The Legacy Help, Tips, and Strategies Thread

[LlamaMama]

After checking with Pam, I learned we don't have an existing thread for posting Legacy-related questions, tips, or favorite strategies. This thread is intended to be a resource for the community, not just for me. I'll start:

I'm just starting my first legacy. In terms of a fun and successful 10-generation legacy, does it work out best to have two-parent couples living together, or not? Or maybe is it mostly important in early generations when there are fewer family members to help with the kids? Or maybe just for heirs?

[Edited to remove too many questions. ]

Please chime in with any tips or information that you wish to share with the community here!

Click here for a link to the Pinstar Legacy Challenge rules. -Pam

[Pam]

Are you playing by Pinstar's Legacy rules?  And do you plan to count points and follow the rules to the letter?  I can help you better if I know this information.  I successfully played Pinstar's legacy to 13 generations. 

[LlamaMama]

I'm going to play Pinstar's rules without counting points, with Matriarchal and Family Trait rules. I have zero experience raising children in the game, and I've only played for a few months, so I'm playing with long lives (at least at first).

I'm also wondering what kind of family traits turn out to be fun, and which ones turn out to be worthless or too much hassle.

[AriaGirl77]

It's been a while since I've used Pinstar's rules to the letter, but don't you have to random roll for traits?  If not, I guess I've been playing the hard way! lol

I usually only play with one couple at a time, although I know you can play with more if you like.  For me it's easier to just have one.  And then I always make sure they have at least 2 kids, that way I can choose which one I want to be the heir.  The other will be the "spare" in case something terrible happens with the heir before they're able to produce children.  It's basically a way to insure that the Legacy won't die out or end early.  The spare is mostly used to complete a LTW and gain a point.  Plus it adds another adult to the household to help with child care.

[LlamaMama]

I'm going to keep one trait constant in all the descendents, randomizing the others. My heirs will all be female, so I guess I'll have to have spare female siblings too. Oy, maybe not the matriarchal rule, haha.

I just reread the rules and as far as keeping the fathers around, since their LTWs matter too, I guess it must be worth it to keep them around. I wonder what people do when there are multiple mates to the same female sim. All under the same roof?

[Swede1992]

I'm also wondering what kind of family traits turn out to be fun, and which ones turn out to be worthless or too much hassle.

I don't play with Pinstar's rules for a legacy (I don't even think you could call my games legacies ), but I do play multi-generational games and one trait I find amusing is the evil trait. Almost every single sim I've ever played has been evil.

What is good with them is that especially ghosts usually complain about something, like they're hungry (starvation ghosts), they need to take a shower (fire ghosts) or they just pass out in the living room (aging ghosts). After the first couple of generations, the remaining evil sims will be genuinely amused by all ghosts that walk around and give them that nifty little mood boost. Evil sims also don't complain about poor lighting, so you could save money from not buying lamps nor paying electric bills for them.

In either case, evilness is certainly not a hassle!

[Wova4]

I've been thinking about a utility Mummy strategy for legacy play.  The idea is to use a mummy to obtain a few passive bonuses, freeing up LTH points and skill time:

1.  Have a teen sleep in the cursed sarcophagus until transformed.  Using a teen maximizes lifespan of the mummy.

2.  Maximize the mummy's handiness skill for the build mode discount

3.  Pick up No Bills Forever LTHR to shut down bills

4.  Store the mummy in the sarcophagus so you don't have to deal with interrupts.  My understanding is that a sarcophagus freezes needs and a mummy will sleep indefinitely in one.

[AriaGirl77]

I just recently started a new Legacy with a fireman as the Founder.  It was an excellent way to go!  He pretty much never left the fire station for the first couple of weeks, and only ended up building on his lot because he got married and started a family.  It worked out great!  And when he retired he received a 12,000 per day pay check! 

[LlamaMama]

I usually only play with one couple at a time, although I know you can play with more if you like.  For me it's easier to just have one.  And then I always make sure they have at least 2 kids, that way I can choose which one I want to be the heir.  The other will be the "spare" in case something terrible happens with the heir before they're able to produce children.  It's basically a way to insure that the Legacy won't die out or end early.  The spare is mostly used to complete a LTW and gain a point.  Plus it adds another adult to the household to help with child care.

So you let the spares do their own thing with freewill, making sure they don't move out until they get their LTW? Do you play the elders once a new heir is chosen, or leave them up to freewill?

[AriaGirl77]

I do let my sims do a lot on free will, I often just let go of the mouse and watch to see what they'll do.  But I will also work with the spares to make sure they fulfill their LTW.  I'll set them up to work on a skill, or adjust their workplace tone, to make sure they're working towards their LTW.  I probably pay the least amount of attention to the kids.  I teach the toddlers what they need to know to age up well, but then I pretty much do nothing for kids or teens.  Seems like they automatically work on their homework and get good grades with very little intervention from me.  I pay the most amount of attention to whichever sim has the most demanding LTW.  Right now for instance, my heir had a super easy LTW (lap of luxury) so she completed that very early on in life.  So now I'm focusing on her husband who is an interior designer.  The spare wants to be a Rock Star, so that's super easy too, not much attention needed there. 

Anyway, that's how I roll.

[Pam]

On the subject of toddlers...

The whole point of teaching them how to walk, talk, and potty is so they will age up well.  That means you get to pick their traits.  But in a Legacy Challenge, all traits are rolled random, so you don't get to pick their traits after all.  So then, what's the point of teaching them that stuff?  They'll still age up and the game will choose a trait for them.  I personally go ahead and teach toddlers because I'm overly fond of them, but I think anyone could skip all that and still be within the rules of the Legacy Challenge.

[cndneh]

Just to ask some (perhaps dumb) questions -

What are legacy families?

Wnd who is Pinstar and what are his/her rules?

OR...  is there a link so you don't have to repeat something already said?

Thanks!  

[Pam]

Pinstar is a member on the official Sims 3 forum who is somewhat well known for designing challenges.  Probably his most popular is the Legacy Challenge where you play a family that starts with a very poor founder.  The objective is to make it to 10 generations without breaking any of the gazillion rules he puts in place.  Click here for a link to the Pinstar Legacy Challenge rules.  It's a popular challenge and many players write stories around their Legacy families.  There are a couple of other legacy challenges that have different rules than Pinstar's, but I don't know anything about them.  I feel Pinstar's rules are what most people use.

[LlamaMama]

Last night I tried out parenting for the first time, with one of my other, established couples. While I had experience with adopting a sim child, the sim baby and toddler years are new for me. My first impressions of toddlerhood is that the kid is almost unplayably creepy to me!! He has the proportions of a 6-year-old, but in miniature, so he looks like a six year old who can't do anything but roll around and cry. Did this stage strike any of you in the same way? Maybe it's worse because I'm playing long lifespan.

[jmz95]

On the subject of toddlers...

The whole point of teaching them how to walk, talk, and potty is so they will age up well.  That means you get to pick their traits.  But in a Legacy Challenge, all traits are rolled random, so you don't get to pick their traits after all.  So then, what's the point of teaching them that stuff?  They'll still age up and the game will choose a trait for them.  I personally go ahead and teach toddlers because I'm overly fond of them, but I think anyone could skip all that and still be within the rules of the Legacy Challenge.

Well, if you don't teach the toddlers their skills, doesn't the game give you a "bad" trait automatically? Kind of like if your pregnant sim is in a super bad mood the whole time and never reads a pregnancy book or visits the doctor, the baby could get a trait like technophobe or something.