortune
collections: metals, crystals,
elements, snow globes
required trait: snob
optional traits:
high maintenance, romantic, art lover, ambitious, materialistic,
proper, animal enthusiast (or cat/dog lover)

GENERATION 4: PEPPY

Growing up surrounded by your parent(s)’ club
friends, you want to be popular! Your parents involved you in
lots of activities– and you want to do it all!

career options: pop star, actor, child star, spell
caster
goals: achieve “global superstar”; own a hot
tub
aspiration: popularity
collections: postcards, feathers,
seashells, magical artifacts
required trait: outgoing
optional
traits: cheerful, romantic, music lover, dance machine, squeamish,
insider

GENERATION 5: SMUG

Your famous parents leave you with a sense of
superiority – it’s up to you whether you earn it, or just ride on
your parents’ coattails. You like to flirt, but finding someone to
settle down with will be a challenge.

career options: detective, secret agent
goals: 10
romantic relationships, no marriage (but can hire a
nanny)
aspiration: love
collections: fish, sugar skulls, city
posters, message in a bottle
required trait:
self-absorbed
optional traits: romantic, self-assured, art lover,
ambitious, eratic, snob, insider, jealous, non-committal

GENERATION 6: UCHI

After watching your parent play with hearts your
whole life, you’re very protective and caring. You have close
friends that you’d die for, but you keep your circle small. You
tend towards physical activities to get your negativity out.

career options: gardening, crafter, astronaut
goals:
start a “club” of close friends; make lot
eco-friendly
aspiration: location
collections: gardening, space
rocks, magic beans, geodes, village fair ribbons
required trait:
loves outdoors
optional traits: neat, family oriented, creative,
cheerful, active, maker, freegan, hot headed

GENERATION 7: JOCK

Your parent(s) showed you the mental importance of
endorphins, and you took that and ran (literally). You work
everything out through physical activity, and you love it!

career options: athletic career, lifeguard,
adventurer
goals: 5 “adventure” trips (jungle, ski resort,
etc.); university – party school!
aspiration:
athletic
collections: holiday cracker plushies, artifacts, buried
treasure, lightsaber parts
required trait: active
optional
traits: adventurous, loves outdoors, bro, party animal

GENERATION 8: LAZY

Your parent(s) forced you to do sports as a kid, and
you hated it. You’d rather sit around playing video games and
reading comics! You’ve inherited a lot of wealth and a big house;
why work hard when you could enjoy it?

career options: tech guru, barista, culinary
arts
goals: have a butler/maid; taste all city/festival
foods
aspiration: foodie
collections: mysims, insects,
experimental food photos, voidcritters, simmies
required trait:
lazy
optional traits: goofball, foodie, geek, animal enthusiast
(or cat/dog lover), childish, clumsy, glutton, slob

 HOUSING UPGRADES:

    As
the final part of the challenge, let’s talk about house expansions.
As I mentioned, these are monetarily based. These are also the
numbers I’m not quite sure about, as I don’t really know what’s
realistic in the Sims currency, so this may be heavily edited in the
future. But for now, this is the rundown for expansions and moves.
And remember, these are obtained when you have this amount in
household funds, not counting lot value.