Hints and Tips for the Townie DecaDynasty

[MarianT]

This thread is for hints and tips only!  Questions regarding the actual dynasty must be asked in the official Townie DecaDynasty thread!


Someone suggested a hints and tips section similiar to the Immortal Dynasty one. Although I haven't finished one of these yet, I do have some tips to pass on, based on the few generations I've completed.

Don't try to make your 10 NPC friends and 10 best friends early. Many of them will die or change jobs by the time your heirs become adults. Do develop charisma, especially in other household members. You should have one or two people who can make friends almost instantaneously. I also pick up the Long Distance Friend LTR for as many household members as possible.

Don't have your Gen 1 and 2 heirs do opportunities as children (advice I didn't follow in my earlier decadynasty and now regret). Hold off on the celebrity opportunities as long as possible, too.

Children will usually make the honor roll on the 5th day they go to school if they've been doing their homework (the Multitab is a big help here), but you can decrease your anxiety with tutoring.

After the 10 unique Black Ops, finding a spouse who lives in a house is the biggest problem for an heir, especially in later generations. Have children make friends at school; put your heir in a rabbit-hole job; get a time machine and travel back to the past. Don't be surprised if your heir's prom date is an elder by the time your heir is ready to marry.

I'll add more as I think of them.

[ratchie]

Some great tip Marian. I personally find the decadynasty so much harder to play then the immortal dynasty.

Hopefully someone can give me a few tips on how to keep interested in my family once my first heir moves.

Rachel

[Gogowars329]

Some good tips there. I have a tip or two.

Tutoring the heir is really useful as it can be tough to get the child on the honour roll. I you get him on the honour roll on Day 4, you can age the child up on Day 5 of school before school so the heir gets extra time to learn their skill if they have to start at a teen.

Start with an adult, elder or a young adult nearing adulthood when you begin your DecaDynasty. Trust me, you don't want to have to wait for a sim to die before you can move. It's torture waiting for a sim to die because you've completed everything else.

[Toni]

I love the idea of starting a hints and tips for the decadynasty topic. Although I haven't started one I am sure that I'll learn alot for an attempt in the future.

[ratchie]

If you know an NPC you can ring them up and invite household over,a full list of all current in game NPCs will show up and you can invite them over too. Most of the time they won't show up but they will be on your relationship panel which means you can ring them and chat to build up relationships until eventually they will come over to visit.

If a parent Sim grounds a teen and stops them from going to school just click on the forgive interaction and everything will be back to normal and the child/teen will be able to go to school.

If you don't want either of your founders to die and provide a tombstone just move in an elder or someone close to elder and fullfill their wishes.

If you have spare children don't worry about getting them on the honor roll.I usually give my spares the job of making and keeping friends. The ironic thing is that my spares usually end up on the honor roll first despite having no extra tutoring.

Rachel

[MarianT]

Rachel raised the question of keeping one's interest after the first heir moves out.

One thing about the decadynasty is that there can be long stretches of time when not much happens except the heir skilling or meeting job requirements or waiting for black ops or just waiting to age up to adult. I usually marry the spare to someone, move in the spouse, and have a child or two. The only person you have to be careful with is the previous heir, to make sure he doesn't max a skill that is someone else's supermax. Family members can work on the collection and make friends, but you can also have fun with them, sending them to a SimFest, or playing pool. When we get Seasons, there will be more things to do for Sims who don't have to worry about dynasty requirements.

Re-decorating the new house is another possibility. One thing I like about the decadynasty is getting to live in different houses. I usually just get them better beds and appliances, but if you enjoy re-decorating, you can have a whole new house to work with.

[hazelnut]

Depending on the skill, it can be useful to start later (as a young adult rather than a teenager), because for some skills, e.g. gardening, the opportunities tend to be related to particular levels in the skill.  That caused me real problems with my gardener – she started as a teen and supermaxed a few days after her young adult birthday but was scarily close to elder before she’d done her ten Black Ops.

[MarianT]

hazelnut, that's probably the best tip I've seen. I kept wondering why I was having so much trouble getting skill opportunities, when I knew they were out there.

[MarianT]

Another tip -- have your heir and siblings concentrate on the friendships (NPCs and best friends). I had to scramble when the younger parent died -- she had two best friends out of my 11.

[MarianT]

Here's a tip from Shirin regarding Snow Days and the problem of getting a child heir on the honor roll:

"If you get Snow Days, try and send your child to school before 8am anyway. I nearly had a Snow Day destroy my Dynasty (it hit the same day the heir was due to get onto the Honor Roll); at 730am, I just manually told the children to go to school, so they hopped on their bikes and went.

The whole day was spent with "Snow Day!" instead of "Learning!" but at 3pm, I had Honor Roll.

So don't give up just because of that!

Edit: And this Snow Day hit on a Friday, with the children due to age up on Saturday."

Holidays can also cut into schooltime. If you make your seasons 9 days long then you'll be guaranteed one season per year with a holiday that falls on the weekend.

[Markel1970A]

Great tips, guys and gals. But who are the best founders?

[Ricalynn]

The best founders are entirely up to you.  There is no advantage that one founder would have over another and everyone's favorites would be different so there's no real point in asking the question because everyone would give a different answer.

Just go with two Sims that meet the requirements, don't break the restrictions and you enjoy playing.

[Ricalynn]

I wanted to make a post - I've heard some people talking about opportunities never coming and I myself have had the same issue.   It may have to do with maxing a skill before the teen life stage.  Opportunities are usually triggered as you level a skill and not just using it so you may get more opportunities if you wait to finish maxing it until after the Sim graduates from school. 


I would also like to post the tip:  Keep up with the official Townie DecaDynasty thread.   Even if you have nothing going wrong for you, it may effect your entire file and you may not even know what it is if a question has been asked or a ruling has been made.

Like this one: http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/forum/index.php/topic,5005.msg266806.html#msg266806

[bubbles]

I'm not sure if this would work, but if you time a child's birth correctly, you could age them up in the morning before school so they have an extra day to get on the honor role if you have seasons set to default. Does that make sense?

[Ricalynn]

If you age them up in the morning before school - they actually will get a day off from school in most cases that I've noticed.  Which means that's one less day to get honor roll unless you have someone that can tutor.