The Sims 3 Immortal Dynasty Challenge

[Karmel4]

This challenge inspired me to register on this site. I have been playing Sims since Sims 1 came out - a very long time - and I have done many, many challenges. So far, I have tried and failed at this challenge 4 times! How in the world do you all do this? I have failed because: unable to accomplish all related skill challenges (do you know Logic has 5?) ; unable to find a life fruit seed; unable to get 6 best friends and keep them;  & unable to find a spouse & get skills to paint portrait in time. My founder starts out with half his YA life already gone due to some weird game aging thing then when he gets married he has forced time off from work so he loses work days to advance his career. My people are in such bad moods because they are living in squalor which affects everything they do! I spend time roaming the neighborhood for seeds which I can't find. Not that I'm complaining or anything..... I just want to know how you max a job, super-max a skill, complete a lifetime wish, find someone to marry & raise an heir, search for life fruit seeds, catch a death fish, paint everyone's portraits, build up enough money to buy buildings & property and upgrade them, complete 6 unique opportunities, AND have 6 BEST friends! On NORMAL aging. 8 times. Please, someone, throw me a lifeline!

[Widonja]

For me, personally, the hardest thing is getting 6 Best Friends, as my sims are never the most social type (exept Rock stars and actors/directors)... I think you should BFF everybody, while you're at it, so you don't lose them... I didn't do that, but I had the bad luck that 2 of my best friends died when my sim was getting close to elder. He then went to crash, attend and throw parties to get friends, then eat ambrosia soon, as other things went good!
(Gardening gets a lot of easy opps (they are great black opps!), in the end, I supermaxed fishing - it's easier than gardening, if you're in a hurry... Job and LTW were related - my sculptors and artists got a lot of money so a lot and building was easy!
 
Collection Helper LTR helps alot with finding seeds! just grab a dozen or two of the special ones... Don't forget the sprinklers!

[cathyknits]

It helps to set yourself up for success! Think about what skills you have to have in the household to get your founder to immortality:

- Someone needs painting at 7 before the founder's Adult birthday.
- Someone needs cooking at 10 before the founder dies.
- Someone needs gardening at 10 before the founder dies.
- Someone needs fishing at 7-8 before the founder dies.

The founder doesn't have to do all these things him/herself! There's a reason a lot of people have Agnes Crumplebottom or Christopher Steel (or both!) in their household, and it's not just their stunning good looks. Pick a career and super-max skill for your founder related to one of the four things above (other than painting - you can't paint a self-portrait, alas), and pick a spouse and/or roommate who can cover the others - I found the Sims Wiki really useful for this. Give your founder traits to help him or her succeed at the career of your choice. Spend Lifetime Reward points on social advantages (Never Dull, Office Hero, Attractive) to help build and keep those friendships.

You'll find that a lot of the problems are less for later generations - money shouldn't be a problem after the 2nd or 3rd generation gets started, and they'll be able to get a headstart on skills and friendships as children and teens.

Also - learn in advance where the special seeds are located (Carl's Guide has good maps of Sunset Valley), and check just those spots - there should be a lot of special seeds right near the Dynasty lot in Sunset valley.

[Sportsfan]

@Karmel: I found that if you spend your first days in the game looking for a spouse, it makes it a lot easier. It doesn't matter who it is (although a lot of people prefer Agnes Crumplebottome and Christopher Steele). Then you can have them work on painting first, have a child, and then work on one of the skills necessary for Ambrosia.

[samoht04]

Karmel, welcome to the Forum!

My Advice is pretty simple. Get help, don't leave it all for your Founder to do. What I did was have my Founder supermax Cooking, which is also needed for Ambrosia, two birds with one stone, as they say. She got the fridge from the Culinary Career, which helped a lot with keeping Perfect foods. Cooking is so easy to Supermax, cheeseplates count for the Menu Challenges.  Charisma in my opinion should be a free for all, take a class as early as you can, then whenever you socialise the Skill raises.

In my Dynasty I had three Sims move in with my Founder. My Founder married Hank Goddard, he was there for Photography, Sculpting and Gardening. Agnes moved in, she brought her Car and money, $100,000 straight away. With the Painting as a backup already done with Level 7 she went on to Sculpting and achieved the 25 Ice Sculptures. Chris Steel married Agnes, he did Painting and fishing. My Founder managed to get her stuff all done early on, with the money made from Consigning and her Career things were going well, she bought her Workplace, then the Park across the road. The Gen 2 Heir married the child of Agnes and Chris, they were the Artists. They have both maxed out Painting, Photography and Sculpting. Gen 2 supermaxed Painting, reached the top of the Painting Career because all of their paintings as children were kept until they were adults and then sold, with his Wifes experience at selling her parents stuff and the Suavve Seller trait it scored some riches.

So long story short, it is harder if you give your Founder more to do, I shared out the tasks and it went great, my Generation 4 is now a Child, his Mother has supermaxed Martial Arts and needs her Career, Opps and Friends, she is still a YA. Also pick the easier skills to do first, don't go for something hard like Logic as a founder/gen 2 supermax, wait until there are funds around and Moodlet Managers, Spa Treatments, Etc.

Oh and if you have LN and you get high level celebs just watch the gifts pour in. I sell them if they are duplicates, I raked in $200,000 once from selling them. 

If you want to know more about what I did I have a story written about my Dynasty, as do a lot of us. Reading the stories can help you see how others did things and the order. Mine is the Jade Dynasty which is linked in my Sig. There are several that have been completed though so check those out as well.

Hope this helps and you can get a Dynasty going! 

[Ricalynn]

@Karmel:

The best place to start is research before you start the challenge.  You may think you know the game but a lot of times it's little things that mess you up.   I have two dynasties both going at the same time and I'm at generation 3 and generation 4.   Also, long before I ever started my dynasties, I had completely read several of the dynasties that are now on the Hall of Fame. Not just those, but a lot of the ones that are on the active board as well.  You can get ideas on how people have done things in the past.  I know Pam's Dreamweavers and Metro's Mans were big inspirations for a lot of dynasty challenge players. 

Also - if you're playing in Barnacle Bay - that could be part of the problem.  I only know one person who has played there and she didn't do a story but she's on the Hall of Fame list.  If you have questions about where to find stuff, I would be more than happy to answer them to the best of my ability in a PM or I'm sure there are a lot of people that would be willing here on the boards.  The people on this forum are some of the best I've ever typed with!

Good luck and remember it's OK to fail!  I had 5 failures before my current version of the Steel dynasty. 

[ratchie]

Karmel, I have completed the immortal dynasty twice so here are my tips for completing the immortal dynasty.

Marry a rich Sim. Many people have completed the challenge with low starting funds but why bother if you don't have to.
Know who your Sim is going to marry and find out where they live. That way the happy couple can be joined together in holy matrimony by the end of the first day.
You don't have to have a baby straight away I personally think it is better to wait and give the spouse or room mate chance to build up the painting and sculpting skills.
Have at least two children in generation one you are going to need the spare to paint the heirs portrait.
Make looking for seeds a priority in your first couple of Sim weeks. While the spouse works on painting have your founder hunt for seeds and read gardening books.
In later generations either have sons who can procreate in the elder stage or marry older Sims who will die sooner rather then later.
I agree logic is hard to supermax but you can start working on it in the child stage.
My biggest tip is to plan everything. Know exactly who is doing what and how they are going to do it. In my second dynasty I had the whole thing planned out right down to careers and supermax skills.
Last but not least enjoy playing the game.

For me personally Agnes was a godsend. She had a high painting skill,her loner trait meant that she actually enjoyed spending time on her lonesome sculpting ice sculpture after ice sculpture,she had a pretty high cooking skill so getting her to learn the ambrosia recipe was easy. Then I got my founder a job in the science career which involved him building up the fishing and gardening skills which he needed to get the life fruit and death fish.

Rachel

[VampirePlasma]

I know this has been asked before, but there are so many pages and I can't find it.
If you have Ambitions do you need to do the Ice Sculptures? and are Photographs required too?

[cathyknits]

Photographs and ice sculptures are optional, but will boost the final value of your museum.

[VampirePlasma]

Okay thanks 

[Widonja]

Is there a Townie Sim that knows photography? Is there a way to learn photography other than take A LOT of pictures?

[Seabody]

Is there a Townie Sim that knows photography? Is there a way to learn photography other than take A LOT of pictures?

I think foreign sims know it, and read the Photography Skill Book to learn the first 3 levels. There is only one book.

[samoht04]

Widonja, you can max Photography in two days if you fully concentrate on the photographer. It is just getting the values that is hard, you have to get as many pictures as possible of the different categories to raise th evalue of future photographs.

[TheChronicR]

For later generations, it's also worthy to note that all adult Sims in Champ Les Sims have a Photography skill of at least six. However, as Thomas noted, it's one of the easiest skills out there. Of course if you don't have the bug.

[samoht04]

I vote on getting Photography done by an Immortal early on, mainly because I hate taking so many pictures just to boost the price when you can only do it once for an Immortal. I had my Founders Spouse do Photography then Agnes and Chris' Daughter, followed by Gen 2 Heir who married Agnes and Chris' daughter.