The Sims 3 Life States Dynasty Challenge

[Trip]

You have to have a completely new founder in order to have a shot at different traits.

Brooding isn't too hard to deal with. They like to wander off to brood, true, but my brooding heir never actually dropped her queued actions to brood. Maybe she was just very well-behaved? You'd actually be surprised how little traits can matter in the game when you apply a lot of control to your sims, so don't give up hope!

[Tandrael]

Thanks Trip! I wouldn't know any other way of changing my founder's traits but to start a whole new one in CAS.

And you're right, brooding is kind of fun, specially her being a ghost! I'll see where this will get me 

[Vesper]

I don't know if this will work though, her traits are awfull: brooding is worse than absent minded, she just stops whatever she is doing to "contemplate the hollowness of life"!

My witch founder is a shy, supernatural skeptic; full of self-loathing and inner conflict. It took a LOT of work to get him a spouse (thank goodness a potent friendship elixir turned up at the store). But this is the best part of the challenge; to play with odd trait combinations. In a previous attempt my vampire was evil and absent minded which meant she would creep up on people to scare them then forget what she was doing. And the grumpy fairy and the evil, diva, genie kept getting into fights. I'd never have chosen those traits but it was endlessly hilarious (even if it slowed up fulfilling requirements by having to separate / refocus them). Perhaps I'm just easily amused.

Anyway, brooding's fun and a bit different; hope your dynasty goes well.

[Frey]

I'm starting a new attempt right now!

Don't even tell me about traits - I just finished Rica's Asylum yesterday and though "alright, no more absent-minded sims ever again"... well, guess what's the first trait that came up for my founder!  She also got the childish trait though, and I'm curious about that because I don't remember having played with it.

I like random traits though... even if you end up with annoying traits like brooding and absent minded, it breaks the routine of the game. Otherwise I always end up picking the same 10-20 traits and it gets boring.

[Shirin]

Bah.

Anyone have any advice on how to force a specific wish to fire? I can't get Gen2 to want to marry their future spouse (been engaged for well over the usual 3 day mark), and their future spouse has been sitting on their own marriage wish for a good long while. Because this generation is at 1/5 of the required wishes, I'm wanting the "Marry" one to fire to fill a slot, so I don't have this ridiculous sense of doom hanging over my head.

I've tried all of the romantic interactions, and friendly, and romantic again, and nothing. Full green bar, too, and no Commitment Issues.

[Trip]

I had a whole dynasty of heirs who just didn't want to get married. I understood it for my founder due to his commitment issues, but I didn't have a single one of my heirs wish for marriage and they didn't have commitment issues. I never found a way to get them to fire either, so I gave up on the fight by generation three and planned for skills that would give tons of wishes.

What skills are they working on? Do you still have money or venue-related wishes free?

[Shirin]

I do have money and venue-related wishes, but she's just barely fired the 2500 point for 3 venues - and once that was fulfilled, a replacement one didn't fire. She's working on painting and writing, and successfully got the Master Painting for 5k. She's at level 9 for writing, and Master Writing won't fire either. Nothing for painting a particular number of brilliants or masterpieces, or for writing a particular number of books. She's almost consistently at 4 empty wish spots. The only other thing I can think of it at present is to pick up the logic skill, and see if the Discover All Potions will fire. Reaching level 10 of her career is also blank, but that's somewhat understandable as she's just barely level 7.

Bah, maybe more will fire once she hits adulthood (and has a midlife crisis, I hope!).

[Trip]

I don't really know what to say, since writers usually get tons and tons of wishes in my games without any special prodding from me. Maybe they'll start flowing in after she maxes the skill? I need to catch a flight soon (really), so I hope someone can produce a better answer in the meantime.

[RainBeau]

I usually get romantic wishes such as First Kiss, Propose, and Get Married by having them go on lots of great dates. Before you start the slew of romantic interactions next time, have one ask the other on a date. Then have them have as nice a one as you can, and maybe the wish will pop after the date ends. Worth a shot, right?
As far as venue and money wishes, I didn't find that the replacement for more venues would pop right after the first was fulfilled. It would usually pop after they received a big sum of money. For extra insurance, make sure the heir is the active Sim and then collect a whole lot of money from the properties at once, or have them get a lot of money from their career. Or even just sell a bunch of valuables.
Skill wishes--I never got Master Writing to pop because the skill progress only catches up when you stop writing and my writer was a vampire. You have to actually write a significant number of books before the wish to write a lot will pop. Masterpiece wishes are terrible. Unpredictable and hard to fulfil. I recommend saving logic for another heir as it has a lot of skill challenges and wishes that you'll want later. I used sculpting though, which is reliable for getting lots of high-value wishes.

Hope that helps!

[Lady Orc]

Hi, I just wanted to check I understood how the rules apply to mermaids before I buy the next expansion. If I have one of my heirs max Diving and also do the Diving skill challenges, am I still allowed to later on bring a mermaid into the family, or will the mermaid's automatically maxed Diving break the rules even if I never have him/her do any challenges?

[Ricalynn]

For the life states dynasty it's about skill challenges not maxed skills.  So having a mermaid born after an heir does the diving challenges is perfectly viable.  Unless you used the diving skill certificate for a career reward.

[Lady Orc]

Ok thanks! 

[Frey]

Just to clarify, my founder can go to University before the heir is born, right? But just for one semester, since she only has 7 days? You can probably blame my english for that, but I found that ruling a little confusing  .

[Shirin]

1 term, 1 semester, to be more precise (no 2 week semesters, in other words).

Also, thanks for the suggestions, guys. Been unwell recently, but soon as I can fire it up again, I'll give those a try.

[Frey]

Great, thank you!