The Sims 3 Immortal Dynasty Challenge

[curlybennett]

You can only buy a camera (without cheating) on vacation, and since vacations are banned until the 2nd generation is young adult, isn't it impossible to get photographs of the founder as a young adult, and possibly as an adult, and the 2nd generation as all lifestages up to young adult?

[Schipperke]

You can only buy a camera (without cheating) on vacation, and since vacations are banned until the 2nd generation is young adult, isn't it impossible to get photographs of the founder as a young adult, and possibly as an adult, and the 2nd generation as all lifestages up to young adult?

Cameras do turn up at the Consignment store from time to time, although you may have to wait.  My founder has just aged up to Adult and finally was able to get a camera.

[Metropolis Man]

I have questions about the 6 best friends.  Do they have to be your wannabeimmortal's best friends at the time of eating ambrosia, or best friends at any point?

You need to have 6 Best Friends the moment an immortal eats Ambrosia for the first time because that number 6 is a requirement like all the other requirements for the act of eating the Ambrosia. So, if you'd get 6 Best Friends right away as a YA, and then 2 of them decayed to Good Friend when your Sim is ready to eat Ambrosia, you no longer have met the requirement.

If one dies, do you have to make another?

Not if a Best Friend passed AFTER you met all the requirements and ate Ambrosia for the first time. Once you have eaten Ambrosia there are no requirements to maintain friendship status. If you had 6 Best Friends a couple days before you were planning on an immortal eating Ambrosia for the first time and one of them dying, then it's no different than if you had let the friendship decay — you would no longer meet the requirements and would need to get another Best Friend.

You can only buy a camera (without cheating) on vacation, and since vacations are banned until the 2nd generation is young adult, isn't it impossible to get photographs of the founder as a young adult, and possibly as an adult, and the 2nd generation as all lifestages up to young adult?

Banning vacations until the 2nd generation was Young Adult was one of Pam's contributions. And I believe it was solely to prevent someone (like me, for example) from simply going to China on Day 1, getting all of the base camp books and returning to town with 20k from book sales. I hate changing something again since many players have started their Dynasties, but, curlybennett, you make an excellent point. What if cameras never show up at the consignment store? That does not really seem fair to me. All I need to do is ban the sale of China's base camp books and remove the vacation restriction and I think we'd be good. But, I want to make sure Pam has a chance to weigh in in case there are other reasons why she feels that vacation ban needs to stay.

[templesmom]

Can you use birthday cake? I know for the most part we are keeping the sims around forever so who cares but I usually age up my babies right away. I figure it is banned but I want to make sure.
My other question come from the best friend goal. I see sometimes friends becoming old friends and I was wondering if that is lower then best. I always look at  it as a friend you have had along time. I know distant is worse, but am not sure on old. thanks!

[Metropolis Man]

Can you use birthday cake? I know for the most part we are keeping the sims around forever so who cares but I usually age up my babies right away. I figure it is banned but I want to make sure.

Birthday cakes are not banned. As long as you accomplish your requirements for eating Ambrosia, you're free to age up all Sims as you like.

My other question come from the best friend goal. I see sometimes friends becoming old friends and I was wondering if that is lower then best. I always look at  it as a friend you have had along time. I know distant is worse, but am not sure on old. thanks!

If you open up your relationship panel Sims will always be listed from strongest to weakest, left to right. So, let's say you've got 3 Best Friends listed and then 2 Old Friends followed up by another Best Friend. In that situation you know you're good because the 2 Old Friends are clearly in the same range as your Best Friends. Where it would be more of a grey area would be say if you had 6 Best Friends listed, then 2 Old Friends and finally the Good Friends. Now, it's like...what's real strength of the Old Friends since they're touching Best and Good Friends? But, don't sweat it — I think as long as an Old Friend is immediately touching a Best Friend or another Old Friend that is next to a Best Friend you should be fine.

[Schipperke]

I am wondering how the death flower thing will work.  If our immortal is allowed to have a death flower in their inventory as soon as they qualify to eat ambrosia, how do we acquire that death flower?  If we are dependent on tracking down the right seeds and waiting for the plant to grow, that may take quite a while.  Or can we use the buydebug cheat as in the Grim Reaper Challenge?

If a special seed planted by our sims turns out to be a death plant (before we can use it) what should we do with it?  Do we have to delete it, or is there some way to keep it in storage for when it is needed?

Of course, I am a long way from needing this information!  The Douglas Clan Dynasty is proceeding at a leisurely pace.

[Metropolis Man]

I am wondering how the death flower thing will work.  If our immortal is allowed to have a death flower in their inventory as soon as they qualify to eat ambrosia, how do we acquire that death flower?  If we are dependent on tracking down the right seeds and waiting for the plant to grow, that may take quite a while.  Or can we use the buydebug cheat as in the Grim Reaper Challenge?

No, the buydebug cheat is out of the question. And begging will not help this time.   Someone early on — your Founder or your Founder's spouse — will obviously have a high level of gardening skill because of your Founder's need for the Life Fruit portion of Ambrosia. So, special seeds will be needed pretty quickly. That means Death Plants are pretty much guaranteed to pop up as you plant special seeds. Once the Death Plant reaches the Harvest stage I would just leave it alone until the immortal can harvest it with the death flower going right into his inventory. To me, that's the simplest solution" Bring 8 plants to harvest and just keep them watered but leave them alone. Put the Death Plants far away from the regular garden as "Tend Garden" will automatically have a Sim harvest everything on the lot. That way, you can cancel the cue when they're done with the main garden. I know it seems a bit clunky, but I'm not sure of a better solution. Can deathflowers go in the fridge? That might be another option.

[LlamaMama]

In my legacy, once a death flower is harvested, I remove it from the inventory and place it on the ground near the garden. That stores them in case an opportunity comes up to sell them.

For the dynasty, if a death flower is used to prevent accidental death, can a new one be placed in inventory?

[Metropolis Man]

In my legacy, once a death flower is harvested, I remove it from the inventory and place it on the ground near the garden.

Yeah, sounds like another simple option.

For the dynasty, if a death flower is used to prevent accidental death, can a new one be placed in inventory?

Absolutely. It's not a one-time only deal.

[Telsey]

You can move death flowers from one Sim to another so whoever harvests the death flower doesn't really matter does it?  You can put it in the immortals backpack easily click on the death flower and drag it to whatever Sim should have it and it goes into their backpack automatically).  Is that not okay?  I haven't even figured out the other stuff but this was something I thought I understood.  LOL  Hey, it might be the heat, it is hot here. 

[Metropolis Man]

You can move death flowers from one Sim to another so whoever harvests the death flower doesn't really matter does it?  You can put it in the immortals backpack easily click on the death flower and drag it to whatever Sim should have it and it goes into their backpack automatically).  Is that not okay? 

As long as the recipient is qualified to carry a deathflower, then yes, moving it from one Sim to another is fine.

[MomOfMany]

Another idea with the deathflower is have the first immortal hold them all till your next immortal is qualified then transfer them. As for if they are ready for it and your don't have at least one planted yet isn't there one is all the graveyards to be harvested once? That may help for the first immortal.
Questions now: Can the non immortals max all skills then? Can the non immortals have ambrosia at all like maybe to prolong life a little to help with paintings and what not for a little bit? Like say one time or say it is in the fridge and they eat it without you knowing or go to the diner that serves it without your knowledge. Or are there restrictions for non immortals as well? And birthday cakes are completely unrestricted? So it would be ok to use it to rid elderly non immortal for space?

[Pam]

@momofmany:

No Ambrosia for non-immortals.  That's in the rules already.  Same for getting rid of a non-immortal.  Nothing to expedite death in any way.  I just had a discussion with Metro about birthday cake and he's going to amend his stance to where birthday cake is only allowed on the actual birthday of that Sim.  And yes, non-immortals can max any skills they wish.

Other thoughts...  you can store Ambrosia in a food replicator.  That would be safer than the refrigerator.  The trick is that you have to store it before it's cooked while it's still ingredients in the bowl.  The resulting Ambrosia isn't perfect quality, but it still works the same.  As for getting Ambrosia at the restaurant, it's never said that you're actually getting Ambrosia.  You have the best meal ever and get that great moodlet, but it doesn't change the Sim's age.  If anyone has proof otherwise, we need to hear it.  But for my tests, it didn't change the age at all.

Death Flowers can also be stored in the Family Inventory or in a chest until they are needed.

[Twinmum]

Metro as far as the camera/travel thing goes can I add my 2 cents worth.
You were talking about allowing travel early on but restricting the sales of the books. Why not just leave it as is. The addition of photos and sculptures is not a requirement for eating ambrosia, so why not treat the photos as a bonus.. if you can find a camera early on lucky you, otherwise just get one when you can.

Norma

[simfulicious]

Photos and Sculptures may be "optional", but if you're trying to score well you're going to need as many of them as possible.  At this point in my challenge it would be helpful, not for the camera as much as the treasures I can sell for cold, hard cash.  Didn't think about how some of the Purchasable properties and buildings in Twinbrook are significantly cheaper than in either Riverview (where I am) or Sunset Valley.