The Sims 4 Rival Dynasties Challenge

[Metropolis Man]

The Sims 4 Rival Dynasties Challenge


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Goal
This is your chance to play Klingons vs. Vulcans vs. Ferengi. Or perhaps you've always wanted to see how the Altos would do versus the Bagleys and the Rackets. Basically you'll have three dynastic lines, each striving to be the best at the Mansion option, the Retail option, or the Alien option. Once each of your founders has picked an option, that will be the option for the rest of the bloodline. If your founder picks the Mansion option, your founder and heirs will have to wow the neighborhood with their gorgeous mansions and amazing parties. Sims working on the Alien option will have to re-establish contact with Sixam and regain their "alien" powers. Picking the Retail option will involve building an empire of stores owned by Sims with awesome marketing skills. You can have vampires take over Newcrest and vampire hunters attempt to combat them, or you can take care of all the animals in your world with the Pet Lover option.

Each of your 3 dynasties is in a race to occupy as much of Newcrest (or Willow Creek or Oasis Springs) as possible. Your task as their fair and impartial Watcher is to help each of them meet that goal by playing them in rotation, one week at a time. (See section on Rotational Play in the Guide.) Once all 15 lots are occupied, the challenge is over.

Creating Your Founders
Before starting, make sure you are patched up to the latest patch. As new patches come out, you must update your game.

Start a new game. In CAS create 3 human, alien, or vampire young adult Sims. You may give them whatever traits and aspirations you like. (To create aliens, start with the Sim already there, and click on "add Sim" in the bottom left. Pick the alien option and then delete the original Sim.) You may use CAS Stories, but if you use it for one founder, you have to use it for all three. Save each Sim you create to your library.

You may spend the first Sim day placing each of your founders from the library, building their houses, and finding them jobs. Starting at midnight, you must stick to one family for a week until midnight Sunday. Your first founder will have only 6 days in his or her "week," but after that, if you change between midnight and 6 a.m. on Sunday, each bloodline will have a week of your undivided attention.

Gameplay Options
Autonomy: Full.
Aging: Auto Age Active Household Only.
Do not check Auto Age Unplayed Households.
Age Length: Normal.
Do not check Fill Empty Houses.
If you have Seasons, you may choose any length, but must choose to have Sims affected by weather. You may opt out of Blizzards and Thunderstorms but must have Rain and Snow.
You may opt out of the fame system, and choose it only for individual Sims.
Neighborhood Stories System settings: Player's choice.

Note:  Because these settings are different from the ones required for the Tournament Challenges and the Immortal Dynasty, you may want to set up a new file for this game.

Managing Households and Editing Lots
If you want to play in some other world than Newcrest, you need to go to that world and evict the townies who live there and then bulldoze enough houses to produce 15 empty residential lots. If you want to play in Windenburg, you will have to bulldoze the gym as well to get 15 residential lots. You may move those pre-made families into other houses if you like. You may only bulldoze houses if your intent is to play in that town. You may also play in San Myshuno. There are 19 apartments that have deposits of less than $20,000. In that case, you would not bulldoze anything, but you may need to evict a few families to get 15 available places. You will not be able to choose the Mansion Baron option in San Myshuno.

If you are playing the Retail option, you may bulldoze as many of the retail lots in Magnolia Promenade as you need. You may also bulldoze the retail lots in Magnolia Promenade if you need space for any Maxis-created venues that come with game packs.

You may edit community lots to add or rearrange objects such as microphones, easels, etc. You may also add on club hangouts. You still may not bulldoze community lots except for the ones permitted above. Maxis-created venues may be added to community lots. You may alter menus only in restaurants that you own.

Each of your 3 sims will start on a 40 x 30 lot.  Once your founders have bought an empty lot, you may build a house, download one from the #carlsguiderdc section of the Gallery, download one from EAaccount MaxisCreator_01, or use one of the Maxis pre-builts in your library. Your heirs have the same options when they move.

You will have to go to Manage Households each time you switch to a different household. You may also go to Manage Households to make your former heir's household a favorite to keep it from being culled. Finally, you will go to Manage Households when you sell a retail lot. The above are the only legitimate uses of Manage Households.

Mods, Cheats and Custom/Premium Content
Custom Content and Premium Content are fine and are to be used at your own risk. No mods or cheats such as Buydebug (bb.showhiddenobjects) are allowed. There are exceptions:
• The move objects cheat is fine.
• ResetSim Firstname Lastname is fine in the event of stuck Sims.
• Here is a List of Approved Mods. Some bugs may creep up that a mod could fix, but team permission is always necessary in these cases.

General Rules and Restrictions
Exiting without saving to avoid a mistake or an unfortunate occurrence (i.e. fire) is considered cheating.

The heir cannot marry until he or she has moved to a new lot. Founders can marry as soon as they find someone. The heir must be the first child of the founder or previous heir, and both parents must live on the lot unless the founder has chosen the Alien option and the founder or heir has been abducted.

When you're ready to move an heir to a new lot, then and only then can you move out spares and helpers to a new household that doesn't have a lot. There's a risk that they will be culled, but doing this reduces the possibility that your dynasty members will be culled. No intentional killing of household members is allowed.

The heir from one bloodline may not marry the heir from another bloodline. Spares, helpers, and helpers' children are all okay.

Non-heirs can be adopted.

Spouses, spare children, and other live-ins are not tied to the same restrictions as heirs. They are free to choose any careers, skills, and aspirations.

Adding to the household using the Sims 4 Gallery is banned. Sims can only be added by being born, adopted, married, or asked to move in.

Substitute cemeteries: Willow Creek (Magnolia Blossom Park), Oasis Springs (Desert Bloom Park), and your own retail lot.

Heirs with the Public Enemy Aspiration are the only household members allowed to "help" in the deaths of non household members. No one may "help" in the death of any members of rival bloodlines.

Cloned collectables cannot be used as museum pieces.

School-aged Heirs can miss school if they take a vacation day.

A nanny must be hired if there are toddlers or babies on the lot when the last teen or adult leaves the house.

Babies may not be aged up early. After that, toddlers, children, and teens may be aged up as soon as they've completed their requirements. In the teen's case, these are all the requirements for moving out.
 
Because aging for unplayed households is off, you may age up townie sims who are good friends with someone in the household.

With regard to the Wishing Well, making a wish for Youthful Vigor is banned for heirs and founders. Other than that, you may use it at your own risk.

You may add one skill-boosting lot trait (See list) and two other lot traits to each house or owned venue. You may not change lot traits once you've assigned them. For this challenge, the Tiny Living Residence counts as a skill-boosting lot trait.

Your Sims may form a family club, but they may have only the Networked perk or one skill-boosting perk, not both. Your Sims may join other clubs, but not found them.

Vampires may not try for baby until their spouse is also a vampire. Vampires may not turn heirs or founders of other dynasties. Vampire hunters may not cure heirs or founders of other dynasties. Vampires may not purchase rewards with satisfaction points.

You are limited to 1 scheduled holiday per week, with a maximum of 8 scheduled holidays per year. Pop-up holidays may be celebrated. Once you're set up your scheduled holidays, you shouldn't change them. You may skip any that are not suitable for a particular family.

Founders and heirs who decide to become famous are allowed a one-time use of the quirk removal potion.

Bloodline Options
Each Founder will choose one of the following options for his or her bloodline to follow. Founders and heirs must do at least some of the work necessary to achieve their goals. Helpers may assist with building rocket ships or running a store, but not have full responsibility, and only a founder or heir may build a fully upgraded wormhole generator.

A.  Mansion Option. Your sims want to make it clear that their bloodline is the wealthiest and most socially prominent. To complete this option, founders and previous heirs must:

1. Complete the Mansion Baron aspiration. Heirs must wait until they've moved to a new lot before they begin to work on this aspiration.
2. Throw 3 unique gold medal parties. Dates don't count.
3. Get the rewards Frugal, Carefree, Connections, and Professional Slacker.

B. Retail Option (requires GTW or C&D). Your sims want to reach the top of the SimWealth 500 list with their retail stores. To complete this option:

1. Each family store must be able to sell for $100,000 or more.
2. The founder/former heir must have achieved the following perks:  Serious Shopper, Sure Sale, Faster Checkouts (Large), Faster Restocking (Large), and Cheaper Restocking.

Alternatively, if you have the Dine Out game pack, your sims in the Retail option may choose to run a restaurant. To complete this option:

1. Your restaurant must be able to sell for $100,000 or more.
2. It must have a 5-star rating for at least 3 days (need not be consecutive).

If you have Cats & Dogs, your sims may choose to run a vet clinic. To complete this option:

1. Your clinic must be able to sell for $100,000 or more
2. It must have a 5-star rating for at least 3 days (need not be consecutive).

Once you've completed these requirements, you may sell the store so that the next heir can buy it, or the next heir can set up a different store.

C. Alien Option (requires GTW). Your alien sims want to maintain contact with Sixam and regain their alien powers. If playing with aliens, the founder or former heir must:

1. Have either a fully upgraded wormhole generator or fully upgraded rocket ship on the lot.
2. Have obtained the Seldom Weary, Steel Bladder, Hardly Hungry, and Antiseptic rewards. Only the founders and heirs working on the Alien option may get these rewards.
3. Marry only another alien. Children from alien abductions must be kept. (Note: if the founder's or heir's first child comes from an abduction, that child may become the next heir. In that case, the alien would not have to get married at all.)
4. Aliens must place 2 portraits in the Museum, one in disguise and one not. Their collections are limited to geodes, space rocks, aliens, and alien plants (dragonfruit, cowplant, death flower, and UFO plant may be included). If you want to use the harvest from alien plants, the fruits must come from plants that your alien has grown, and each must be different.

D. Alien Option (for those who do not have GTW only). Same as the above, with the following differences: Your aliens should be given green or blue skin in CAS. They may marry anyone, but their heirs will have to be the oldest child with green or blue skin. They have to provide only one portrait, and may substitute elements for geodes as a collection. If using harvested fruit rather than the plants for a collection, they must have at least one dragonfruit, cowplant, death flower, and UFO fruit.

E. Vampire Option (requires Vampire Game Pack). Vampires must:

1. Complete one of the 3 vampire aspirations.
2. Obtain 2 powers from Tier 5 of the vampire powers.
3. Maintain a garden containing plasma fruit, wolfsbane, Sixam mosquito trap, dragonfruit, a cowplant, and death flowers.
4. Contribute 2 portraits to the museum -- one normal and one dark form.

F. Vampire Hunter Option (requires Vampire Game Pack). Human or alien vampire Hunters must:

1. Complete the Body Builder aspiration.
2. Forcibly cure 3 vampires (note: has to be at level 15 Vampire lore to do this).
3. Maintain a garden containing garlic, plasma fruit, and wolfsbane.

G. Pet Lover Option (requires Cats and Dogs Expansion Pack). Founder and heirs must:

1. Complete the Animal Lover aspiration
2. Take a vet clinic from 1 star to 5 stars
3. Max the Pet Training skill
4. Place pictures (portraits or photos) of each pet in the museum.

H. The Spellcaster Bloodline (requires Realm of Magic Game Pack)

1. The Founder and Heirs must complete either the Spellcaster or the Potions aspiration.
2. They must remove a curse at least once.
3. They must obtain 13 spellcaster perks.
4. They must have a 7-item collection of different wands, brooms, familiars, or potions.

I. The Well-Educated Bloodline (requires Discover University expansion pack)

1. The Founder and Heirs must complete the Academic aspiration.
2. Each distinguished degree in the bloodline must be in a different major.
3. Aging up requirements for toddlers, children, and teens are different from the other bloodlines:
   Toddlers must achieve Topnotch Toddler status (max all 5 skills) before they can be aged up.
   Children must max the Whiz Kid aspiration and one other aspiration before they can be aged up.
   Teens can be aged up as soon as they receive a scholarship.
   Note: if toddlers, children or teens age up before achieving these goals, that's fine. These are requirements for aging them up early.
   Note: At 4 pm on the Saturday before you are due to play this household, you may switch to it long enough to enroll your heir in a term at University.

J. The Werewolf Bloodline (requires Werewolves Game Pack) The Founder and heirs must:

1. Complete Werewolf Initiate plus one other Werewolf Aspiration.
2. Purchase at least 15 Werewolf Abilities.
3. Complete the Moonwood Relics collection. Only the Founder may use relics as their unique museum collection.
4. Contribute two portraits to the museum: one in human form and one in wolf form.
5. Learn the Wolf B-Gone recipe.


Moving Requirements
If you need instructions for moving one sim out, they can be found in the Guide here.

For Founders and Former Heirs

1. Founders and former heirs must complete the requirements for their bloodline's option.

2. Founders and former heirs must reach the top of a unique career (each branch of a career counts as a unique career). No founder or heir in any other bloodline may max this career.

3. The Founder's lot must contain a Museum in which there is a portrait (painting or photo) of the Founder.

4. Your founders and former heirs are allowed a one-time use of the Potion of Youth reward after they become elders.

For Heirs

1. As a toddler, the heir must max potty training (3 levels) and two skills (5 levels).

2. As a child, the heir must complete one childhood aspiration.

3. As a teen, the heir must make an A in school and either reach level 3 of a part-time job or reach level 5 of Scouting or Drama Club.

4. The heir must achieve a unique aspiration in addition to any required by his or her bloodline. He or she may not switch aspirations until that aspiration has been achieved. No heir in any other bloodline may achieve this aspiration. Depending on what bloodlines you're playing, these could include Mansion Baron, Animal Lover, the Vampire aspirations, the Spellcaster aspirations, or the Academic aspiration.

5. The heir must max two skills (excluding photography and dancing) unique in that bloodline. For example, you may have one sim in each bloodline max painting, cooking, etc. Heirs may work on other skills but not max ones that have already been claimed.

6. The heir must become a good friend with the Founder of his or her bloodline, must have 3 other good friends, and must become enemies with at least one member of each of the rival bloodlines.

7. The heir must contribute a portrait as teen or young adult (photo or painting) to the Family Museum located on the founder's lot. (Aliens must contribute 2 portraits – one in alien form and one in disguise. Vampires must contribute 2 portraits -- one in dark form and one in normal.)

8. The heir must contribute a collection of 7 objects. Each collection must be of a different type within the bloodline. (See list from the Immortal Dynasty.) Aliens are restricted to geodes, aliens, space rocks, and alien plants (UFO plants, cowplants, and dragonfruit can be included in alien plants). Each of the aliens' types must be represented at least once in the Museum. (Note: even if an heir is not living in the Founder's household, he or she can hang portraits and place collections when visiting the Founder's lot.)

9. Before moving, the heir must remove all items from personal inventory that the heir has not made or found.

Once you have moved out an heir in a bloodline, you will play that heir instead of his or her parent. The parents won't age because you'll have aging off for unplayed households. This heir will now have to meet the requirements for Former Heirs, and his or her child will become the next heir.

Bloodline Fails vs. Challenge Fails
With aging off, your founders and previous heirs should stay alive once you've moved on to the next heir. But accidents do happen. Perhaps a founder of one bloodline sets fire to himself while grilling hot dogs at the park and your active sim from another bloodline isn't able to extinguish the blaze.

If a founder or an heir in a bloodline dies for whatever reason, you must stop playing that bloodline, but you may continue with the challenge.

If an heir does not complete the child or teen requirements, or dies before completing the requirements for heirs or former heirs, you must stop playing that bloodline, but you may continue the challenge.

If all three of the bloodlines fail then the challenge as a whole fails. Breaking any of the rules or restrictions will cause the challenge to fail.

Rotational Issues
If you are new to rotational play, there are 3 issues you should be aware of:

Culling. As of November, 2017, the culling mechanism has been changed. Playalot's post explains it really well. When your heir moves out, you can go into Household Management and move the previous heir's household to "My Households," by clicking on the heart in the lower right hand corner.

Romantic Interests. The game will randomly create friendships, enmities, and romantic relationships between sims that are not currently played. Sometimes there can be a romantic relationship between a teen and his or her parent, which can be upsetting. Like all relationships, these will decay if you don't do anything to promote them.

Pregnancies. If you rotate away from a pregnant sim, she will have the baby on schedule. The game will provide extra bassinets if she has twins, and the babies won't grow up until you play the family again. If you leave one bassinet on the lot, the child in that bassinet will be considered the first-born in the case of twins or triplets. You can change the baby's name in CAS when the baby becomes a child.

Finishing Up
Once you have filled all the lots in Newcrest (or the residential lots in Willow Creek or Oasis Springs), pause your game. If one of your bloodlines has more lots than the other(s), that bloodline is the winner. If not, then you may score your bloodlines based on the worth of their Museums. Add up the value of their portraits and collections.

To submit your challenge to the Hall of Fame, take a screenshot of your founders and heirs in their respective museums, and let us know which bloodline won.

Dynasty Spreadsheet
To assist everyone in keeping track of their progress, LenaLJ has designed the official Rival Dynasties Challenge Spreadsheet. Thank you, Lena!

Good luck and have fun! - Metro, Nutella, ratchie, MarianT, Trip, and LenaLJ.

[Metropolis Man]

December 31, 2015 -- You may add or rearrange objects on community lots and add club hangouts. You may not bulldoze community lots except for the ones permitted.
February 8, 2016 -- Changed "must be good friends with 3 townies" to "must have 3 other good friends."
February 10, 2016 -- Using the Wishing Well to ask for Youthful Vigor is banned for heirs and founders. Other than that, you may use the well at your own risk.
April 14, 2016 -- Sims may be added to a household only by being born, adopted, married, or asked to move in.
June 3, 2016 -- If you want to customize the gender of any of your sims, you may do that once, as teen or YA. Gender changes are irreversible, however. And keep in mind that your heirs need to be able to reproduce.
June 9, 2016 -- If you have Dine Out, you may substitute a restaurant for a retail store in the Retail Option. The requirements to complete the option are that the restaurant must be able to sell for $100,000 or more and have a 5-star rating for 3 days (need not be consecutive).
June 11, 2016 -- You may alter menus only in restaurants that you own.
July 18, 2016 -- Until the bug that causes Sims to become ageless if they meet a Nanny is fixed, hiring a Nanny is banned.
July 27, 2016 -- Since the bug that affected the Nanny has been fixed, Sims can now hire nannies.
November 8, 2016 -- You may play in San Myshuno, as there are 19 lots with deposits less than $20,000. You may not bulldoze apartments, though, and you will not be able to use the Mansion Baron option.
November 9, 2016 -- You may add one skill-boosting lot trait (See list) and two other lot traits to each house.
Your Sims may form a family club, but they may have only the Networked perk or one skill-boosting perk, not both. Your Sims may join other clubs, but not found them.
January 15, 2017 -- A nanny must be hired if there's a baby or toddler on the lot when the last teen or adult leaves. In heir requirements: As a toddler, the heir must max potty training (3 levels) and two skills (5 levels).
January 17, 2017 -- Babies may not be aged up early. Toddlers, children, and teens may be aged up as soon as they've completed their requirements. In the teen's case, this consists of all the requirements for moving out.
January 29, 2017 -- Vampire option and Vampire hunter option added. Restrictions for vampires added.
February 3, 2017 -- Added lots from EAaccount MaxisCreator_01 to the list of buildings that can be downloaded.
November 8, 2017 -- Added Vet Clinic to Retail option
November 11, 2017 -- Made changes to the section on Culling.
November 12, 2017 -- Added Pet Lovers Option.
July 2, 2018 -- Added Guidelines for Seasons
August 23, 2018 -- Added the rule that holidays may not be changed once they've been added.
December 6, 2018 -- You may opt out of the fame system and choose it for individual Sims only. You're allowed a one-time use of the quirk removal potion.
August 14, 2019 -- You may use CAS Stories for your founders, but if you use it for one, you have to use it for all three.
September 7, 2019 -- Teens may complete level 5 of Scouting or the Drama Club instead of reaching level 3 of a part-time job.
November 29, 2019 -- 2 new bloodlines added: The Spellcaster Bloodline and the Well-Educated Bloodline.
January 21, 2020 -- Note added to the Well-Educated Bloodline: You may switch over to a household in this bloodline at 4 pm on the Saturday before you're due to play that household long enough to enroll in University.
Jaunary 21, 2020 -- The Tiny Lot residential lot counts as a skill-boosting lot trait.
July 21, 2021 -- The heir must achieve a unique aspiration in addition to any required by his or her bloodline. He or she may not switch aspirations until that aspiration has been achieved. No heir in any other bloodline may achieve this aspiration. Depending on what bloodlines you're playing, these could include Mansion Baron, Animal Lover, the Vampire aspirations, the Spellcaster aspirations, or the Academic aspiration.
September 18, 2021 -- Update Money Offer "You look Low On Funds" - You Must Decline Offer
April 1, 2022 -- For a new or existing dynasty, you are allowed to select your global Neighborhood Stories System (NSS) settings for both "My Households" and "Other Households" one time only, after which they must not be changed.  Changing NSS settings for individual households is not allowed.
July 9, 2022 -- Neighborhood Stories System settings are player's choice.
July 8, 2024 -- Werewolves Bloodline option added.

[Teresa]

My first  question is to clarify - does each family have to choose a different bloodline option or can they all choose the same option, or can there be two pursuing mansion baron and one going alien?

[Nutella]

They can choose all the same option, or two pursuing mansion and one going alien, or all three different option.

[Playalot]

Wow, this isn't what I was expecting at all! Well done everyone, what an amazing challenge.

[MarianT]

Now we have to ask -- what were you expecting? After all, it might make a good challenge.

[Playalot]

I'm not sure but I certainly wasn't expecting a rotational-play element. That's thrown me quite a lot as it's something I never do. I think I was expecting something that involved building houses or revamping existing ones etc beyond that I hadn't really thought much about it!

So, I've got some questions:

1. Can the founders helpers move with the next heir?
2. Can founders and heirs max the same skills as long as they still have their 'own unique' skill for requirements?
3. Same for aspirations, can the founder and heirs max the same aspiration as long as they still have a unique one for requirements?
4. Can you ever go back and play a founder once the next heir has moved out? If not how do you give the founder a Potion of Youth once he/she is an elder if the next heir has already moved out
5. If you are not going for Mansion Baron as a bloodline goal can the houses be very basic and not worth much?
6. If the founder has a cow plant bush (as in it has been grafted so it just produces the berries and not an actual cow plant) can future heirs return to the garden and harvest a cow berry and then return to their home and plant it so they can have a fully grown cow plant?
7. If the founder has a cloning machine can heirs visit the founders house to use the cloning machine on items that they have made or grown? (i.e. cloning cow plant essences that they made at their home?)
8. Once GT comes out can bloodlines be in the same club and do things that help the current heir? Such as a painting club where the current heir gets to sell everyone's paintings and keep the simoleons?

[Nutella]

1.  No
When you're ready to move an heir to a new lot, then and only then can you move out spares and helpers to a new household that doesn't have a lot.

2.  Yes
3.  Yes

4.  No
You can't go back to play a founder once the next heir moved out.  Once you move out, the founder is no longer the active household, they will not age. 
Aging: Auto Age Active Household Only.
Do not check Auto Age Unplayed Households.

5.  Yes
6.  Yes
7.  Yes

8.  We will have to wait for GT and explore that xpac, can't answer this question yet.


By the way this dynasty is @MarianT imagination and creation, please give a big round of applause for her.

[sdhoey]

Now that my head has stopped spinning. Will the wonderful @LenaLJ be giving us one of her wonderful spreadsheets? Because this is A LOT of madness. LOL

[Nutella]

I'm not Lena, but I can assure simmers that Lena is working on a spreadsheet and will be available soon.

[simfulicious]

Ok, since I'm a little confused...is this how it works:  founder completes all their req's...they stay at their house, while the next gen heir moves out to a new lot...at this point any spares/helpers move out, but do they move to a different lot from the heir and/or each other ( ie I have 2 spares and one helper- can they all move to their own lot? Is this the point of the challenge?)  And do you continue to play houses in rotation for the founder after you have moved, or do you only play the active head of that bloodline?

[ClayMask]

When I go to the aging options in my game, the only options I see are auto age (played Sims) and auto age (unplayed Sims).  In past games where I've only had auto age played Sims on but not auto age unplayed Sims, the household for a Sim that I've played at any time, not just the active household, ages.  Has this been changed, or am I missing something?

[MarianT]

@simfulicious,

The founder completes their requirements, and the heir completes requirements. At that point the heir moves to one lot. You can move out spares and helpers if you want, but they do not move in with the heir; they move to a separate household. The reason for moving spares and helpers out is to cut down on the population of the town so that your founder and former heirs will not be culled. You don't have to move anyone out except the heir.

Once you move out the heir, you will play the heir and not play the founder any more. With aging off for unplayed households, the founder won't age, so should still be around at the end of the game.

Hope this clears up your confusion

[MarianT]

ClayMask, For this challenge only, the aging options are different because it's a rotational game.

You have 2 places for aging on the Gameplay Options page. The first you set at Auto Age Active Household Only. Beneath that is a check box for Auto Age Unplayed Households. You leave it unchecked so that the 2 households that you are not currently playing will not age. No one else in your game will age either, which is why we allow you to use the cake on townies that your sims are good friends with.

[ClayMask]

I just tried switching to a household, and the menu options didn't change for me.  I see auto age played Sims and auto age unplayed Sims only.  I don't see an option saying auto age active household only.  I'm concerned because, from my past experience, checking auto age played Sims meant any Sim that has ever been played and their household in that save.