The Sims 3 Immortal Dynasty Challenge

[Audren]

I can't answer your questions about the museum, because I'm not sure how the two lots work yet, but I can help with your other questions.

3. If you have 7 Sims in the household, then Immortal 6, or any other Immortal for that matter, is guaranteed to have a single birth. (Since there is no room for more than one Sim) You're right that it can be a game-breaker, as it happened in Juxtaposition's Dynasty and very nearly ended her game. (There was a one-time fix used that allowed her to continue. If it were to happen to you, don't assume you could do the same)

4. I don't believe those lights are allowed, since they're listed under buydebug. Somebody please correct me if I am wrong on this.

[lvrugger]

If you want to make sure you don't have twins or triplets, adopt pets. Pets and Sims max out at 10 individuals, with 4 for pets and 8 for Sims. If you have 6 Sims and only want to have a single nooboo, adopt 3 pets. You are free to give them up for adoption or sell them after the nooboo comes.

[Shirin]

I'm trying this dynasty for the first time. It's almost time to place my first portrait in the museum! I have a couple questions about the museum:

1. Is it allowed to build the museum on Lot A, and later rebuild and move everything inside to Lot B?

2. Is it allowed to move portraits around within the museum after they've been placed? (NOT swap them out - I mean to move already-placed portraits to a different wall or recenter them, if I were to make a structural change to the building, for example.)

I'm asking those questions because (I'm not entirely clear on them from the rules and) my founder and her two roommates have been...well, utterly profligate, and we did not reach financial goals related to the museum. This has led to a very partial, thrifty build of what I had in mind, on the home lot. (Obviously, though, I can work with what I've got, if I must!)

Also, I have some other questions, not related to the museum:

3. Is there a way to prevent Immortal #6 having twins? It seems like this would end the dynasty. (I suppose Immortal #5 having triplets--first one female--could also cause the same problem.)

4. I think the BuyDebug lights are not allowed since they are not listed under the tech rules - is this correct? (Or are they a building cheat? I have noticed that they are very handy for indoor portraits in other games.)

Please forgive my newbieness - and thanks for your help!

1. My understanding is you could do that, but with the understanding that anything you place in the private lot museum will never appreciate in value. The challenge team will correct this if I am wrong. Also keep in mind, you may never ever ever move. Ever. So you can't initially build on Lot A (the assigned home lot), then later to move Lot B and take the things with you.

2. Yes, you can do that. As long as they are already on display - so no holding onto them in inventories first.

3. This has been addressed, but just to reiterate - if you already have 7 sims in the household, you won't get twins. Which really translates into, Immortals 1-6, plus 6's spouse/partner. Getting twins would mean either an immortal died, or 6's spouse/partner isn't living in the household, which translates into failure (unless you are super-unlucky, and the spouse dies between conception and birth, I suppose).

4. Buydebug is not allowed, period. It's not a building cheat, it's where you can go to buy things in game that is outside of normal gameplay.

[Turoskel]

Ricalynn did mention in the past that some of the blueprints have the buydebug lights in, I noticed some of the new pool blueprints do as well, that is one way to get them legitimately, you can clone them once you have one.

One word of warning though if you have anything you placed already with move objects when you preview/accept a blueprint it deletes them, I tried this after reading Rica's post and it deleted a door and some of my photographs I had placed close together, so be wary.

[Antalia]

Thanks everyone!

And oops - for #1 I should have clarified - I was hoping to build the museum on a separate lot (like the property requirement one) from the house. But wild misuse of money prevented me from doing that before the first portrait had to go in--I had to build it on the home lot. Anyway, it sounds like it's better off there, since the portraits can appreciate. I'll have to work with which graphics settings to turn down to eliminate the slight stutter I now have when moving the camera, at times. Everything is maxed, so there should be plenty of room to fix it.

For #3 I don't know why I wasn't counting the spouse/partner being there to save me from twins happening. I see that now. The suggestion about strategically adding pets to the house in case of impending disaster is great - Pets is my only expansion, and I'm glad to see it potentially put to some good use for once!

The bad news is, I tried all kinds of things I found on the internet to get a decent portrait of my dark-skinned founder, that wasn't a featureless or demonic-looking black-and-dark-orange blob. I started outdoors, but it just wasn't working. (I only tried ~5 portraits out there...I probably needed more.) Then I tried placing tons of lights set to maximum brightness in an indoor studio, just behind the camera and right in front of where my subject's face would be (like a real-life photographer's studio), as well as behind the canvas. It still wasn't working.

Well, having played lots of dark-skinned Sims, I was a bit fed up and had had some experience before with what the portrait algorithm seemed to want. I gave it a BuyDebug light behind the canvas, and a halo of them floating around where the subject's face would be. I finally got my first recognizable portraits at that point. I did have a sinking feeling, when I did it, that this was probably not within the rules, and I knew it was a risk. I had somewhat been hoping for a do-over anyway--so I viewed it as a coin toss.

The second time around, we probably won't have the 'fun' storyline about all the misspent cash! Who knows what will happen this time. Thanks again all!

[Shirin]

Some things that might help with the portraits and lights are, when placing lights, set the color to Flame - it seems to give the most "normal" tone. And don't set the max brightness to 5 - it's a very harsh light. Otherwise, outdoors during daytime, or just a well lit room without the max brightness.

Or stick with the demonic looking founder

[Ricalynn]

Something else as a suggestion.  Dark red founders also give trouble but I found that NOT using overhead lights and using the outdoor lights on the ground that point up at the Sim are actually better for getting clearer pictures.  It causes a lot less shadows in the face area.

[Rhoxi]

Just wanted to doublecheck, what with new expansion and all, can we place one of the new EA resort lots in our town? Not sure if there's an update to the rules coming for Island Paradise, besides the bit I already saw about moving towns/building on water.

[Ricalynn]

There has not been a IP update.

[Steleus]

I've been playing Sims for a long time (since Superstar), and have yet to complete a legacy ever! I'm starting this one tonight. We'll see how it goes, but I'm super excited!

[RainBeau]

Just wanted to doublecheck, what with new expansion and all, can we place one of the new EA resort lots in our town? Not sure if there's an update to the rules coming for Island Paradise, besides the bit I already saw about moving towns/building on water.

Reminder--if you play your file with Island Paradise installed before the update to the rules comes out, you forfeit your right to place IP lots.

[bubbles]

With the cameras in inventories at the start of the game, can we use them if a spare is taking up photography for the museum? Do we need to buy a new one to keep the game fair?

[Vesper]

With the cameras in inventories at the start of the game, can we use them if a spare is taking up photography for the museum? Do we need to buy a new one to keep the game fair?

from the rules under Game Set Up and Lot Choice "Players much choose to either sell the camera or keep it forever (never ever sell).  If you sell it, do it before the next step.  If you have more than $1800 after purchasing your lot or selling a camera , then temporarily use the family funds cheat to bring starting funds down to $1800" (I presume it should read "must choose")

[bubbles]

Thanks Vesper, but I was asking whether we are allowed to use the cameras if we choose not to sell. This isn't for my founder, anyway. This is for Agnes who is doing all the museum pieces for the founder.

[Vesper]

Well yes you can use them; otherwise why keep them? If they weren't supposed to be used we'd be told to sell them I think.

If I were you I'd see if you can get a better camera at the consignment store anyway :-)