I was doing research for my dynasty and I decided to compile all these tips in a list.
File Size and Bugs
If you need to travel for some skills, do it as early as possible since the larger the save file is, the more likely it is to be buggy. Make sure to have multiple save files in case something happens. If you are planning to SuperMax Martial Arts or Nectar Making, place the Nectary, the Scholar's Garden, and the Martial Arts Academy. Then you can get everything except for the Martial Arts tournament done. The Al Fresco Street Market Cart will give you all the different plants.
Problems - check that your dynasty world runs on your computer, don't use many custom objects, disable memories. Build a small house. Recoloring sucks up a lot of memory & the file can only last 15 minutes before crashing. Try not to have more than one outfit of each category. Use save as to avoid save problems.
There is an ITF bug - the phone rings for an op but it is rejected automatically.
Museum
When the creator of a portrait/photograph/sculpture dies, a death bonus is applied to all of their artwork. Photographs can be buggy but for paintings and sculptures it always works.
Use teens and children for art skills. Skill up painters + sculptors at UV in case of emergency.
Use the cerebralizing brain enhancement machine to level artists and change their traits. Save Midas-ed Ambiguity Itself in your inventory, and when you move someone in, change their LTW, chug a Wish-Enhancing Serum and sell a couple of statues. You will have 30k LTHP to get the Extra Creative LTR. Traits Artistic + Perfectionist + Avant Garde for painting, Savvy Sculptor + Avant Garde + Perfectionist for sculpting, and Photographer's Eye + Perfectionist + Loves Outdoors for photography. LTR Extra Creative and Artisan Crafter.
Photography Level 10 painting and photog challenge means a faster photo appreciation rate. The photography tabcasts are bugged and only take 2 hours for every level.
Sculpting If you have your founder sculpt, have them sculpt another elder all day. The more Ice Sims they get under their belt, the higher value they will be. TIP: Queue your sculptor to Sculpt a sim on multiple stations. After posing begins, cancel the action so the ice block pops but the sim won't start sculpting. Later, go into buy mode, put on MOO, move the ice blocks to reveal the product, and pick it up. With a supermax, Goods are §1000-§1600, Greats are §1800-§2500, Brilliants are §3000-§4000, & Masterpieces are above §4500. Reverse all actions, then go into live mode and scrap the useless ones.
Painting When leveling painters, only accept brilliants/masterpieces (learn which ones are which). Finishing off those two skill challenges will raise the value of their paintings and the chance of portraits being masterpieces. Switching between 3-4 paintings of each size kept the quality between Masterpiece and Brilliant.
Supermaxing Skills
I would recommend gardening, sculpting, painting, or cooking (with culinary career) for a founders supermax. These are all easily completed and help immensely with ambrosia requirements. A lot of painting opps require travel, so you might want to save that Supermax. But if you have your founder supermax Painting or Sculpting, you never have to force your spouses to do the museum (except for one sim at the beginning). Remember that cooking and fishing aren't going to be an issue until your founder has become an adult - elders have at least 10 days of life left so it's not like the instant they grow old they die.
Advanced Technology: If you have someone supermax this skill, nobody else can use wavecarvers, holodiscs, or food synthesizers. If you want to supermax this skill, you'll need to give the holodiscs to spares or go to Oasis Landing to Catch 'Em All. The Synthesized challenge is easy - program 20 food synthesizers. Digital Dreamer half of them involve other skills, so don't let your heir touch a skill object until the moodlet has passed.
Athletic: Treadmill does count as jogging. Go on treadmill, then work out on iron bench.
Bot-Building: Not good for a founder because one of the challenges requires you to earn tips from tuning up Plumbots and the rules ban you from owning them. Micro-Master is to craft 1000 simoleons in Nanites The last challenge is like Menu Maven for Bot Building.
Charisma: Charisma skill gain is easy to limit if you control their friends.
Handiness: If anything breaks, put it in inventory. Your supermaxing sim can just do a load of repairs and then upgrade 10 items.
Gardening: If you have UL, gardening as a supermax is easy because there are 11 new harvestables and you only need 19. Plant 19 seeds of different kinds, then just spend time harvesting. If you have spares let them water, weed, and talk to plants.
Inventing: For Diabolic Detonator, line up dishwashers side by side, then blow 'em up.
Logic: The chess challenge can be tricky if you can't get opponents to show up. Have two chess tables: one outside, the second inside for vampires. Tutor the paperboy.
Mixology: Go here for mixology:
http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/forum/index.php/topic,12247.msg274763.html#msg274763 Make them a Night Owl and Neurotic (Mixology is stressful when making custom drinks.) Choose a career with daytime hours (Business + Politics + Law Enforcement). Even if you place all clubs, place bar on open-24-hours lot so your mixologist can moonlight anytime. Bars placed on community lots have hours ranging from about 15:00 to exactly 4:00. Grab Observant LTR, which helps with learning recipes.
Nectar Making: Have your gardener store fruits in a chest to use later. For Vizard of Vine, you need to turn 400 bunches of grapes that you harvested yourself into nectar without traveling. Renoit Grapes are best, with a short grow time (4 days with life fruit), and combined with 5 apples it makes an amazing nectar. Cherimola Blan and Avolarino are fine. Start with making your Nectar maker plant 15-16 bushes of grapes, fertilize the grapes with life fruits (If you have gardening supermaxed by previous immortal, use the immortal to fertilize the grapes), use "Harvest" when collecting grapes.
Riding: You need a lot of horses in the house or a lot of friends who have horses (Appaloosa Plains). If you're going to do riding, do it early so you have enough space in the house.
Social Networking: Depends on luck. You would have to get your blog up to 5 stars and sell 5 of them (you don't always get that option). You need a blog to really start cranking out the experience, so other immortals won't max the skill.
Writing: Be Hates the Outdoors & Neurotic. Start to write 4 of each genre to get 20 novels, then Master Masterpieces or children's books, which are very easy to get the make $30k challenge. Have a non-immortal write children's books (Writing 3 Painting 4) so the writer can read them, as reading 50 books boosts writing speed. If you have UV, try reading comics. If you have UL, just write Sports Books, as they are short (125 pages) and cost $600-1500.
Skills to avoid Instruments (Star), Charisma (talking raises it), Photography (Paparazzi)
Careers:
Alchemy and Nectar count any elixirs/nectar sold, so stockpile nectar throughout the dynasty, appreciate, & max nectar career. Or transfigure some gems and metals and create a bottle of nectar worth 50,000 simoleons. Flip elixir shop to max Alchemy.
Art Appraiser you can force opportunities through the Warehouse, and the ops give an instant career performance boost.
Architectural All you have to do is not learn painting until YA, buy entrepreneurial mindset, join profession, & research architectural design on drafting table until level 10.
Fishing Once your fisherman gets lvl 7, send them to the graveyard, catch 10 death fish, and stock your own pond to get death fish whenever you want. Death fish = $200-300 each.
Gardening the key is money trees and red berry beans.
Ghost Hunter can be maxed by reading logic books and maybe doing a few jobs.
Painting When your sim starts painting, save every single one. Then when they join the painting career sell them all. The longer you wait to sell them the more they will appreciate.
Sculpting Turn sculptures to gold with the Midas Touch Elixir.
If you get to work at least 30 minutes before your shift, you get a performance boost.
Self-Employed sell stuff at the consignment store.
Other requirements
Lifetime Wishes for each skill that automatically complete by SuperMaxing Alchemy: Alchemy Artisan, Charisma: Super Popular, Cooking: Culinary Librarian, Logic: Chess Legend, Martial Arts: Martial Arts Master, Riding: The Jockey, Street Art: Street Credible, Writing: Professional Author. The following complement SuperMaxes Fishing: Presenting the Perfect Private Aquarium, Gardening: The Perfect Garden, Instruments: One Sim Band (ops for Star challenge apply across instruments), Inventing: Monster Maker, Mixology: Master Mixologist, Nectar Making: Bottomless Nectar Cellar, Scuba Diving: Deep Sea Diver, Social Networking: Blog Artist. Money-related LTWs are easy.
Building a house should be the last priority. First buy the venue and business.
Use the potent friendship elixir from alchemy or the Social Networking relationship transmogrifier. Befriend Teens, Vampires, Werewolves, Fairies, UV Professors, and NPCs.
Be wary of crossover LTR. Make a list of universal LTR and don't forget it!
Ambrosia
To replicate Ambrosia: Stop the cooking at the bowl stage, click on the bowl, and click on replicate. A replicator holds thirty portions of Ambrosia but an upgraded one holds sixty.
Once you catch two deathfish and put them in a tank, they have a baby every four sim days. If you catch 10 deathfish and make a mini pond on your lot, you can catch them all day long. Level ten fisherman catch death fish without using bait. You can use cats to fish.
Don't leave uneaten ambrossia plates lying around or in fridge, a ghost or mortal could eat it.
For a greenhouse: Move plants indoors onto the floor with moveobjects on. If you add the roof sections on top of an existing roof of a greenhouse (ie build your greenhouse with a roof over it and add the sections afterward) you can actually garden inside the greenhouse without cheating. For the greenhouse store content: You have to place a roof under the "roof decorations" that came with the greenhouse set. They will hide the roof as soon as they are placed but I think it only works with the flat roof. Once you have all walls closed in and a roof over top, weather won't effect the plants.
Miscellaneous
The order I do things in is: 1) Move in the help. I recommend a painter/photographer, a sculptor/cook, and a gardener/fisherman. 2) Have the gardener/fisherman garden, start the sculptor/cook on never melting ice sculptures, and start painting with your painter/photographer. 3) Have founder work on supermax skill and sign up for the career. Start your photographer on photography. 4) Concentrate on career once supermax is about half-done. 5) Wait until you've reached level 10 in a career (females only), painter is ready to paint portraits, and sculptor is ready to do sculptures before having a kid. 6) Start your fisherman/gardener on fishing, and your sculptor/cook on cooking. 7) Complete LTW, buy three LTR, purchase property, and make sure you have all ops in place. If not, learn a new skill and pray.
Make best friends towards the last week of adult stage.
Planning Use the Biography page in the Scrapbook to keep a track of what needs to happen for each immortal to become immortalized. Deciding which skills are open to everyone is very important in the beginning. Knowing ahead of time what you can't do makes deciding what you can do a bit easier.
Needs dragon eggs! For energy - PI elixirs (24), Perfect Energy Drinks (8 hrs), and sleep potions. Also buy the beds with an energy rating of 10 (Sleep-Slave Double Bed). There is a Showtime bed that is cheap & has a sleep value of 7 for the beginning of the dynasty.
Money Making 1) Gems & metals from consignment or a dog can provide income, and the gem cutting machine from Supernatural is free (plus you can grow Tiberium from gem dust). 2) Pick wildflowers - Sweet William ($200), Indian Blanket ($400), & Cosmos ($600). 3) Make your spouse join the Architect profession, and your family will receive a 40% discount on build and buy mode. 4) In the Chicken Coop, almost every day I found an egg worth $1500 (price will drop throughout the day) If you want to get LTP, keep the egg in your inventory, as it adds a nice mood boost. 5) Ask the Orb of Answers "Will I be rich?", & it can give you $50,000. After a while you won't need cash, and you can feel free to splurge.
Elders Accept opportunities for elders to keeps new ops from popping up. You can extend immortals' sleep time until six, then make them eat, shower, and go back to sleep (Hardly Hungry, Steel Bladder, and Dirt Defiant help). If your sims don't have any skill points in cooking, and they watch Cookin' Cable, nothing will happen, but if they get a point they'll start learning from the TV. Elders can clean house, care for the garden & toddlers, make money, start a band, learn skills you know aren't going to be maxed, consign, run errands, cook meals, do things for the heirs, & work on collections (dogs can collect WA gems & they turn up at the consignment store). If you lock up immortals, make them insane so they can talk to themselves and hates the outdoors so they don't get stir crazy. Give each of your immortals a room for their supermax.
Childhood If you have Seasons your kid can get sick, & if you keep them home, you get a day off without school performance dropping. When teaching a teen to drive, use the Motive Mobile so no one will get stressed out. If you use the cake in the morning of the birthday, you have all day to tutor the kid. Make sure needs are maxed, then sit down for tutoring. If you have trouble with snow days reducing your kids' performance at school, get the weather machine LTR and set the weather to sunny continuously.
Use the miner to dig transport holes, or buy strategic properties to place LLAMAs.
Don't max skills at UV, as the abilities that are unlocked with skilling up sometimes don't work. (Not for Sculpting, Painting, Street Art, Science, Alchemy, Handiness, and Athletics.)
Keep horses corralled or they could eat special seeds.
Get original townie blood from these tips:
https://docs.google.com/a/menloschool.org/document/d/15E_DUR1VOvPLMrYOM55tFwlsBSAdd2a76JjotKFYiwE/mobilebasicSims autonomously listen to tabcasts on the MultiTab, and it messes with wishes and ops, so don't give it to immortals. Give it to your non-ID sims and have them learn necessary skills via the tabcasts. If you shower or sleep the tabcast will stop playing, but rocking chairs and the all-in-one-bathroom help you get around that. Rocking chairs are so useful! You don't get robbed while a Sim sleeps in one and they get more sleep than they would on cheap beds.
If you get the first Alchemic Mastery op, you get shown the bugs by type.
Towns
Moonlight Falls: Serena Durwood and her son Zack. Zack can get his genes in and be an artist. Serena has a points of alchemy. You could move in Annalove and Peanut Ivy. Annalove (Gatherer) could garden while Peanut (2 painting) could paint.
Appaloosa Plains: Alouette Bird has high fishing and painting skills and is gorgeous. Child Chantrelle Riffin has level ten painting. Teen Maisy Miller has level ten cooking.
Dragon Valley: Most of the homeless townies have high points in cooking, gardening, and some other skill, plus good traits. Nuala O'Ryan is a YA with 9 logic and 7 gardening who has traits for gardening and the arts. Also move in one townie with a high paying job to give funds a boost. Aislin (cooking) and Bradan (promotion fulfills LTW) are good choices. For painters - Nessie, Siobahn, and Jennifer have painting skill 3.
Sunset Valley: The working friends (Monika =fishing & Tori=cooking), Sekemotos (Yumi= cook & Sam=artistic), Claire Ursine (fisherman with gen 2 spouse in the making).
Monte Vista: Gino Ferrari has Culinary 9 (fridge), Cooking 8, Gardening 8, Fishing 3, and is Artistic. Carlo Mancini has level 7 painting and is a green thumb. Luigi Ricardo is Cooking 8, Fishing 3, Gardening 5. Chan Seng is Painting 7, Cooking 1, and an angler. Carlotta GilsCarbo is Cooking 10, Culinary Librarian, Fishing 9, Artistic, & Green Thumb.
Hidden Springs: Emmaline Roehn has cooking maxed, and her Culinary Librarian LTW achieved. Hidden Springs glitches by the Science facility, which sucks when trying to get seeds.
Riverview: Billy Caspian and Elaine Joy have high painting and the Grisbys have some skills.
Twinbrook: Harwood Clay sculpting 7, painting 3, eco-friendly, 73 days old. Marshall Curious gardening 6, some fishing, handsome, married, 5 days to elder. Rich Whelohff gardening 5, some fishing, savvy sculptor, 13 days to elder, married. Skeet and Gwayne Bayless fishing 7, about 16 days to elder. Gala Ball cooking 4, eco-friendly, 15 days to adult. Buddy Bailey eco friendly, painting 2. Mary Baker cooking 6, unmarried, good traits, 10 days to elder. Lolly some cooking, 7 days to young adult. Julienne Knack cooking + painting 1, 9 days to adult. Amy Bull painting 3, 19 days to adult. Marc Brandt - painting 4, 21 days to elder, commitment issues. Juan Darer - 4 painting, 1 sculpting, 82 days old, hard to woo, ugly, and red-skinned.
