The Sims 3 Immortal Dynasty Challenge

[Sportsfan]

Gen 1: career could be either. The gardening can be hard but the trick is if you play in SV feed the omni plant the most expensive fishing book everyday. And then when gen 2 is YA travel to get the seeds you need to make it easier to do the 19 different plants challenge.
Gen 2: for the LTW I would do either living in the lap of luxury or swimming in cash. That way you have more skills open and photography can be bugged.
Gen 3: sounds good.
Gen 4: I would definitly say do not do inventing. Instead do painting which is super easy self employment and a super easy skill to supermax.
Gen 5: Just do the nectar making career.
Gen 6: looks good to me
Gen 7: do fishing career. It will be easier to supermax that way and you won't have to worry about getting too many fares it skill points.
Hope this helps!

[Sportsfan]

Thanks for the tip margertia you don't happen to know what forum those tips where on was do you. It is such a pain to go back and look though I tried.

The supermax skills topic is here

[Xanatos]

Gen 1: career could be either. The gardening can be hard but the trick is if you play in SV feed the omni plant the most expensive fishing book everyday. And then when gen 2 is YA travel to get the seeds you need to make it easier to do the 19 different plants challenge. 
Gen 2: for the LTW I would do either living in the lap of luxury or swimming in cash. That way you have more skills open and photography can be bugged. 
Gen 3: sounds good. 
Gen 4: I would definitly say do not do inventing. Instead do painting which is super easy self employment and a super easy skill to supermax. 
Gen 5: Just do the nectar making career. 
Gen 6: looks good to me
Gen 7: do fishing career. It will be easier to supermax that way and you won't have to worry about gettingtoo many fares it skill points. 
Hope this helps!

I really want generation 2 to be able to do the entire museum and I also want to try out inventing because I haven't been playing it much or ever. Thanks for the help though. One last question how is photography bugged. Thanks again for all the help.

[Sportsfan]

With WA inventing would be a lot easier because you could just take your inventor on a lot of trips. I was just saying that because it's hard to complete the challenges while making money for the career.
A lot of people have serious bugs with photography. Im not sure because I haven't tried it out yet. Maybe it's not for your game. If not, definitely go for it!

[Xanatos]

I haven't done a ton of photography but every time I try it it seems to work but I have never got past about a level 6. So if it is bugged I will just forgo that part of the immortal museum. And I do plan on using a lot of vacation time based on others stories I have read. Thanks a million for the help.

[Deme]

Well, if Xanatos is vetting his/her plan, I may as well ask for some opinions on my trial's plan.
Now, ideally, I'd like to clear up cooking so I don't have a locked "chef's kitchen" in the house...But don't know what to replace it with.

Gen 1:
Gardening - Perfect Garden - Gardening
Gen 2:
Painter - Master of the Arts - Painter
Gen 3:
Cooking - Culinary Librarian - Culinary
Gen 4:
Sculpter - Misc - Sculpting
Gen 5:
Handiness - Astronaught - Military
Gen 6:
Writing - Professional Author - Writer (Journalist)?
Gen 7:
Martial Arts - Physical Perfection - Super-Star Athlete
Gen 8:
Logic - Paranormal Profiteer - Ghost-Busting!

I find Charisma and Athletics are either a) good skills, or b) too easy to gain on for me NOT to leave free. Guitar sounds kind of frustrating (but not too much more than gardening, I guess – both rely on opportunities), and I absolutely can’t do nectar-making or photography…And I’m a beginner, so I’m not sure about inventing. I’m also concerned about which skill goes which: 7 painting is easier to get to than 10 cooking + ambrosia recipe, so maybe I should switch gen 2 and 3 around? Or switch cooking for fishing, since 5-ish fishing isn’t too hard for a spouse or spare to get for a little while?

Edit: Oh, and to whomever suggested the joys? Thanks. They're working out pretty great for my needs so far. Now to find Elaine a boyfriend and father of gen 2's helper...

[TallStar]

@Deme,
the one thing I think might be hard for you is Ghost busting as a career so late in the game. I say that because when you have a household of eight, unless you're really good at dealing with all of them you might not be able to do the ghost hunter's career and take care of all the others.
And a good career for your sculptor could be Swimming In Cash, Living In The Lap Of Luxury, or Lifestyle of The Rich And Famous.

[Deme]

I don't have Late Night, so "Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous" is out, since I think that relies on celebrity, doesn't it?

As for Ghost Hunter...I can actually handle those pretty easily. If you use pause, it's not a hard profession in the slightest to control, even with multiple sims. I've actually run 2 ghost hunters at the exact same time with no issues. ... Because I just love it that much.

[Metropolis Man]

Welcome to the forum, Xanatos and Deme. Good luck with your Dynasties.

[Pam]

I didn't see Metro comment on the FAQ issue.  So, if a couple of you want to put together a list of questions and answers from the pages of this thread, I'd be happy to review them and post into a sticky thread.  You can send it to me through our private message system

[Ricalynn]

Xanatos - First off Welcome and Good luck!

Secondly - I'd recommend going for culinary instead of gardening career if you're going to have your sim learn all the recipes anyway.  It'll be an easy way to make your first 6 friends and keep them that way without parties or a lot of socializing (gotta love hanging with co-workers) plus the Fridge is such a nice moodlet to give anyone that randomly just walked through the kitchen.   This also means you don't have to worry about getting money trees or the omni plant to hit level 10 of your career. 

Deme - Welcome to the Forums and Good luck!

If you're looking for a place to put someone don't forget that the business career is easy to max out really and it goes great with any of the skills to be supermaxed.  As for having a locked kitchen - Really as long as you keep food in the fridge (my chef makes everyone's favorites every couple of days with ambrosia in the replicator) then you don't have to worry about cooking as long as they don't accidentally get a point in it.   Then again it all depends on how controlling you are of your sims' actions.  If you're willing to pause and handle two ghost busters, I think you can handle making sure no one gets any skillpoints they're not supposed to have.   Just be careful of field trips for kids.  My Sims have started to get points in things they shouldn't by going to the science facility or the bistro. 

[Jurk0wski]

Hiya, first post, but I've been lurking every couple days to check stuff out. I've decided to do this challenge (in fact I plan to Let's Play it and put it on youtube, might be a first, dunno, haven't checked), but I do have some questions. I know there's a conversation going on right now about an FAQ, so some of these may even help. I'm rather paranoid about making sure stuff is correct, since I don't wanna restart, so bare with me.

Before creating your Founder, make sure you are patched up to the most current EA patch.

I refuse to install the EA downloader, and since the last expansion I got was generations, my base game is currently 1.21.123.011001. Is that okay or should I look into a method of patching that doesn't involve the EA downloader? Answered

No cheats or modifications* are allowed.

I have a framework mod that allows me to easily install/remove another mod. The framework mod doesn't actually touch gameplay as far as I know, so is it allowed so long as I remove the other mod for the duration of the dynasty? Answered

Exiting without saving to avoid a mistake or an unfortunate occurrence (i.e. burglar or fire) is cheating.

This part hits me a bit. When I save, I do "Save As..." every time to make sure I have a back-up incase of a Big Fiery Ball Visible From Space (a BFBVFS is an error that comes up when your neighborhood is corrupted, often seen when you travel) and if I'm going to be recording video, I may have to cut it due to my hard drive getting close to full so the video becomes jagged to compensate. I'd be tempted to go to a previous back-up. If I cannot go to a previous save due to technical issues that are within my control, I can get around it by using individual frames from bad videos as screen shots for filler while I get the recording to work again, but it wouldn't be as optimal as I'd want.

TLDR (Too Long Didn't Read); can I revert to a previous save if hit with an in-game error or if I have technical issues recording my gameplay with fraps? Answered

All potential immortals must result from natural pregnancies of Sims living in the Dynasty house. Non-immortals may adopt if they choose to do so.

Does the mother/father have to actually be a spouse or can it also be someone who agrees to move in? further on this: can a non-spouse who moved in and adopts a child have that child be a future mother/father/spouse for a future immortal? (essentially letting me have a separate line of sims who's sole purpose is to make the spouse for my immortals) I do understand that either way, all sims would have to live a full life. Answered

In this Dynasty Challenge, the act of eating Ambrosia and placing a deathflower in personal inventory is a reward reserved only for your Founder and each generation’s firstborn child upon reaching Elder status (no immortal can eat Ambrosia and place deathflowers in inventory before that).

does this also include the initial harvesting of deathflowers or can I harvest them and then immediatly put them somewhere no sim can reach until needed (or even re-grown and hope for a good green thumb)? Answered

3. Max a skill not maxed by other immortals. All related skill challenges from the Skill Journal must also be accomplished for the skill. This is the single "SuperMax" skill that must be unique to each immortal.

This one confused me a bit. I understand supermaxing a skill, that's no problem. What gets me is, can I for instance have skills that all my immortals can max so long as a DIFFERENT skill is unique to all of them? say for instance (and I likely will not do this) I have all my immortals max athletic for whatever reason, is it okay so long as they each have a different unique skill? Along with that, does the unique status only apply to supermaxed skills (such as allowing all immortals to get cooking up, but only one can ever supermax it, and it counts as a unique skill for that sim)? Answered

5. Purchase 3 Lifetime Rewards not purchased by other immortals.

Same question as my previous. Can I for instance have all the reduced needs / easier motive rewards on all my immortals so long as they each have 3 unique rewards? (Example: letting all my immortals have steel bladder so long as they have 3 unique rewards) Also, do the three rewards count object rewards, or only rewards that stay with the sim as a bonus? Answered

7. Complete 6 Opportunities no other immortal has completed. These can be Career, Skill, or Special Opportunities. These are your BlackOps.

Do these include events around town such as the olympics and the eating contest? And by unique ops, are they done by the title of the op, not by what you need to do? I'm fairly certain there are ops out there that have you do the same things just with different titles. Answered

8. With the exception of your Founder, each immortal needs to have 6 portraits painted of themselves — one for each of the following life stages: Toddler, Child, Teen, Young Adult, Adult, and Elder. These are the sole items for your Immortals’ Museum. Your Founder needs to have Young Adult, Adult, and Elder portraits added to the museum before eating Ambrosia. Once placed in the museum, paintings cannot be replaced with new paintings of the same immortal.  Optional: Photographs and/or ice sculptures of each immortal at the same life stages may be included in the museum if expansion packs are being used.

Is it alright to not do the elder portraits and such if the sim never reaches it? I'm certain some of my immortals will get their stuff done before they hit elder (I bet I can get one done by young adult if I really tried). Answered

Traveling is banned until the 2nd generation becomes Young Adult.*
*Due to some really major traveling bugs it is highly recommended you do not travel with any unmarried Sims.
Vampires are banned in all towns.

This I need to ask. I DESPISE traveling. I hate it with a passion due to all the bugs it causes. So, my question is simply this: can I use buydebug solely to buy nectar machines? I don't need them, but they're nice to have, and I'd really rather not risk traveling to get them. (I can get the books and such from the consignment store if I look enough, not sure about the machines). If I cannot, I revert to my previous question about saves. Can I backup my town before traveling, travel, buy what I need, leave, and check to see if it's corrupted, and if it is, revert? Answered

Vampires are banned in all towns.

Generation's potions and rewards that reverse or freeze age are not allowed.

Not even after an immortal becomes, well, immortal? Answered

I think that's all my questions. I'm going to go research what my sims should be to do this optimally now.

[Juxtaposition]

No vamps or age freezing, since continuing doses of Ambrosia is part of the challenge.

You can harvest Death flowers, but make sure they're not on non immortals, I threw them in the museum until I had an immortal to hold them safely. If a death flower is used by a non-immortal your dynasty is sunk so use with caution.

Your grasp of super maxing a skill is correct as long as each immortal has their own unique skill, the non reserved skills can be used by any Sim.

As far as I know, the non immortal Sim doesn't need to be technically married to your immortal to produce the next generation, as long as the non immortal parent is living in the home, and lives there the rest of their lives. Yes you can create a separate line of household members to have a groomed spouse for future generation, many players have done just that. But they all have to live their entire natural lives in the house, so be careful doing this later on as spaces will be a a super premium by generation 5.

As long as no other Sim buys the unique required rewards, you can buy other rewards (such as steel bladder) for every Sim, as long as NO Sim claims it as a requirement, ever.

You need a portrait of each life stage, whether you're ready to make them immortal before then is irrelevant, it's one of the requirements for the HoF.

Errors are different than scripted events like meteors or burglaries. Re loading is allowed only the event that you are trying to salvage a corrupt or bugged file from the garbage. I myself had to do that multiple times.

I know I didn't answer every one of your questions, but I answered what I could.

[Seabody]

I refuse to install the EA downloader, and since the last expansion I got was generations, my base game is currently 1.21.123.011001. Is that okay or should I look into a method of patching that doesn't involve the EA downloader?

Patch Manually. There's a thread here.

I have a mod that allows me to easily install/remove another mod. the framework mod doesn't actually touch gameplay as far as I know, so is it allowed so long as I remove the other mod for the duration of the dynasty?

No. Flat out. I asked Metro a question, something like "Can I have this mod, but not use the feature it brings?". He said no.

[Jurk0wski]

Thank you both for the responses. (I edited out the name of the mod I was using to match your quote since I figure you did it because I shouldn't have named it). I'll look over the install instructions and see if I can safely remove the framework mod then.

Also, I was hoping you could clarify about the unique skills. Is a skill unique when it's supermaxed, such that an immortal can claim cooking as his or her unique skill if it's supermaxed but other immortals simply have it normal maxed?

edit:

You need a portrait of each life stage, whether you're ready to make them immortal before then is irrelevant, it's one of the requirements for the HoF.

I'm confused by this because I'm looking at the pictures of some of the HoFers, and it appears that not all of their sims are elders, though this could just be because they made their elders look young.
Edit#2: Looked further, yeah, they were all elders who just were suited up to look younger. Got it.