• Cheating: If it doesn't make the game easier, you can do it. What I mean is... you cannot give your sims extra money or traits or satisfaction points, for example, but you CAN do things like Move Objects ON and resetting stuck sims, etc. Basically, play the game as "fair" as you can. If your game gets bugged - do whatever you need to do to get it back to playability. That INCLUDES cheating.
• High School Years Pack Rules: Yes, you CAN follow your teens to school. However, be mindful of your current goals and family makeup. Leaving toddlers home can be buggy in Sims, and make sure you leave yourself enough time to get things done by the end of the generation if you follow your teens.
• Tiny Home Rules: Yep, you can use them. Do I recommend it? Nope. Why? Hm. I know it's a game mechanic, but it feels SO cheat-y. If it wasn't QUITE as powerful of a buff, I would be fine with it, but it really makes skill leveling trivial. Which - in my opinion - it shouldn't be. However, play the game your way. It's your game, and it's about having fun. (There is a mod that makes Tiny Home a bit less powerful that I use, you shouldn't have any trouble finding it on a google search.)
• Mods Rules: I leave this entirely up to you. Yes, this challenge can be played completely "vanilla" (without mods or CC). But it can also be played with mods. I don't discriminate. You do you! However, try not to use anything that makes things EASIER on you. This challenge has been tested, it works as it is, and it's designed to actually be a little bit of a challenge for the player. However, there are some generations (you can see which ones) where having something like "risky woohoo" on from MCCC, for example, might end up with you breaking the challenge rules. Use your own discretion here and turn things like risky woohoo off when it would break the rules.

• Cheating: If it doesn't make the game easier, you can do it. What I mean is... you cannot give your sims extra money or traits or satisfaction points, for example, but you CAN do things like Move Objects ON and resetting stuck sims, etc. Basically, play the game as "fair" as you can. If your game gets bugged - do whatever you need to do to get it back to playability. That INCLUDES cheating.
• Mods Rules: I leave this entirely up to you. Yes, this challenge can be played completely "vanilla" (without mods or CC). But it can also be played with mods. I don't discriminate. You do you! However, try not to use anything that makes things EASIER on you. This challenge has been tested, it works as it is, and it's designed to actually be a little bit of a challenge for the player. However, there are some generations (you can see which ones) where having something like "risky woohoo" on from MCCC, for example, might end up with you breaking the challenge rules. Use your own discretion here and turn things like risky woohoo off when it would break the rules.

• If you do NOT finish the goals by the time your chosen heir, you must replay that generation (or pick a different "heir" and give yourself more time). Saving a backup save at the beginning of each generation is highly recommended.
  • To do this, just do a "save as" and name it something you'll remember, like the number of the generation.
  • Then, "save as" one MORE time, and save back onto your play file (or, indeed, another play file, if you'd like.) You do this twice so that the beginning of each generation is saved, in case you should need to start over should something catastrophic happen, and you still have a "play" save file to continue play with!

• Buy a plot of land somewhere in the world designated as a “retail store” and use it to store your collections over the generations. (This saves you from carrying everything with you all the time!) Basically, you’re building a family museum. Decorate as you see fit and possibly upload to the gallery when you’re done to share with others! Hey, #familymuseum anyone?
• Make a family Cemetery somewhere in your save’s world and collect all graves from your family there.

The New tracker is live!

Please, let me know if anything seems weird, is hard to understand, or needs fixing, and we'll get right on that. Right now the tracker is in BETA form, but it is absolutely usable through generation 15!

Note: I will not be updating the old tracker for this challenge anymore!!

• One of the major rules of this challenge is that your houses MUST be themed in color after the Generation. So, whatever color your generation is - THAT'S what color your home will be. Accent colors are fine, but make sure you're featuring the color to as close a degree as Sims will allow.
• As for the actual home styles and furnishing styles, that is completely up to you (and your sim's likes or dislikes!)
• Also, you are MORE than welcome to simply download a home from the Gallery and either remodel it... or try to find one that's already the right color. (Which should be easy to find for the first ten generations... but may be more difficult for the later ones.
• IF YOU ARE UPLOADING a self-built house to the Gallery, especially for the later gens, use this hashtag: #extendednotsoberry so maybe others can find it for themselves!

• Step 1: When you're starting a generation, the first thing you need to do is make sure that 1, your goals for the previous generation are done, and 2, that your heir is at the right age to start the next generation. Some generations require a Young Adult to start, while others will require you to be a teen to start. Check carefully in the rules to see which it is!
• Step 2: Identify where you're moving to. The next generation might say what World you'll be moving to. From there, you can pick any lot in any Neighborhood to move to, unless the challenge specifically says different.
• Step 3: There are two ways to move.
  • During early generations, you will likely want to have as much money as possible, so you can use this method to move: Use the phone, select "Move Household", then move the entire household to the next lot. When prompted, click to sell all furnishings. Move to the next generations' house/lot and hit pause as soon as you load. Go back into Manage World and click "Manage Households". Choose the family in question and click the button with the two arrows - to transfer sims. Create a new household on the right and move all but your heir to this house, leaving the money alone. This will prompt you to create a new household with no funds. Say yes. This will leave your heir alone in their new home with all the work you've done intact. One further note: if you're like me, you don't want to leave your old family "high and dry" as the saying goes. Take your relatives and move them back into the old home. While moving, it will show that you can't afford to move them in. Fix this by opening the cheat code window, typing in "testingcheats on" then "freerealestate on" - and voilà, the lot will be purchase-able. Once they're all settled back at home, turn cheats back off with "testingcheats off", save as a new file (so you leave yourself a backup save in case you need to replay the generation) and load up your heir's household. You're now ready to play. This seems like a lot of trouble, I know, but NOT doing this will make the challenge next to impossible to play (at least in the early generations) ... so just trust me on this. If you want to stop doing this elaborate way of moving after the first few generations, that's up to you.
  • For a simpler way to move, or for later generations, simply go to manage households and "split household" take as much money as you'd like, leave your family with whatever you feel is right, and split your heir into their own household. Once they're there, you can then move them into their new lot with their starting money.
    • BE AWARE THIS METHOD WILL NOT MOVE THE HOUSEHOLD INVENTORY WITH YOU!!
• Step 4: Landscape & build your home. Obviously, this will be dependent on the amount of money you managed to get for your heir. Be aware of your budget and try to leave yourself SOMETHING to live on. Again, you have some choices here. you can download one off the gallery and edit it... or you can build completely by yourself. Either is okay! However, do remember to make the houses' colors match your Generation!
• Step 5: Check on your generation's rules, and make sure you have all the Lot Traits and Challenges set up that you will need!
• Step 6: Go back to Live mode and make sure you have the correct Holidays set up. (That is, if the challenge says - most of the time, it won't - meaning, you can choose your own holidays!)
• Step 7: This is the most important step of all: Do a SAVE AS and save a side save as a backup in case the generation goes awry, or you'd like to restart it at a later date. Then, do ANOTHER SAVE AS and save over your "play" file. This will mean you have a backup ... just in case.
• You're ready to go!

• Choice of Heir is COMPLETELY up to you. Do you want to pick the firstborn? Do you want them to all be female? Male? Do you want to pick your favorite child of a generation? ... Well, then do it. The ONLY time this doesn't apply is if the rules specifically state what your heir needs to be - or in the case of generations that are only supposed to have ONE kid - well, I guess your heir is already picked for you!
• Spouses: Some generations will tell you where to find your spouse. Others will leave that for you to figure out. Have fun with it. Find someone your sim likes... or doesn't! You can always add some drama but do try to pay attention to your backstory - often I give you some clues about what your spouse should be to you during any given generation.
• Don't forget, I (personally) don't think you should require your Spouse or children to dress in the generation's color. If you do think so - go for it... but it might get a little wearying on the eyes! You have enough of that color already in the house and clothes of your main sim!
• ON ASPIRATIONS:
  • If you want to finish all of the Teen Aspirations - do it while raising your heirs. I will not make a generation just for this, so if you want them completed, you'll have to find a place to put them. If you want, check out who the heir is going to be in the next gen, and cater which aspiration you choose based on that.
  • If you want to finish all the child aspirations on your children - also, do it while doing other generations. Again, I will not make a generation just for this, so if you want them completed, you'll have to do it during the regular generations, and there are now 8 of these Child Aspirations!

• The Challenge is BASED on the fact that these are NOT "Berry" Sims. What's a Berry Sim, you ask? Well, it's a sim where everything on them is customized to a color. Skin, hair, clothes, everything. So, this is the NOT So Berry Challenge - what does that mean?? ... It means that you don't have to go changing everything on your sim to match their generation color. It is SUGGESTED - and adds some fun to the challenge - to customize their clothes in the correct color (for the main sim or heir from last generation) And to decorate the house (tastefully!) in as much of that color as possible.
• What it DOESN'T mean is that you have to have every single sim in the house wearing orange if you're on orange gen. Spouses, and non-eligible children (or spares) can all be dressed however you would like them to be. Let them pick their own favorite color. Heck, let Maxis dress them (ACK!! LOL) ... whatever is easiest or makes the most sense to you!
• Well, what about the heir? You ask. Personally, I dress them in the color that their generation is going to be. So, if I'm playing Orange Gen (gen 6) - the next generation is the Pink Gen, so that's what I would dress my heir in. Is this necessary? Nope. It's just a suggestion based on how I personally play the challenge. You do it however you feel is right!

• The MAIN way this challenge works is through completing goals. If a Generation says to do a Career, an Aspiration, or even a Skill - the intention is for the sim in question to MASTER it - in other words, maxing out the meters, getting to the highest promotion, etc. If you only need to get to a certain level, or finishing that goal is optional, I will list that in the Generation Rules.
• Now, what this means - is sometimes, it will take some real work to finish the Generation's goals and be prepared to move on to the next Generation. THEREFORE... you should carefully plan when to have your children and/or heirs. Sometimes waiting is a good idea, just to give yourself enough time. (For example, my personal rule of thumb for getting to Level 10 of a career is waiting to have the baby until the sim is at the very least at level 6.) If you have to have kids at a certain point in your Sim's life, I will state so in the Generation Rules!
• There will also be some other goals for each Generation (other than maxing things) - but all will be expressly stated in the Generation Rules.
• IF YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW TO DO A GOAL:
  • I assume that you can and will look up how to accomplish the goal from guides online. Google is your friend. Sometimes, for particularly hard goals, I will give some hints, but I assume that you either know how to do most things in sims... OR that you are more than capable of looking up how to do that item! This is about learning the game, so looking things up is OKAY and ENCOURAGED!

• Step One - PAUSE YOUR GAME - once your game is paused, don't unpause it for more than a few seconds as you are getting things ready for the next generation. You'll want all the time you can get to finish your goals for the next Generation, so try to lose as little time as possible in set-up before you actually start play in the new Generation! 
• Step Two - SAVE YOUR GAME - always better safe than sorry!
• Step Three - Now that you have the most important part out of the way, we can move on. The main thing to do here is BREATHE. You just finished a Generation - CONGRATS! (And for me, this is the most fun part... you are now getting everything prepped for the next generation - which will be a completely new set of goals, backstories, Neighborhood, and vibe. I've been very careful to make each new Generation be something fun and new and different, so that every Gen FEELS like a new challenge!)
• Step Four - Check the Rules again. Did anything unlock after the Generation you just completed? Make sure you make a note of it. If you need to change a game setting, now is the time to do it.
• Step Five - Transfer any inventory you wish to take with you from whoever has it to your Sim's inventory. This includes collectibles for the Family Museum.
• Step Six - Is there anything your Sim can't carry and you want to include? (family photos, collectibles, etc) Carefully put all of these into the Household inventory and sell off anything that's in there that you don't want or need the next generation.
• Step Seven - Now this is where things get a little messy. If you had any things in the Household inventory from step six, you WILL need to use the "Option 1" moving method when starting the next generation. If not, you can simply use the Household split method from "Option 2" in the Starting a Gen instructions (a couple tabs left of this one) Make a note here of which one you will need to do.
• Step Eight (optional) - If you have things in your inventory that need to be "dropped off" at the Family Museum (or Graveyard!), take your heir (with said items) and travel with them to the Museum location.
  • PAUSE IMMEDIATELY, then drag all these items out to where you want them, or just on the floor where you won't LOSE them.
  • Then, enter Build mode, and put all the items away, building as you see fit, etc.
• Step Nine - SAVE YOUR GAME (I know you did it once already, but things could have changed!))
• Step Ten (optional) - If you're using mods or CC, this is the time to change out any of the ones you're using for whatever you want for the next generation. You may not want to keep everything through the entire challenge, you know? I mean... there aren't a whole lot of people dressing like Bronze Age Nomads out there in the world now... or ... well, ok ... so there are, but it's just a costume!  (lol!)
• Step Eleven - Finally, you're completely DONE. Grab the tab two to the left of this one and start your "Starting a Generation" task list!

• World Set-up:
  • Option One: Start a new game and don't do anything!
    • Yep, that's right, you can literally start with a "New Game" AS-IS. Just pick an empty lot (or bulldoze one) anywhere in the world and start building!
  • Option Two: Start a new game and add some lots!
    • If you have a desire to have some lots that EA doesn't include (Bowling Alley, Spa, Restaurant - or others), add them to wherever you want in your save!
  • Option Three: Bulldoze everything & create your own world:
    • Step One: Download & install my save file:
      • If you don't want to do all the demolishing yourself, I do have a Blank World Save on my sim4fileshare: http://simfileshare.net/folder/179665/ (This is now fully updated for the Enchanted by Nature pack!)
    • Step Two: Fill the world with lots. Either built by your or downloaded, your choice.
    • Step Three (Optional): Fill the world with sims. Created by you, downloaded, whatever.
      • Remember, if you don't fill the world, it will populate on its own!
  • Option Four: Download someone else's populated save file:
    • Self explanatory. You can use someone else's save file if you want! There's a ton out there, just google away!

• Lot Set-up: Pick your favorite first lot. Somewhere. Anywhere.
• Either build yourself a starter home or download one - or, indeed, for an additional challenge, bulldoze your lot, and force your Sim to start from Zero to build their first home.
• Add commercial lots around your world as you see fit (see World Set Up)

• Sim Set-up: In CAS, Make your first sim.
  • The sim's traits should be: Vegetarian, Jealous, and Materialistic.
  • Their aspiration should be Chief of Mischief.
  • Give them whatever likes, dislikes, turn ons and offs, and anything else you desire.
  • Dress them in Mint-colored clothing as best you can.
  • Save the sim and move them into their lot.

• Because mods are completely optional, set these up however you'd like, provided it isn't giving you an unfair advantage. Disadvantages are fine. *wink*

Coming Soon!!

• Is your sim created?
• Is your sim moved into their lot?
• Is the world set up however you'd like it to be?
• Then you're ready for the next step:
  • Use whatever funds you have left from your starter allotment to finish furnishing your lot
• You are now officially ready to start the challenge!!