The Sims 3 Immortal Dynasty Challenge

[Twinmum]

The best friends have to be alive when you eat ambrosia. If one dies before you can eat it, you need to find another best friend to stay eligible to eat it.

Norma

[Pam]

I've learned that's it's best to make best friends with Sims who are the same age or younger than your targeted immortal.  I had Molly French die before Carina ate Ambrosia, but she had plenty of other best friends to replace her.  Just something to keep in mind when you're making friends.  And the Charisma skill is an enormous help in that area.  I won't have it as a SuperMax skill because I want all of them to be able to have that skill.

Edit:  I meant to say the same age or younger than your targeted immortal.  Sorry about that.

[AriaGirl77]

And don't forget parties!  That helps a ton when trying to make friends.

[Schipperke]

I have a question about deathflowers.  I've never used them and am not sure how they work.  If one of my immortals is saved from death by having a deathflower to give Grimmy, will the Reaper just come back the next day?  What makes this an issue is that Holly, my founder's wife, is at present the only one with enough cooking skill to be able to prepare ambrosia.  I do plan to have the Gen 3 immortal take on cooking for her SuperMax skill, but she's just been born so she won't be ready to take over ambrosia preparation for a while. 

So, depending on when Holly dies, there may be a period of time before Christie (Gen 3) is ready to make ambrosia.  Will my immortals be able to rely on their deathflowers to keep them going for a few weeks if need be, or do I need to start training another cook right away?

[Metropolis Man]

I have a question about deathflowers.  I've never used them and am not sure how they work.  If one of my immortals is saved from death by having a deathflower to give Grimmy, will the Reaper just come back the next day?  What makes this an issue is that Holly, my founder's wife, is at present the only one with enough cooking skill to be able to prepare ambrosia.  I do plan to have the Gen 3 immortal take on cooking for her SuperMax skill, but she's just been born so she won't be ready to take over ambrosia preparation for a while.  

So, depending on when Holly dies, there may be a period of time before Christie (Gen 3) is ready to make ambrosia.  Will my immortals be able to rely on their deathflowers to keep them going for a few weeks if need be, or do I need to start training another cook right away?

That's an area of the game I'm unfamiliar with too, Schipperke. I just asked Pam and she said when Grim leaves the Elder's life stage is reset to the beginning of that particular life stage. But, you definitely want to always keep deathflowers in any immortal's inventory as that failsafe mechanism.

[Aristana]

Question! My second generation heir just turned young adult and I've been eyeing romantic options for him for a while. The thing is, the one that I had chosen turned elder on his birthday. I haven't actually been able to find any suitable young adult women for him to romance and it's kinda scary that the adults could potentially turn elder before they could bear a child. I know the rules say birthday cakes can only be used on a sim's actual birthday but what about neighborhood sims? Can I age up one of his friends with a birthday cake? And if not, is he allowed a divorce to find another woman capable of child bearing, in the case that an adult he moves in is just about to age up? I assume I would still have to keep her in the house in that case. Just thought I'd ask about that.

[Pam]

@Schipperke:

Yes, as Metro said, when Grim comes for a Sim who has a Deathflower in inventory, the Sim brings it out and gives it to Grim, who leaves happy and the lifestage is reset to the beginning.  Grim won't show up again until the Sim dies again.  If there's another Deathflower in inventory, the same thing will happen.  No Deathflower and it's the end of your Sim.

All that being said, I'd suggest that you get another cook trained up as soon as possible anyway.  It won't disqualify you, but the main point is to get your elders to qualify for Ambrosia.  So, if it were me, I'd work toward that.  But that's just me.  Also, eating Life Fruit will extend your Sim's life by one day.  If they eat, say 7 Life Fruits at once, they would get an extra week tacked onto their life.  This can be another option until you have a cook who can make Ambrosia.

[Schipperke]

Thanks, Metro and Pam.  Pam, I know you're right - the safest course of action would be to take Mortimer away from the easel for a while and get him cooking.  But I was sort of hoping to avoid that if possible, just because it takes so long for them to get their painting skill to the top, and he is already an adult.  What makes this hard for me is not being used to playing multi-generational families (never).  I'm glad I can come here and get information and advice from players like yourself that know a lot more about this type of gameplay.  Thanks again.

[Pam]

Question! My second generation heir just turned young adult and I've been eyeing romantic options for him for a while. The thing is, the one that I had chosen turned elder on his birthday. I haven't actually been able to find any suitable young adult women for him to romance and it's kinda scary that the adults could potentially turn elder before they could bear a child. I know the rules say birthday cakes can only be used on a sim's actual birthday but what about neighborhood sims? Can I age up one of his friends with a birthday cake? And if not, is he allowed a divorce to find another woman capable of child bearing, in the case that an adult he moves in is just about to age up? I assume I would still have to keep her in the house in that case. Just thought I'd ask about that.

It's a good idea to have your heirs start making friends in school so that you'll have some options for a spouse that are in the right age range.  As for a divorce, even an adult who is about to age up will wait if a pregnancy is achieved.  As long as she gets pregnant, she will stay an adult until the baby is born, even if she was due to age up the next day.  You'd have to hurry with a pregnancy if you got into that situation.  Barring that, if you still want your Sim to remarry, it's possible to have them break up, but you can't move the first spouse out.  He/she will have to live in the Dynasty house until death.  It could get tricky moving in a new spouse with the jealousy issues, but it's not forbidden in the rules.  Another option would be to wait until the first spouse dies to remarry.  This would work well especially for male heirs because they can have children even as elders.

As for using birthday cakes for other Sims, unless Metro says otherwise, I say that the rule for using birthday cake only on the actual birthday stands.  It doesn't state that it's only for Sims in your Dynasty house, so I'd say it counts for everyone.

Great questions. 

[Pam]

Thanks, Metro and Pam.  Pam, I know you're right - the safest course of action would be to take Mortimer away from the easel for a while and get him cooking.  But I was sort of hoping to avoid that if possible, just because it takes so long for them to get their painting skill to the top, and he is already an adult.  What makes this hard for me is not being used to playing multi-generational families (never).  I'm glad I can come here and get information and advice from players like yourself that know a lot more about this type of gameplay.  Thanks again.

What about the third generation heir?  He/she could start to learn cooking as a child with the toy oven.  They can get up to level 3 cooking that way just from making cookies and muffins.  They have to cook a lot, but it's definitely possible.  Then continue through teenage years.  Maybe even give the Natural Cook trait.  In my opinion, you'd do best by having an immortal that can make Ambrosia.  That way, you're done training cooks for the duration of the challenge.  If you keep using spouses to cook Ambrosia, you'll have endless cooking training and recipe purchases.  My founder is my Ambrosia cook and it really is a relief to know that I don't have to fool with that again.

[Aristana]

It's a good idea to have your heirs start making friends in school so that you'll have some options for a spouse that are in the right age range.  As for a divorce, even an adult who is about to age up will wait if a pregnancy is achieved.  As long as she gets pregnant, she will stay an adult until the baby is born, even if she was due to age up the next day.  You'd have to hurry with a pregnancy if you got into that situation.  Barring that, if you still want your Sim to remarry, it's possible to have them break up, but you can't move the first spouse out.  He/she will have to live in the Dynasty house until death.  It could get tricky moving in a new spouse with the jealousy issues, but it's not forbidden in the rules.  Another option would be to wait until the first spouse dies to remarry.  This would work well especially for male heirs because they can have children even as elders.

As for using birthday cakes for other Sims, unless Metro says otherwise, I say that the rule for using birthday cake only on the actual birthday stands.  It doesn't state that it's only for Sims in your Dynasty house, so I'd say it counts for everyone.

Great questions. 

Thanks! He does have friends his age but the child the Keatons spit out has her father's face and all the others are...well, not very attractive either. I have to have the best for my heir. I think maybe I'll try going to China and scope that out since he wants to go anyway. It would be cute to have little fan waving, chopstick using heirs.

[Storyteller]

You learn something new playing this challenge, I can assure you!

My second generation Sim is a guitar player.  I started him maxing the guitar skill and he is now level 10 with two of the skill challenges done.  Anyone want to guess which one he can't seem to finish?  That's right, Guitar Star.

To either Pam or Metro (or both):  In one of the other challenges - I believe it was the Max Skills Challenge - the rule set mentioned to treat the Guitar Star challenge as bugged.  Should I treat it that way in this challenge?  Or should I just allow Brandon to max another skill instead?

[Pam]

To either Pam or Metro (or both):  In one of the other challenges - I believe it was the Max Skills Challenge - the rule set mentioned to treat the Guitar Star challenge as bugged.  Should I treat it that way in this challenge?  Or should I just allow Brandon to max another skill instead?

We won't treat it as bugged in this challenge.  It's not impossible to do, just very difficult.  The thing is that the skill challenge isn't clear as to what the requirements are.  It took us a good long time to figure out that it's for the guitar opportunities that come over the phone.  Once you complete 10 of those opportunities for guitar, the challenge will be met.  It's very helpful for guitar to be the only skill at the time of trying to complete that challenge.  If you accept any other skill opportunities, it's just that much longer until another guitar opportunity can come because the slot is already taken with another opportunity.  So, it's really up to you if you want to ditch guitar for a SuperMax skill or try to get it done, but no special consideration for it from the Immortal Dynasty ruleset point of view.

[Metropolis Man]

As for using birthday cakes for other Sims, unless Metro says otherwise, I say that the rule for using birthday cake only on the actual birthday stands.

Agreed. Thanks for filling in so much last night, Pam.  Lots and lots of questions.

@Everyone — Pam had a great tip and that's that her Founder is making all necessary Ambrosia for later generations. It's exactly what I'm doing with Recipe Man. And it's primarily the reason why that Dynasty hasn't made enough progress for an update. He'll be doing all the paintings, sculptures and photos and the Ambrosia. But, I should have an update by the end of the weekend.

[Twinmum]

Pam had a great tip and that's that her Founder is making all necessary Ambrosia for later generations.

With my new dynasty, I'm hoping Jackson can get the food replicator as one of his rewards. I've never had that in a game before, so I'm hoping all goes well.

Norma