A Dynasty is a succession of people from the same family who play prominent roles in business, politics, or some other field. The Family Reign challenge is about one Sim (the Founder or Progenitor) creating a lasting Dynasty in one town and maintaining it for ten generations or more. This is their "Reign".
Note: Please be aware, this is different from the Immortal Dynasty Challenge and any subsequent Dynasty challenges by our wonderful Metro and the Challenge Team, even though I do use the term Dynasty to refer to the family and to their main lot! This does not qualify you for the Hall of Fame here on Carl's Guide, but I would surely love to hear about any stories you may have and any final scores ^^
Goal: Have your Dynasty family fill at least 3 other houses in their starting town, aside from the main dynasty lot and keep them filled for as many generations as possible using wealth and fame gathered during the challenge to cement their Reign.
Set-up/Starting Out: Create a new game using default settings (Normal life span, autonomy on, fill empty homes, aging on, etc)
Make your founder in CAS. No restrictions on traits or aspirations
Move them into the $5,500 lot in one of the towns. Then, have them move households to the large 50X50 lots by selecting the house and picking "bulldoze lot". This should leave them about $10,000. If they have more, then use the money cheat to bring it down to $10,000
Open cheat panel with Ctrl+shift+C, then type in testingcheats on, then type money 10000
Once your founder is on their proper lot, then it's time to set up other things if so desired. You can create each town the way you want it. For example, if you wish to bulldoze all the other houses, evict the other families to start from scratch, go for it. Or you can add what homes/venues you'd like, add your own families, and go from there or a combination thereof. The set-up of each town is entirely up to you, the player!
Build your founder their starter home or keep them living outdoors, that's up to you.
The challenge can now begin!
Rules: 1. No cheating or mods that give you an advantage over someone that isn't using that cheat and/or mod. CC like clothes or hair is fine, or lighting mods as long as it's more for aesthetics. You CAN use the No Culling Mod (and even encouraged because of the fact that losing ancestors off the family tree is a sad occurrence). If you do not use the No Culling Mod, make sure you are keeping track of each generation in a cadet branch as well as the main household. Using FamilyEcho.com is a great way to help yourself as well as using a spreadsheet that will be forthcoming. Also, you can go into manage worlds and delete sims manually to keep the game from culling (would suggest doing it at about 130 Sims). As far as I know, you have to manually count the number of sims to check it. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
2. Along the lines of no cheating, no exiting without saving to avoid a disaster or unwanted outcome. Just run with whatever happens, even if it isn't to plan
3. Traits and aspirations are rolled randomly during this challenge unless Fame points are spent (see Fame Points section for details)
4. Aging up is to be done on the day of the birthday, not before unless Fame points are spent (see Fame Points section for details)
5. Picking heirs is entirely up to the player. Can easily use the options from Pinstar's Legacy Challenge or use your own Criteria. Just try to keep it consistent if possible… or not. All up to you!
6. The heir cannot move from the main Dynasty lot
7. The only families you can play are your main Dynasty family or their cadet branches and only using earned Fame points (see Fame Points section for details)
8. If a cadet branch has spares, they CAN be moved out to create another cadet branch and cadet branches can also earn Fame points the same way the main branch can, though Fame points must still be spent to play them
9. Each Sim can utilize ONE (and only ONE) life extension method, whether this is a Potion of Youth, a Life Essence from the Cowplant, Ambrosia, etc, only one per Sim is allowed. Pregnancy does not count as life extension in the traditional sense, so pregnancy is fine. Bodybuilder is also fine, since it's all gameplay and the right to live longer is earned.
Gameplay: Since the ultimate goal of the Family Dynasty is to populate the starting town using their wealth and fame as the pillar, let's go over how one does that. Well, first off, your founder only gets $10,000 to start with. So beginning to build up funds is important. That would be wealth. The Dynasty Family's wealth is the worth of the Dynasty Lot + cash on hand + any funds in a retail business. This will go toward your final score at the end.
That brings us to Fame. Fame points are the currency used in this challenge. They are how your Founder and subsequent Generations can do what they need to do. First off, to earn Fame Points is as follows:
Maxing skill is worth 2 points for each maxed skill in the family
Maxing careers is worth 10 points for each maxed career
Completing aspirations earns you 5 points for each completed aspiration
For every best friend OUTSIDE THE HOUSEHOLD 3 points is earned
For every A in Elementary school as well as every A in High School, 1 point is awarded for each A
Completing a collection will earn 10 points
For every 20 points you earn via party medals (dates count as well), gain 1 Fame point. Bronze parties= 1 point, Silver parties= 2 points, Gold parties= 3 points
One of the most important uses of Fame points is being able to play a cadet branch of the family. A cadet branch is started when a spare from the main dynasty branch has moved out into their own home. They could have moved in with a spouse or moved out on their own. It costs 5 Fame points per each Sim Day that you play each cadet branch.
The other ways to use Fame points are as follows:
Can age sims up early:
Infant costs 2 points to age up
Child costs 5 points to age up
Teens costs 7 points to age up
In order to be able to pick traits rather than roll them randomly, must spend the following number of points:
1 Trait is 2 points
2 Traits is 4 points
3 Traits is 6 points
In order to pick the first aspiration (which decides bonus trait), it costs 5 points
Moving other Sims in: It is legal to move in Sims other than Spouses. However, their achievements do not count toward Fame Points. One thing I want to say about moving in Spouses. They are part of the bloodline (or will be) once the first child is born. Their achievements count while with the founder/heir. However, should something happen, say a divorce, you cannot move them out and count them as a cadet branch in and of themselves. They would have to be with a spare in order to count as a cadet branch and even then, they do not count as the first generation in that branch.
If you move in a spouse with a maxed skill, or even with a maxed career, as long as they are the intended spouse, then YES you can count them for Fame Points!
Moving out spares: Moving out a spare to start a cadet branch does not cost any Fame points. It does cost Fame points to play them, of course. There are two ways to move a spare out. You can use the method found here
on Carl's Guide or you can have them move in with a spouse (that lives in a house). If you move them out on their own, you MUST spend Wealth. Take the price of the house you move them into out of the family's wealth by using the money cheat. For example, if you move a spare to a home worth $25,468, you need to subtract that amount from your current household cash on hand. If you move them out with their spouse into the spouse's home, there is no need to subtract anything. A homeless spare is not counted as a cadet branch, though this could be utilized if you need space in the main house and don't have the money yet to give them a house. You CAN move them into a house later once you have the money and use them as a cadet branch if so desired.
Now, if you move a spouse in for a spare into the main Dynasty house (a homeless Sim, for instance), and then decide to move them out together, you must still spend Wealth to do so.
Cadet branch rules: There are only a few rules regarding cadet branches. They CAN earn Fame points and are added to the Dynasty total. Their Wealth counts as well. But the only way that it can be counted is if you spend Fame points to play them. So if a cadet branch is started, but is never played, their generations, their wealth, their skills, aspirations, etc do not count toward the Dynasty totals. Also, the only way to ensure that their lines continue is by playing them, so if they are not played, Household management and playing with genetics is not a viable way to create a new generation. However, while playing a cadet branch, adoption is a viable option.
End game: The game ends when there is a total of 20 generations among all the branches of the family or there is 10 generations in the main Dynasty house. For this challenge, each cadet branch is like starting anew, so even if the family tree shows a total of say, 10 generations total, if there are 8 generations in one house, 7 generations in another, and 10 generations in the main Dynasty house, each is added up for a total of 25 generations for scoring purposes.
Scoring: Add up the total Wealth between all the played cadet branches of your family, any unspent Fame points between all of them, and add up all generations between the branches. This is your final score!
Notes: Many will find that certain aspects of the challenge are open ended. This was done on purpose. One of the things I love in challenges is the opportunity for story-telling. I want there to be a goal to work toward with specific rules about reaching that goal, but for the most part, I want it to be very open-ended and give a lot of room for imagination and for each player to utilize a different strategy. The thing to keep in mind is, if something about the challenge isn't fun, then play your own way, just try to keep in mind the spirit of the challenge and modify things accordingly. Above all, have fun with it!
Spreadsheet:Family Reign Template V 1.2 Spreadsheet- Google Doc VersionIf you want to use Excel, you can download it as an Excel spreadsheet. To have your own copy in Google Sheets, you need to make a copy for yourself so you can fill out your own.
If there are any questions on the spreadsheet or something doesn't work, please let me know! If you have any suggestions for it, I'd love to hear those as well, but please keep in mind I'm still learning XD
