Completing an Immortal Dynasty Hints and Tips (Not Questions)

[saltpastillen]

Writing is tough! I managed to pull it of, but then it was a race to get the friends. If I ever start again I'll pick something easier like gardening. An easy way to get life fruit in time and if you have a lot of expansions rather easy to supermax. I've had two non immortal sims supermax and max the career during my play, none of them started before being a YA. 

[Margerita]

The problem with maxing the writing career before you'll be at least an elder is the reason why my founder in the Schreier did the Journalism career first that way I could have her max it in her own pace later. Super maxing the skill was no problem at all...

[Deklitch]

My latest tip, and one I've actually followed in my current Immortal Dynasty attempt, is to be flexible with your plans, and to have a back-back-back up plan ready in case your plan, back up plan and back-back up plan all fall through, which happened to me.

The failed plans (in my case, finding a spouse for my founder) also provides for interesting (and additional) pictures and situations for the story as well, I've found. And, I suspect it'll make things more interesting (and fun) in the long run (and is probably a better result than either my back-up plan or back-back-up plan).

Oh ... and if the back-back-back up plan fails, either wing it, or have a back-back-back-back up plan ready to go.

Dek

[Wiry]

Alchemy is a wonderful skill for dynasties. You eliminate most of your needs with potions, and if you add WitchCraft, you need to spend no time doing anything but skilling or whatever.

[Kalagorn]

So... let me get this straight. I'm going to start my founder with the Good Sense of Humor, Schmoozer, Natural Cook, Green Thumb and Family-Oriented traits. Her LTW is to be a 5-Star Cook, and her six friends are going to be the Goth family, and the LandGraabs. Now all I want to know is what to do first. Should I get the spouse first (Christopher Steel), or go and start cooking to start skilling? Or should I star with the friends? Should I go sign up for my career? I don't know which is most important. Please help. This is my first try at Immortal Dynasty.

[Margerita]

I would say go for the sim you have decided to be the painter first since no portrait means failure. Get the sculpturer soon as well if you want to add a sculpture for the YA stage.
Career, skilling and and getting married can wait a while but the painter can't.
Also don't lock yourself set at all when it comes to the best friends requirement, just go with the flow after all sims can die or move away.

[Kalagorn]

I would say go for the sim you have decided to be the painter first since no portrait means failure. Get the sculpturer soon as well if you want to add a sculpture for the YA stage.
Career, skilling and and getting married can wait a while but the painter can't.
Also don't lock yourself set at all when it comes to the best friends requirement, just go with the flow after all sims can die or move away.

I only have the base game, so no sculptures 

[Seabody]

I always accept all gifts in my Dynasty. If I can use the item, I'll use it, and thank the gifter. If I can't use it (e.g a potion that makes a Sim a werewolf), I'll sell it, and thank the gifter. All of my gifts are used.

[Ricalynn]

I would say go for the sim you have decided to be the painter first since no portrait means failure. Get the sculpturer soon as well if you want to add a sculpture for the YA stage.
Career, skilling and and getting married can wait a while but the painter can't.
Also don't lock yourself set at all when it comes to the best friends requirement, just go with the flow after all sims can die or move away.

To add to what Margerita said, move someone in to do your YA Painting as soon as possible.  Doesn't have to be someone with the painting skill already but that would certainly help.    You say that you plan on being friends with Landgraabs and Goths but without LN to make them vampires, the two older Goths are like 6 days away from elder and usually die in my games very early on.    I tend to not worry about best friends until closer to my elder stage.  Even then some of the best best friends you can make are the ones that you get right at work.  If she's going to be a 5-star chef, then meet the people at work and hang out with them during the working hours to fulfill that need.    Friendships can decay over time so you need to be actively best friends with them at the time when all of your immortality requirements come together.

Welcome to the forum, Kalagorn.

[ratchie]

The order I do things in is:
1)Move in the help be it painters,sculptures,cooks or gardeners.Whatever you need.
2)Send someone out to search for seeds and get someone learning how to garden as soon as possible.
3)Get the painter working towards painting portraits.Sculpture working on never melting ice sculptures.
4)Get special seeds into the ground as soon as possible.
5)Have founder work on supermax skill.
6)Work on career.
7)Wait until painter is ready to paint portraits and sculpture is ready to do ice sculptures before having a child.If possible wait until reaching level ten of a career before having a child so you don't miss any days due to maternity leave.
8)Concentrate on making best friends towards the last week or so of elder stage.

Rachel

[Shirin]

Writing, if you plan on tackling that as a supermax, should be done when you have either a Moodlet Manager or the Motive Mobile. This way, you can remove the pesky hungry/sleepy/stressed/lonely moodlets. Make sure you abuse use it liberally. For mine, I also had Hates the Outdoors trait to avoid Stir-Crazy, and the Neurotic trait so that Justice could freak out, and then not get stressed for 8 hours.

As for the skill challenges, I just started to write 4 of each genre as it became available, and easily got the 20 novels challenge; I chose to Master Masterpieces, and writing about 10 was more than sufficient to kick up the $30k made from writing challenge.

[Deklitch]

With Painters/Sculptors in particular, I like to have a backup to my initial Painter/Sculptor in case the one you have dies early before your Founder's portrait/sculpture is done for a particular age group. Painters need a certain level of skill to be able to do portraits and the Sculptor needs to be able to freeze the ice sculpture so it doesn't melt. I guess it is a similar thing to this for cooking/gardening/fishing as well, but I feel the most difficult of these 'essentials' are painting/sculpting, because the others can be raised by at least one of reading skill books or using the TAB 6000.

Thanks for your tips regarding Writing and associated traits and LTRs, Shirin, and the more general tips, everyone else.

Friends is something I always tend to have issues with in Sims. Any tips about this would be greatly appreciated.

[simone23]

I would reccomend cooking or fishing for a founders supermaxThese are both easily completed.. Gardening can work but is best left for a generation that can travel because it can be difficult to get all the challanges done if you don't travel. Painting could work for a founder but a lot of painting opps require travel and I usally save painting for generation two or three.
I would avoid inventing,handiness,logic and music for founders as those skills do not serve any useful purpose at the begining of a dynasty.

Rachel

With SN, master planter can be completed at level 7 of gardening with no travel, no opportunities and no cheats (there are more than 5 new plants)

I just did a game today playing a fairy gardner, he made it to supermax gardening by the end of the first week of gameplay.

[simone23]

2. Don't worry too much about best friends until your sim is coming up to elder. It's better to focus on the skill and career and make friends later in case they die off. Or like ratchie says befriend kids or vampires.

With the potent friendship elixir from alchemy, you could just walk through downtown one day and make all the best friends you need, no need for charisma (or even to talk to the sims in question, just throw it at them and poof, maxed relationship). If you don't have a tame alchemist, check out the store and buy it whenever it's in stock.  Just make sure you get the potent kind and not the weak one.

[samoht04]

With the potent friendship elixir from alchemy, you could just walk through downtown one day and make all the best friends you need, no need for charisma (or even to talk to the sims in question, just throw it at them and poof, maxed relationship). If you don't have a tame alchemist, check out the store and buy it whenever it's in stock.  Just make sure you get the potent kind and not the weak one.

Yeah abut if you're already friends with a Sim the Weak one has enough boost to beef it to Best Friends from Friends level. One basically does the whole bar and the weaker one does half a bar.  It's so useful in my games, with this my Sims can actually have Friends!