Good towns for Dynasties

[MarianT]

I was thinking that people might report on their experiences with dynasties in various towns. We have so many to choose from that it might be helpful to know what problems to expect. Things to include might be changes to make in Edit Town, ease of finding a spouse, ease of movement, and any special pros and cons.

I'll begin with Isla Paradiso --

Changes to make in Edit Town:  If you have Supernatural, you need to put in Aleister's Elixirs yourself. Also, if you're doing an Immortal
Dynasty here, you need to add another building, as there are only 7 available for purchase.

Spouses: Plenty to choose from if you're starting an Immortal Dynasty or arriving in a 4x4 Dynasty. Children are sparse for a DecaDynasty -- only 4 women are pregnant at the beginning, and there aren't many children or toddlers at the beginning. 4 mermaids at the beginning if you're doing Life States.

Ease of movement:  Slow. I would not recommend a houseboat -- sims have trouble returning to it from the sea. Unless your sim is on the same island as his destination, he has to change modes of transportation, i.e. vehicle to boat to vehicle, and that takes time.

Special pros: Gorgeous scenery for screenshots. 5 diving opportunities available once your sim has 2 points of diving skill. 3 of the buildings cost only 1200 simoleons. Collectible seashells and fish.

Special cons: Lag, especially in the beginning. It does get better, though, as the townies that get stuck either move out or die. I'm on the 4th generation, and rarely experience more than a minute or two drag. (Or maybe I've just gotten used to it.) resetsim * is your friend. The school/stadium combo means that your child and teen won't be able to complete school opportunities.

I would recommend this for the 4x4 Dynasty (although the cheaper buildings are offset by the requirement to upgrade the 3 resorts).
Anyone playing here might want to consider getting special permission to raze the houses that are likely to produce lag (I think there's one where people get stuck in the swimming pool?). If you're doing an Immortal Dynasty, I'd suggest replacing the school/stadium combo and also one other combo to get the required 8 buildings.

[LivvieLove]

Well, I only have two towns I can really say I experienced, but I'll go for the less known one first.
Dragon Valley.

Changes to make in Edit Town: Dragon Valley is a blank slate. It doesn't auto place ANY lots. I love that. It has a TON of 64x64 lots so you can place the Backlot from Late Night, the large Equestrian Center from Pets AND that large Showtime Venue if you really want and STILL have room for your Sim to start a Dynasty. The only thing I can say I struggle with is the 20x30 lots, there are plenty but they're all facing the wrong way and I'm OCD.

Spouses: Dear goodness. Bradan MacGrath is a day away from completing his LTW. He's also considered very wealthy. There's also the O'Shea brothers, they can make for one, a great spouse, or two, a great populating device for the town. Sioban Murphy is gorgeous and I believe she's also artistic - well into music, but it can go either way. I adore the Sackholme siblings. There noses can be a bit small but I always try to include them in my files. The O'Connells are rich, the O'Reilys are gorgeous and I think fairly well-off. Aaron Finnigan makes pretty children and my personal favorite: Quinn Flannagan. I adore him. I just... he's just awesome. He's relatively high up in his career. He learns the logic skill very quickly (good for young again potions for your Life State's Dynasties) and I absolutely adore his genes. All beautiful children. Though he is a full fledged adult, you'll get plenty of time with him to make it count!

Ease of Movement: I love this town. It's easy to move and it's easy to locate things. Even when I use mods that would heavily bog down the town I experience little or no lag. The layout is easy to use and in general I find it incredibly pretty to use. I was able to complete my Life State's Dynasty after a long haul through there with minor issues. I did have crashing towards the end, but that was because another file got corrupted and I was in dire need of a Factory Reset.

Special Pros: Lots of big lots, free baby dragons everywhere (that sell for $1,000 after it's been hatched), a community garden to get your crops started, no already placed lots that you have to delete because they're where you want to be, there are very few combined buildings for anyone who still struggles to get those opps to roll... the list could go on. Not to mention it's a gorgeous town, it's got mountains and beautiful colors. It looks like fall all the time!

Special Cons: The Special seeds (for the most part) are found on top of those mountains. Talk about a run. When your Sims travel it will drop you off on the other side of the world (which takes a long time to recover from). There aren't any EA lots placed from the start (so if you really just wanted to get up and start, you would have to place lots first, I don't mind doing that, but like I said - OCD). Finally, any and all EA lots will seem out of place. I tend to try to use the Pets versions of Ambitions lots as they look a little better, but until you get your hands on them to upgrade and fix, those lots will likely look a lot out of place in this beautiful town.
**There's now children's books in the library originally. However I've messaged the Mods and they've said that with Dynasties it's ok to add the toddler bookshelf. If you do plan to do that though, I would double check with a mod!

Overall, I highly recommend it for ANY Dynasty. I struggle to run Isla Paradiso, Bridgeport and even a full Sunset Valley after a certain generation, but this town has never given me any problems, all the way to generation 7 of a Life States Dynasty. It's a beautiful town, I can SUPER recommend it for a Life States as if you wait long enough most of the townies will be turned and you can encourage a townie-only dynasty there. I also love the genetic build there. I really dislike the EA middle-slider face, so it's nice to have a lot of variety.
The other town I've played in is Sunset Valley, but I think everyone knows the pro-cons of that one, summed up in my opinion.
Sunset Valley.

Changes to make in Edit town: Sunset Valley is really a mess to me with all the lots that need to be placed. Honestly all the auto-placed lots drive me mad. I bulldoze every single one of them and have to replace everything. Not fun.

Spouses: Everyone knows the spouse choice of Sunset Valley, but to sum it up for others who haven't played long: Agnes. Agnes. Agnes. Agnes. CRUMPLEBOTTOM! If you're in Sunset Valley, she's likely your new best buddy. There's always Chris Steel, and what not, those are usually the go-tos for a Dynasty, but I encourage people to look at Leighton Sekemoto, Tori Kimura, Emma Hatch, Cyclone Sword, and Mortimer Goth (if you can wait for him to age up, he's quite a nice looking townie).

Ease of Movement: Sunset Valley USED to be good for my computer, but with all the expansions and everything, I'm worried I won't actually make it to the end of my Immortal Dynasty I've started there. The town feels cluttered - especially if you have all expansion packs. Not so much if you don't though. So, I'd weigh the options there.

Special Pros: Most people know this town like the back of their hand. There are no combined buildings, and the Immortal Dynasty was almost built with Sunset Valley in mind (as it was the first town and the town that everyone has).

Special Cons: There is all of 2 or 3 women pregnant at the start, so no children will likely spring up anywhere else. There is a lag that will come up after a few generations of playing (I've only had this with almost all expansions installed). And this may just be every town, but I feel like Sunset Valley's special seeds take a very long time to show up for you to hunt them down.

Sunset Valley is obviously a good town, it's the first town, so I can't complain too much about really knowing all the townies that live there. There's a full graveyard with plenty of options for a spouse if you're really running out of ideas and you've got a Witch ready. I would recommend it for any dynasty, just keep in mind that if you're staying there for all 8 generations to plan your expansion pack addage accordingly.

**Edited because I totally forgot about a piece in the library!

[MarianT]

Wow, Livvie, what a ringing endorsement for Dragon Valley! It's almost enough to make me start an Immortal Dynasty there.

[Trip]

A few game-days away from completing an immortal dynasty in Twinbrook, so I have some perspective.

So, Twinbrook:

Changes to Make in Edit Town

• All of the Ambitions lots are placed already, and in logical locations, so it saves a bit of time that could be spent placing them or placing them in a better place (however, this does mean that if you're playing by dynasty rules, you can't move the buildings around without breaking the rules).
• Twinbrook doesn't autoplace too many lots. It places down Performance Park, Port-A-Party Warehouse, and the Equestrian Center, but the rest is your job to place, and Twinbrook has very little space along roads for empty lots and just not that much space in general. However, it does teach you that you don't need to place everything down just to play a dynasty.

Spouses

• If you're doing an immortal dynasty, your choices are either rich or talented, and never both. And the "skilled" sims in town are relatively better-skilled; Marc Brandt might have the highest painting skill in town, but he has four points, is a mature adult, and not rich.
• I can think of three sims with nearly auto-completing LTWs: Sofia Carlton will complete her LTW of Living in the Lap of Luxury once you sell her car, and Dennis and Silver Racket both have money-related LTWs (Living in the Lap of Luxury and Swimming in Cash, respectively) that may not autocomplete when you move them in, but you'll get pretty close if they bring along the family's VFW Kompensator. Sofia is the only one that screams "dynasty spouse," because she's childless and single, making her the only one of those three who is a legal choice for a decadynasty or a 4x4, but she's really tough to befriend because she dislikes children.
  Otherwise, mostly everyone in town has a ways to go with their LTWs. And considering that the EP came with Ambitions, there are plenty of sims with nearly-impossible profession-related LTWs, or ones I just loathe like Monster Maker and Descendant of da Vinci.
• There are plenty of families with nice cars, though. DeAndre Wolfe has a Margaret Vaguester. Sofia Carlton, the Sargeants, and the Jones-Brown-etc. family all have Bwan Speedsters. The Rackets and the Bakers have VFW Kompensators.
• Yes, I know Twinbrook has questionable genes. I had enough sims marred by weird profiles and bad cheekbones and big ears in my dynasty to know this first-hand. However, it's not going to make you fail a dynasty either. Start a breeding program, select the best to continue their lines, and watch bad features eventually die out. Plus, even the worst sims in town have something redeeming about them.
• There aren't that many children in town, and most of the adult townies are, well, adults or older young adults. There is one pregnancy at the start of the game (Jenni Jones-Brown and Goodwin Goode; their child usually turns out cute, though). There are two toddlers, six children, and six teens. However, there are a lot of men in town, which is great for people like me who have a fondness for townie breeding programs.

Ease of Movement

• Twinbrook has a really straightforward layout. Nothing is really far apart from other things, save for some of the far reaches of the swamp, and the dynasty lot is a short drive away from the center of town. Probably the best part of playing there.

Special Pros

• Not that many parking spaces, which is great for keeping lag down. The only lots with lots of parking spaces are the consignment shop and the sports stadium.
• Lots of ghosts of different types, which is great if you're doing a life states dynasty.
• You start to like having a small dynasty lot after a while. It forces you to build small, which might feel restrictive at first, but not when you're 75+ weeks into a game and still having decent rendering times for your house.
• It's SO SCENIC. I love swamps and I love looking at the town when it rains, or at sunset.
• More of something that I personally feel, but the atmosphere of the town lends itself really well to darker storylines, if you're into that sort of thing. It's not like you have to write a dark story just because you're playing in Twinbrook, but if it's already on your mind, Twinbrook is definitely a town to consider.

Special Cons

• The genes, if you're sensitive to that.
• Lack of free space.
• Small dynasty lot.
• Older population.
• This is just from personal experience, but the town is mostly allergic to turning townies into supernaturals. I got a grand total of four original townies who turned into long-lived supernaturals in my dynasty. It makes getting original townie spouses a little more difficult, but I worked around it anyways.
• Twinbrook does not have a proper bookshelf of skill books in its library. However, the Edit Town rules for dynasties and challenges do allow you put them in the library via Edit Town before you begin. (Thanks MarianT!)

I know it's not a ringing endorsement, but I still love Twinbrook, as everyone knows. More than half of it is sentiment and the other half is familiarity. Don't totally knock it just because I had a few critical things to say; I fully enjoyed my time there and my dynasty won't be the last time I'll play in Twinbrook.

[MarianT]

Trip, even though it's mentioned several times in the Forum, you might want to add that it's necessary to place a skills bookcase in the Twinbrook Library. That said, I think it's incredibly scenic, too, especially during the Fall.

Lucky Palms

Changes to Make in Edit Town:  I think everything is auto-placed already. If your family is living in one of the houses on the water, the time portal will place on a community lot.

Spouses:  If you're doing a DecaDynasty, Darren Dreamer and Doreen M. are the obvious choice. Darren is also a good choice for an Immortal Dynasty spouse with his artistic skill. There are several unwed mothers in the town, so be careful in spouse-hunting -- your choice could already be pregnant or the father of someone else's child. With 5 babies on the way, however, the next generation should have a good choice.

Ease of movement: Lucky Palms is kind of sprawling. Allow time to get around. If your sims live on the water, they have a long run to the road where the school bus and car pool pick them up.

Special pros:  Great scenery if you like deserts. Several good houses for decadynasty -- roomy, on spacious lots.

Special cons:  Fall foliage is disappointing. The only problem is with regard to the rules that spouses not have children from previous relationships. With any prospective spouse, check the family tree before getting married.

I enjoyed playing in Lucky Palms.

Riverview

Changes to make in Edit Town:  I think everything is placed okay. I can't remember if you need to move something from the dynasty lot.

Spouses:  Billy Caspian is an obvious choice for an Immortal Dynasty, either as a spouse or helper. Plenty of singles for a decadynasty.
My main regret is that you can't put Bob Newbie and Betty Simovich together as a couple.

Ease of movement:  No problems that I can remember. The deathfish spot is not in the graveyard, but the map on the guide makes it easy to find.

Special pros:  Flat lots make building easy. It's also fairly easy to get screenshots. The warehouse is used for the festival lot, so your sims will stay fairly dry on rainy days.

Special cons:  The row houses on Constance Shelley's street are pretty small (and my families lived in two of them).

This is a great place for a dynasty. The Riverview families are almost as familiar as those from Sunset Valley.

[Trip]

I always forget about the skill bookcases (mostly because I never care enough to place them). Will do.

I also added a bit about parking spaces (there are a lot at the sports stadium too, but really, Twinbrook does not accumulate that many cars), and a somewhat personal opinion about how the town works very well for darker stories.

[LivvieLove]

Wow, Livvie, what a ringing endorsement for Dragon Valley! It's almost enough to make me start an Immortal Dynasty there.

I absolutely LOVE Dragon Valley. I also like that all the buildings aren't named silly things either. It's a very nice serious town.
I had to edit my post though because I forgot an important thing!
Dragon Valley's Library lacks the toddler books. This isn't a huge deal, as you can always buy those toddler books super cheap and take the toddler there to read them for the same effect. However, after speaking with a few mods they didn't seem to mind if (before starting) you put the bookshelf in that contains the toddler books. If you're going for HOF though, make sure you double check before doing so!

[Shewolf13]

I LOVE Hidden Springs.  I'm a huge fan of mountainous regions and the scenery for this particular town is just beautiful.

Changes to make in Edit Town:  The Fountain of Youth must be placed from here (can't use it in Immortal Dynasties anyway, at least not until your immortals have completed all requirements).  The lots are fairly spacious, though the Immortal Dynasty lot is a bit far from the center of town, though I actually liked that.  I don't think it takes any longer to get places than you would normally need to be.  I think you need to place skill books in library, but I can't remember off the top of my head and I never bothered to do so heh.

Spouses: The spouse pool is a big one.  My personal favorites are the Freespirit Household with two females and one male, and then there's Ryan Anderson as well who has at least a level 3 painting skill for Immortal Dynasties.  There are also several couples for DecaDynasties as well as 4X4.

Ease of movement: Like I said above, the Dynasty lot is a bit out of the center of town, but it's never been a problem for me.

Special pros: I really can't stress how beautiful the scenery is.  The story of the townies is a lot of fun too.  I love that the story of Cinderella is implied.  The Fountain of Youth is also a lot of fun.

Special cons: Many complain about lag and glitches with Hidden Springs, but I've never had an issue.  The only issue I have had has been after a meteor hit, the game lagged, but it cleared up after a while.  Some of the properties that need to be upgraded are on small lots, so I would suggest building a basement XD

I would recommend this for any of the Dynasties, though the properties/buildings are a bit expensive at times so in a 4X4 might take a bit to get all the buildings/properties.  The Townie backgrounds and the scenery make for a great backdrop for stories.

[Pam]

This is an excellent thread!  I'm going to make it sticky so it doesn't get lost on the board.  Thank you, MarianT, for starting it.

[Deklitch]

Some of my thoughts and experiences regarding Riverview, feel free to use/disregard as you like

- I always seem to have problems with the Founder Lot being bumpy, not flat.
- There is nothing over the dynasty lot
- There are a lot of elders in town, which can be great for helpers at the start of dynasties and for pollinating
- Hunter Cotteneye has a high level of fishing, however he doesn't like people too much ...
- There is another large lot in Riverview which is currently hosting the equestrian center. It was auto placed (not part of Vanilla Riverview) and so can be replaced by something else eg movie studio.
- There are a number of anglers in town
- no lot designated already as beach, however there are a few lots that can be redesignated so that you can get the beach for your 'around town' photo collection
- no joint rabbitholes (so no issues with rabbithole opportunities), although some don't always register as the subject needed for photo collections
- plenty of 30 x 40 empty residential lots, limited numbers of 40 x 40 empty residential lots, also a number of 20 x 30 empty residential lots
- no omni plant at back of science center, however some residential lots do have some plants in back yard.
- overall an enjoyable town to play in

[Lisa46]

I'm going to chime in right now, with my personal favorite: Monte Vista

Changes to make in Edit town: Basically just adding lots, including with seasons one from the exchange... It can get a bit crammed if you want to add bars so I recommend against that.

Helpers: Two words- Carlotta GilsCarbo. Fishing 9, Cooking 10, LTW achieved. She is married with a son, so she might not be the best spouse, but you can always try. The only painter I know of is Carlo Mancini, but I believe he is a level 8.  Sebastiana Russo May be hard to woo but she is Gardening 8.

Ease of Movement: It's not too sprawling, but allow a little time to arrive...

Special Pros: The helpers are really good. In terms of helpers, I would say that Monte Vista and Dragon Valley are the best.

Special Cons: There isn't much space to add accessible bars by the road. A Mixology supermax might not work well in this town. Also, if you choose the second dynasty lot you will be far away from everything. Choose the 27 address not the other one.

Added by Chuckles_82:
- Use Gino Ferrari for the car, and better yet, the Minus 1 Kelvin Fridge by Friday night week 1, and yet more LTH points with another completed LTW
- Use Su Lin Chang for a sculptor. Have her invite her boss over, make them BFFs, then ask for a promotion. More instant LTH points and completed LTW, so you can give her midlife crisis and make her a sculptor/photographer

[tirajm]

Lunar Lakes

Changes to make in Edit Town:  Lunar Lakes does autoplace lots, and is a fine example of why that's not always the best idea.  Though there's a fair number of empty lots, many of them are much too small to place anything on.  There are very few, if any, 20x30 lots, which makes placing new lots slightly awkward.  I would strongly recommend converting some of the larger lots that you don't plan to use into multiple smaller ones, and placing the combined Elixer/Consignment store from Union Cove.

Spouses and Helpers:  The Crosses are easily the best choice for helpers.  Alexander has high ranks in Gardening, Fishing, and Handiness; Patricia has a few ranks in Painting and is only one promotion away from completing her Lifetime Wish.  Wayne Ahmadyar isn't a bad option for a cook and his Hopeless Romantic trait makes him easy to marry.  For a more dedicated painter, Doris Lucas and Sofia Vanderburg are good options.  Doris has Painting 8, so she can paint portraits right away, but she's a single mom, so you either have to wait for her teenage son to age up or take her kids with you.  The town seems to be more focused on young couples and families with kids, so it can be a good option if you want to do a DecaDynasty.  There aren't a ton of single Young Adults, however.

Ease of Movement:  Lunar Lakes does not score well here at all.  The two large mountains to the north of town are a pain to navigate and the dynasty lots are both located on the outskirts of town.  A lot of the houses are rather awkwardly designed as well.

Special Pros:  Lunar Lakes has plenty of resources for gardening and fishing; all the large domes have plants in them, and the canal goes through pretty much the whole city and has fish spawners in it.  There are lots of interesting-looking townies with unusual hair or brightly-colored eyes.

Special Cons:  Though it was mentioned already, the layout of Lunar Lakes is not great.  Some of the lots are just completely unusable for Dynasty players, given the Edit Town restrictions, including some very cool ones.  Also, I don't feel like there are that many options for Young Adult husbands.

[dontmindme]

I'll add some more to Livvie's Dragon Valley endorsements.

Changes to make in Edit Town: You have to place every EA building you want, which is actually pretty cool as you get to decide where things are. This means you can cut down on travel time if you plan it right but it also means that you won't have access to anything you don't place.

Spouse: There are sooooo many good spouses/helpers in DV, it's not even funny. You're not going to find a ready painter but you will easily find a ready gardener or cook (sometimes both on the same person). I say it all the time but the homeless townies here are your Immortal Dynasty best friends. Gardeners who can already plant special seeds, cooks who can prepare ambrosia as soon as they learn it, and fishermen who can already fish for deathfish are all in the homeless townie population. Yes, you won't get any money from them but their skills more than make up for it. And once you ask one homeless townie to move in, you can select any of their housemates to move in as well. I usually grab at least Nuala O'Ryan because she's lvl 7 in gardening, 5 cooking, and 9 logic. Get her to 10 and she can start tutoring your sim in those skills. Bradan MacGrath, as mentioned earlier, infuses some much needed cash into an early Dynasty without the hassle of moving in a household of four or more people. You'll want Siobahn Murphy or Nessie Lochlan if you plan on starting with someone who has some painting skill. Choose Siobahn if you really, really need cash as she's much higher in her career than Nessie and is a YA to Nessie's adult. Honestly, though, why would you need to begin with someone with painting skills when you have people fully skilled in other areas, ready to add painting to their collection of skills? Of the families in DV, remember that Morida O'Connell is a YA, not a teen, so she's ready if you want that O'Connell blood. Keep a close eye on the newspapers the first week as three babies will be born and help you plan for your next gen spouse. The Prendergast household (aka the orphanage) can hold one more child so you can get Cassidy's genes into the pool or wait for Sophie Dwyer to age up and use hers (warning though, those Dwyer and Lawless genes seem really dominant). While Lorna McCann is too old to be a spouse (unless she's de-aged somehow), she does bring in some great logic and cooking skills and is very high ranked in her medical job.

Ease of Movement: Everything, save the school, stadium, and criminal warehouse, is centrally located, most buildings and many houses are along one street. A couple of townie houses are out in the middle of nowhere near the warehouse or on the island but not many, overall. If you take the 64x64 lot near the center of town, your sims will practically walk everywhere and do so quickly. Everything is really streamlined here, so much so that horses rarely get stuck (so I've seen).

Special Pros: Where to begin... this place is gorgeous. Like, seriously gorgeous scenery and architecture. The wallpapers and styles that come with DV are to die for (the female short hair looks great on almost any female sim). The properties are comparatively cheap to purchase (pretty sure the rabbit holes are priced the same but the rest is cheaper). Free dragon eggs everywhere you look and it seems (to me, anyway) that the graveyard dragons tend to skew towards logic/black dragons if you have the gold version. Interesting skin sliders (aka rainbows) abound here and should last for generations, provided you are pollinating the town. A lot of male sims exist who can get the job done. For me, though, it's the sense of history and tension throughout the place that really draws me in. I don't know if anyone else sees it but it's easy to imagine the strife and the push/pull between the various ranks within the Valley. You have families like the Mithrilens who are so insular and isolated that the husband and wife are almost clones (and are two of ~six sims on the dark rainbow slider counting their two children, make of that what you will), families like the O'Connells who don't seem to have a trace of 'native DV blood', and the many sims somewhere in between (DV hair+normal skin+DV ears, normal hair+DV skin, etc). You have some sims who seem to have lived for a very, very long time, the implication that dragons aren't as gone as everyone wants to think (Prendergast household description), and just, gah, so much history. It's how the Valley is changing and what that means for the future that really fascinates me. 

Special Cons: You have to download the Dragon Valley Seasons Festival Grounds from the store site, I believe (it's free), and manually replace the community town square to get it. It's worth it, though. As previously mentioned, special seeds are atop mountains so getting a teleporter ASAP will help out a lot.

[LivvieLove]

I'll add some more to Livvie's Dragon Valley endorsements.

Changes to make in Edit Town: You have to place every EA building you want, which is actually pretty cool as you get to decide where things are. This means you can cut down on travel time if you plan it right but it also means that you won't have access to anything you don't place.

Spouse: There are sooooo many good spouses/helpers in DV, it's not even funny. You're not going to find a ready painter but you will easily find a ready gardener or cook (sometimes both on the same person). I say it all the time but the homeless townies here are your Immortal Dynasty best friends. Gardeners who can already plant special seeds, cooks who can prepare ambrosia as soon as they learn it, and fishermen who can already fish for deathfish are all in the homeless townie population. Yes, you won't get any money from them but their skills more than make up for it. And once you ask one homeless townie to move in, you can select any of their housemates to move in as well. I usually grab at least Nuala O'Ryan because she's lvl 7 in gardening, 5 cooking, and 9 logic. Get her to 10 and she can start tutoring your sim in those skills. Bradan MacGrath, as mentioned earlier, infuses some much needed cash into an early Dynasty without the hassle of moving in a household of four or more people. You'll want Siobahn Murphy or Nessie Lochlan if you plan on starting with someone who has some painting skill. Choose Siobahn if you really, really need cash as she's much higher in her career than Nessie and is a YA to Nessie's adult. Honestly, though, why would you need to begin with someone with painting skills when you have people fully skilled in other areas, ready to add painting to their collection of skills? Of the families in DV, remember that Morida O'Connell is a YA, not a teen, so she's ready if you want that O'Connell blood. Keep a close eye on the newspapers the first week as three babies will be born and help you plan for your next gen spouse. The Prendergast household (aka the orphanage) can hold one more child so you can get Cassidy's genes into the pool or wait for Sophie Dwyer to age up and use hers (warning though, those Dwyer and Lawless genes seem really dominant). While Lorna McCann is too old to be a spouse (unless she's de-aged somehow), she does bring in some great logic and cooking skills and is very high ranked in her medical job.

Ease of Movement: Everything, save the school, stadium, and criminal warehouse, is centrally located, most buildings and many houses are along one street. A couple of townie houses are out in the middle of nowhere near the warehouse or on the island but not many, overall. If you take the 64x64 lot near the center of town, your sims will practically walk everywhere and do so quickly. Everything is really streamlined here, so much so that horses rarely get stuck (so I've seen).

Special Pros: Where to begin... this place is gorgeous. Like, seriously gorgeous scenery and architecture. The wallpapers and styles that come with DV are to die for (the female short hair looks great on almost any female sim). The properties are comparatively cheap to purchase (pretty sure the rabbit holes are priced the same but the rest is cheaper). Free dragon eggs everywhere you look and it seems (to me, anyway) that the graveyard dragons tend to skew towards logic/black dragons if you have the gold version. Interesting skin sliders (aka rainbows) abound here and should last for generations, provided you are pollinating the town. A lot of male sims exist who can get the job done. For me, though, it's the sense of history and tension throughout the place that really draws me in. I don't know if anyone else sees it but it's easy to imagine the strife and the push/pull between the various ranks within the Valley. You have families like the Mithrilens who are so insular and isolated that the husband and wife are almost clones (and are two of ~six sims on the dark rainbow slider counting their two children, make of that what you will), families like the O'Connells who don't seem to have a trace of 'native DV blood', and the many sims somewhere in between (DV hair+normal skin+DV ears, normal hair+DV skin, etc). You have some sims who seem to have lived for a very, very long time, the implication that dragons aren't as gone as everyone wants to think (Prendergast household description), and just, gah, so much history. It's how the Valley is changing and what that means for the future that really fascinates me. 

Special Cons: You have to download the Dragon Valley Seasons Festival Grounds from the store site, I believe (it's free), and manually replace the community town square to get it. It's worth it, though. As previously mentioned, special seeds are atop mountains so getting a teleporter ASAP will help out a lot.

Woot Woot! Dragon Valley lovers in the house!
I was amazed how skilled the homeless townies are.

Big things though that I put in my edits: there are no toddler books in the library! Shame, but not like you can't buy them and take your toddler there.

Also, Dragon Valley will not let you fall into the pudding face. You get one Lawless child in, and you will likely never see the middle-slider face again.
Those O'Reily's too. Great genetics. Morida O'Connell has got great genes too.

[Lisa46]

I have to admit, if I ever do a dynasty again (a second one where I don't mess up so much) it'll probably be DV. If not for the helpers, for the skin tones If you like rainboos I believe everyone is on the color slider except, maybe five people...? Also it is very pretty.
I do have a special con to add- the school is SUPER far away. From Everything! The dynasty lot is in town which is a bonus but the school is so far. It took one of my kids two hours to reach it without the bus on a bike.