Completing an Immortal Dynasty Hints and Tips (Not Questions)

[mald1983]

Yeah...the rain affects building, which is a pain because I prefer the rain to the snow (I live in an area where we get snow from October to June...needless to say, I'm sick of snow).  For now, I keep it uninstalled to avoid later issues in an ID.  Also, I don't want to have too many EPs in my ID because of lag time and possible glitches.  I'm a planner and a perfectionist...not a good combination for a glitchy game.

I've also discovered that my greenhouses don't stop the weather, but I think it's that the greenhouse roof sections (from the greenhouse store set) don't equate to actual roof sections and, therefore, don't stop the rain/snow/etc.  I've experimented with different designs (a roof and the pieces, a roof and then a wall taken out, moveobjects cheat on, and more) with little luck.  However, my best luck came from building a greenhouse with a roof and adding the roof sections to the room.  However, it was ugly if I paged up to the roof.  Still, it seemed to work the best.

[Ricalynn]

I've also discovered that my greenhouses don't stop the weather, but I think it's that the greenhouse roof sections (from the greenhouse store set) don't equate to actual roof sections and, therefore, don't stop the rain/snow/etc.  I've experimented with different designs (a roof and the pieces, a roof and then a wall taken out, moveobjects cheat on, and more) with little luck.  However, my best luck came from building a greenhouse with a roof and adding the roof sections to the room.  However, it was ugly if I paged up to the roof.  Still, it seemed to work the best.

They actually tell you in the store and the thread we have about the greenhouse on the forum that 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 within past the day you plant. 

[revolution724]

Here's a tip - Alouette Bird is actually a pretty darn good Dynasty spouse!  Her traits are kind of wacky but she has high fishing and painting skills, and she's *gorgeous*.  I can't even get over how beautiful her daughter with my new ID founder is.  In my game, she's 96 days old and still kicking, lived long enough to do my founder's elder ice sculpture, mastered five skills and counting, and I really haven't had any hot-headed shenanigans from her.  So, consider her if you like Appaloosa Plains like I do.

[Elena]

Lucky PalmsAlso, there are at least three available males that you can abuse use for dynasty purposes: Hendrix, Lennon, and Dreamer.  Dreamer (I think it's Darren Dreamer, but I can't remember) is the easiest to woo and comes with lvl 7 painting and is single, but he also hates the outdoors and has a romantic interest.  Lennon is in the culinary field, but I never got a shot to woo him with the celebrity system active (he's a lvl 4 celeb).  But he's rich and has an expensive car.  Hendrix is a last ditch effort and most difficult to woo because he's got commitment issues.  However, he is also rich and comes with the most expensive car available.

In my first short run with Dreamer I was very happy with everything - good looking guy, nice household funds and of course his lvl 7 portrait painting skill. However the next day Darlene (the RI) came up to him in the gallery and branded him a cheater. It won't be a problem for many but in my case, well I did feel slightly guilty as I knew it all along and decided to try again with someone else instead...

The second time with Hendrix I found him actually easier to woo, because if I remember it right he is not celebrity at all - strangely, as he has quite a few celeb friends and one of them, Lina Lancaster, will give birth to a boy once grown up is an exact copy of Hendrix and Hendrix's family tree will also show him as a son - in that case I think Hendrix won't be eligible for DD. I am not too sure about the rule for this in ID, though.) Just chat up to become almost good friend, get him in the sociable mood, and ask him to move in. He came with an 100K car and a ridiculous wish to swim in cash even if he was already living in luxury. Sell the car and a midlife crisis (or brain enhancing machine from UL) will get rid of his commitment issue and viola, he proposed to my girl as a family-oriented, artistic man.

Since Hendrix is friend with Lennon, I got him inviting Lennon over and my girl did the greeting and chatting instead. If memory serves, Lennon is green thumb and loving outdoors, so if you have a gardener/chef founder wanting to start with Lennon, a few levels in gardening or cooking will impress and woo him over quickly.

Once thing I find annoying with LP is that I need to get collector's helper as soon as possible, because sand color is almost same as seeds, making them extra difficult to find. Having premium greenhouse contents would help but my witch founder didn't have it at the time so she had more luck converting special seeds than spotting one in the wild. Then I finally decided to leave the town for a new try elsewhere not because my founder failed her special seeds hunting, but I badly miss those lovely fishing ponds in old SV. Well I personally can't bear her angler daughter to spent all time in that fishing sport building even if it has almost all kinds of fishes, but prefer to be at a lake or hear the splash of waterfalls. Still, I found Lucky Palms a lovely town overall, having especially beautiful scenery at dawn and dust.

p.s. I spent quite a long time lurking on this forum, trying out the ID challenge myself and finally couldn't resist replying. It's my first post in this forum and I tried my best to avoid spelling or grammar errors but probably still need correction because my English is not that good, so thanks in advance.

[MarianT]

Elena, your English is very easy to read. I hope you'll continue to post on the Forum.

My tip regards memories. If you're doing any multi-generational challenge, you'll want to disable them. I checked the size of the save file for my Memories Challenge -- 545 MB for 8 weeks. In my current Immortal Dynasty, the file size is 163 MB for 11 weeks, and that includes several trips to China.

[mald1983]

In my first short run with Dreamer I was very happy with everything - good looking guy, nice household funds and of course his lvl 7 portrait painting skill. However the next day Darlene (the RI) came up to him in the gallery and branded him a cheater. It won't be a problem for many but in my case, well I did feel slightly guilty as I knew it all along and decided to try again with someone else instead...

I had the same problem with Darren nearly every time I play in LP and woo him.  However, I did stumble upon a way to prevent him from being a "cheater".  My Founder Aryn approached him to accuse him of cheating, but she had to wait for him to finish a painting (thank goodness I had him painting large ones to max out painting and fulfill him LTW).  I couldn't cancel her action, but I didn't cancel his.  Eventually, I got her to clean the house and the fight/accusation scene never happened.

The second time with Hendrix I found him actually easier to woo, because if I remember it right he is not celebrity at all - strangely, as he has quite a few celeb friends and one of them, Lina Lancaster, will give birth to a boy once grown up is an exact copy of Hendrix and Hendrix's family tree with also show him as a son - in that case I think Hendrix won't be eligible for DD. I am not too sure about the rule for this in ID, though.) Just chat up to become almost good friend, get him in the sociable mood, and ask him to move in. He came with an 100K car and a ridiculous wish to swim in cash even if he was already living in luxury. Sell the car and a midlife crisis (or brain enhancing machine from UL) will get rid of his commitment issue and viola, he proposed to my girl as a family-oriented, artistic man.

Hmm...I didn't think of that.  I knew he had the top-of-the-line car, which is why I wanted him, but his commitment issues caused me to abandon him as a candidate.  I'll have to try this method to see if I can get the game off to a great start.

Since Hendrix is friend with Lennon, I got him inviting Lennon over and my girl did the greeting and chatting instead. If memory serves, Lennon is green thumb and loving outdoors, so if you have a gardener/chef founder wanting to start with Lennon, a few levels in gardening or cooking will impress and woo him over quickly.

Yes, Lennon is a green thumb and loves cooking.  The drawback to him: only a few days from elder and he drives the Yoshimoto Evasion car...which is only worth 9K.  Not really worth the effort when trying to get an ID started, though he is gorgeous!

Once thing I find annoying with LP is that I need to get collector's helper as soon as possible, because sand color is almost same as seeds, making them extra difficult to find.

Haha...I never thought of that because I typically cheat in my games for LTHP and funds.  But you're so right!  I haven't gone searching for seeds yet, and I can't even remember where the seeds are in LP.  However, I do know that someone else suggested going into a different game, cheating to get the collection helper, finding the seeds, and noting their locations when playing any game.  It does make it easier to find the seeds this way as they will always spawn in the same areas.  Also, I've always found the Special seeds by the cemetery and by the science facility, and sometimes the Spec. seeds will flash red.

By the way, you're English is better than native speakers...I sometimes wish my students would've used better English!

[RainBeau]

I had the same problem with Darren nearly every time I play in LP and woo him.  However, I did stumble upon a way to prevent him from being a "cheater".  My Founder Aryn approached him to accuse him of cheating, but she had to wait for him to finish a painting (thank goodness I had him painting large ones to max out painting and fulfill him LTW).  I couldn't cancel her action, but I didn't cancel his.  Eventually, I got her to clean the house and the fight/accusation scene never happened.

Did you try having him Ask her to Be Just Friends? Then he shouldn't be a cheater.

[mald1983]

Hmm...Rosa...you mean the other girl?  Or my founder?  If it's the other girl, I didn't realize it was much of an issue until after the first time it happened.  The second time I just ignored it and hoped my founder would forget about it.  I'll have to try that method, though.  It sounds effective.  I haven't dealt much with the relationships aspect.  Most of the time I've made a couple that starts together (though I spend more time having them skill up than working on the family/relationship aspect of it).  The relationship requirements (making and maintaining BF relationships, marriages/weddings, etc) for this challenge are the most difficult for me as I have always ignored them in my games before.

[RainBeau]

The other girl, yes. There certainly is a lot to do with relationships in dynasties! One of my poor spares in another dynasty got accused of cheating not once but twice, and that while I was trying to have him Ask to Be Just Friends He never even got the chance. So it's not always effective, but it usually works fine. And you can use it in many other situations as well, whether they start off with a RI (like Darren Dreamer or Goodwin Goode) or they get one at Prom in school and you want them to marry someone else for the dynasty. We were excited about the 'Break-Up Text' option, but it appears to be only for actual relationships, not for Romantic Interests. Too bad! I suppose you could try the Relationship Transmogrifier, but I have yet to get that to work.

[Ricalynn]

Relationship Transmogrifier will work to get it done.  Although it's almost easier if you know the person has an RI ahead of time to just be friends with them and move them in.  Then have them ask the RI to be friends prior to starting any romantic socials.    You don't have to get married and start that family on Week 1, Day 1.  Plus it's less work to get someone to move in than it is to seduce them into marriage.

[mald1983]

Omigod...Rosa...you just became my hero!  I followed your advice on getting Hendrix to move in, and I changed his traits with the Mid Life Crisis LTR to what I wanted.  It worked!  I haven't gotten any further because the effort took so long that my Founder peed herself.    She's exhausted, strained, starving, and cranky at this point.  But, I'm off to a great start. 

As a bonus, his favorite food is my Founder's favorite (Autumn Salad).  Since my Founder's LTW is Celebrated Five Star Chef, and her Supermax is going to be Cooking, it's going to be a breeze making their favorite food while knocking out the Cooking Challenges too!  Oh happy day!  Of course, his favorite color is yellow, which is sometimes complimentary to my Founder's fave (blue), but he needs a makeover.  He's too bland, especially compared to Darren Dreamer.

I don't know if anyone else has ever noticed this, but my sims flip-flop on who they find attractive, even if it's the same person.  During my first couple of attempts in LP for the ID, my Founder found Darren Dreamer attractive 2/3 of the time and Lennon Sosa attractive once.  They never found Hendrix attractive.  I don't know what's up with that, and it seems very random.

[RainBeau]

Glad to be of service

My Sims do the same thing, actually. That is, when they're not finding absolutely everyone attractive. A prospective spouse for one of my heirs he found unattractive at first but when that save crashed and I started over, he found her attractive the second time. Go figure.

[Ricalynn]

The attraction system is partially based on traits, partially based on skills and kind of based on the zodiac signs but can also trigger off wealth, job level and celebrity.   So if it's different it could be because you're in a different place than you were before or because the zodiac sign is different possibly.   I was making Bebe Hart date one of my Sims.  She suddenly became attracted to him on the fourth date.

[Snufflesxx]

Glad to be of service

My Sims do the same thing, actually. That is, when they're not finding absolutely everyone attractive. A prospective spouse for one of my heirs he found unattractive at first but when that save crashed and I started over, he found her attractive the second time. Go figure.

Unfortunately, in my current dynasty, it worked the other way around. My founder met Hunter Cottoneye and was attracted to him and not to Jon Lesson (one of the helpers). But the game crashed and I had play it again. This time, she wasn't attracted to Hunter but is attracted to Jon instead! Sims can be SOOO awkward sometimes. I have to keep them apart at all times and have their relationship at acquaintances so that they don't flirt. It happened in an earlier dynasty attempt and it messed everything up. Urgh 

[Shirin]

If you have Supernatural, why not find/make a Jar of Potent Friendship, and then use it on your prospective spouse (especially if your founder/heir was *ahem* following a treasure map  )? I've found those to be superquick ways to get from stranger to spouse in much less time than the normal iron-sim way.