The Sims 3 4x4 Dynasty

[Pam]

(Some day, though, I will find a way to convince Metro to let us move houses within a neighborhood! )

Yeah, I'm not thrilled about that part.  It would be nice to just be able to move when the family gets money instead of building.

Thanks, everyone, for the comments and suggestions.  I'm still thinking on it.  This one just seems a little overwhelming to me right now.

[Shirin]

It does seem overwhelming, but in practice, it really isn't.

As a (long-winded) example, I'll share what I did for my first world PM you what I did with my first world, Bridgeport. Hopefully, you find it somewhat helpful.

[hazelnut]

Yeah, I'm not thrilled about that part.  It would be nice to just be able to move when the family gets money instead of building.

If you start with a townie household who have a largish house, you should be set for the first four generations - and then you'll easily be able to afford to move into the largest empty house in each of the subsequent towns, because you don't have to reduce the household funds until after the move.  (Just avoid that one on the island in Barnacle Bay .)  Using existing houses also seems to help with the file bloat.

This one just seems a little overwhelming to me right now.

It really isn't.  It's a lot like a combination of the other three dynasties and, I think, has a lot of the best features from each of them.  The real problems seem to be bugs and a shortage of opportunities, which aren't anything to do with the challenge itself.  I'd advise disabling any expansions you don't need for your planned challenges, to help keep things as simple as possible.  Most of us are playing without Seasons and I really wish I'd disabled Pets as well - although I can't see you managing without your cats .

[KRae]

I completed this last fall, but I never write stories. There's a post somewhere on this thread of my stats. Probably back in November. This takes heavy planning so heirs don't cross-over skill challenges. I had fun though in my own OCD way.

[Pam]

If you start with a townie household who have a largish house, you should be set for the first four generations - and then you'll easily be able to afford to move into the largest empty house in each of the subsequent towns, because you don't have to reduce the household funds until after the move.  (Just avoid that one on the island in Barnacle Bay .)  Using existing houses also seems to help with the file bloat.

It really isn't.  It's a lot like a combination of the other three dynasties and, I think, has a lot of the best features from each of them.  The real problems seem to be bugs and a shortage of opportunities, which aren't anything to do with the challenge itself.  I'd advise disabling any expansions you don't need for your planned challenges, to help keep things as simple as possible.  Most of us are playing without Seasons and I really wish I'd disabled Pets as well - although I can't see you managing without your cats .

Thanks, hazelnut.  I would want to start with a founder (Midnight Dreamweaver), so I'd have to get a cheap house.  I don't have the thing that lets us turn off expansions.  I can see the wisdom of setting it to summer constantly, though.  And, true, I wouldn't be able to go without my cats! 

[Shirin]

As someone who doesn't use mods, I did pick up the Game Selector option. ITF auto-rejecting opportunities if you aren't in a rabbithole hurt me pretty badly at the beginning. I have every faith in your ability to plan, but if ITF starts twisting, Game Selector may be something to consider.

Also, I'm looking forward to Midnight! (Mine started the same route, my Immortal gen8's daughter.)

[LivvieLove]

Thanks, hazelnut.  I would want to start with a founder (Midnight Dreamweaver), so I'd have to get a cheap house.  I don't have the thing that lets us turn off expansions.  I can see the wisdom of setting it to summer constantly, though.  And, true, I wouldn't be able to go without my cats! 

Pam, if it makes you feel any better - I was petrified of this challenge for a long time. I thought "this looks way too complicated for me!" Then after I completed my Life States Dynasty, I felt like I just needed a project to work on that would challenge me and interest me - so I decided to come back and look through the rules and honestly they're not that bad! In practice it's much easier than it looks. I keep a notebook in front of me with all the rules (and regulations - especially the ones I would be silly enough to forget!) and another notebook with a loose strategy. I first thought of all the skills I would want to use and spread those out, then I thought of which towns might best be suited for those skills, then I laid the towns out in order that I would use them and arranged the skills to each generation accordingly! I also did this with careers. Using Twinbrook to knock out my Professions that would be needed there, Isla Paradiso for my Scuba Diving and lifeguard career, and so on.
You're very good with challenges, so I have no doubt that what you do will turn out wonderfully!
Also, for starting with Midnight, you can bring in townies to help you out with money in the beginning. Honestly though, money is the least of my problems in my file (I'm still in world 1).
I just recommend having a backup plan if all else fails!

[Nutella]

I don't have the thing that lets us turn off expansions.  I can see the wisdom of setting it to summer constantly, though.  And, true, I wouldn't be able to go without my cats! 

Getting those opportunities phone calls is going to be a big problem (if you have ITF installed).  I mean you can use private investigator's opps, but I don't think there is enough PI opps to go around for 16 generations.  You will need to have all your heirs get rabbit hole careers and just wait out for the 4 opps to come in through work.

Pets and seasons expansion packs are the two that give me serious lag problems in my dynasty.  There is always some pet stuck somewhere in the world and lags everything out.  I love pets in real life, but in sims game, pets are just major annoyance for me.

[bluebelle]

Can the founders for the first town share a job? I picked the townie option and the sim I chose as a spouse has the same job as my founder.

[Trip]

I don't see why not. The founders don't need to worry about uniqueness among themselves; they just need to worry about how their choices affect the heirs.

[Shirin]

Hmm. Inquiry.

While I'm wrapping up Generation 8, I like to plan far ahead. In that vein, I am planning for World 4 to be Lunar Lakes, but only for the first two generations there; I'd like Generation 15 & 16 to live in Oasis Landing. That being the case (and that I disabled ITF almost immediately because of the opportunity issues), do I need to purchase all of the buildings/property in both Lunar Lakes and Oasis Landing, or just one?

Though, that begs the question: do the Astronomer and Arena Bot careers even come with opportunities?

[Nutella]

@Shirin

I am going to say just all of the buildings/property in Lunar Lakes.  However I would like to hear Trip's opinion on this.

Sorry I have no idea if the astronomer or arena bot careers have opps, haven't played with those career much.

[Trip]

I don't necessarily see a reason to require you to buy the buildings in Oasis Landing either; after all, the game still considers Lunar Lakes your homeworld, right? (I don't have ITF, so I'm rusty on some of the mechanics)

Obviously, not having ITF makes me a bit clueless on the career ops too. Hopefully someone else has an answer.

[Shirin]

Far as I know, Lunar Lakes is still the homeworld, so I'm fine buying all of those. I may enable ITF and play a test file to check on the career opportunities.

After I find my ITF stuff.

Thanks, Nutella & Trip

[christinal3106]

Well, since my supernatural dynasty went up in flames, I am off to try this one.  Maybe moving worlds will keep the file size down.  Anyway, I was a little confused about the cloning.  It was mentioned earlier in this thread that the heir could clone a baby and use it for a spouse.  It was also said that children that were already in the household could become a heir's spouse.  So, is it okay to just have a heir's parents clone a baby to use as the heir's spouse or not?