The Sims 4 Rival Dynasties Challenge

[Playalot]

I'm just learning the ropes of this fantastic new challenge as well but the rules state: "Aging: Auto Age Active Household Only. Do not check Auto Age Unplayed Households." This means that townies won't age. These are game play options within the menu.

[Metropolis Man]

(1) You had provided a sound alternative to the Alien Option to those who don't have Get to Work, but nothing for the Retail Option, which is also exclusive to GTW. I'm sure you'll hammer out the bugs soon enough. (EDIT 2: I am seriously editing this too much; I missed Nutella's post saying that you don't have to do different options - if you don't have GTW, you have the Mansion Option for all three or the alternate Alien Option.)

@Etna - just a heads up on editing posts you have made. In my opinion, maybe others feel differently, strikethroughs just should never be used because they make a post look cluttered. Just delete whatever it is you are putting a line through. You're telling yourself and others that that portion of the post is no longer important, so just delete it.

[Nutella]

I'm just learning the ropes of this fantastic new challenge as well but the rules state: "Aging: Auto Age Active Household Only. Do not check Auto Age Unplayed Households." This means that townies won't age. These are game play options within the menu.

Yup, that's why we have this rule:
Because aging for unplayed households is off, you may age up townie sims who are good friends with someone in the household.

[EtnaFan666]

@Etna - just a heads up on editing posts you have made. In my opinion, maybe others feel differently, strikethroughs just should never be used because they make a post look cluttered. Just delete whatever it is you are putting a line through. You're telling yourself and others that that portion of the post is no longer important, so just delete it.

You're right, Metro. I'll try to remember that in the future. (There, I deleted a line saying something about the strikethrough button, I'm learning!  )

Also, after a big set of errors which made it impossible for me to uninstall Origin, Sims 4's new look is working. I am doing a de facto(what is the Latin term for unofficial, I know it's not that) Immortal Dynasty where the founder is in the Science Career and I moved in the Landgraabs and got Nancy pregnant again. I am really digging the Science Lab and the Hospital. No aliens yet, but chances are Don Lothario(who is the pollinator) might get abducted.

(I also have Outdoor Retreat and Spa Day installed - Get to Work was half off in Origin's launcher.)

Also, I know that there is an option to turn off aging for inactive households, I was just saying that this made the game play somewhat like Sims 2, where all the unplayed households were in time stasis and nobody aged. Of course, despite you being able to age up townies with cake, the fact that these townies never age means that elders NEVER die of old age. Or is that something else I am missing?

Great challenge, and I hope to see some great stories in December!

[Nutella]

Yes, townie elders will never die of old age. 

[reggikko]

Hi. I have another couple of questions. For the Alien museum, does plants mean the actual plants or the fruit? Also, in the event of a tie in number of lots occupied by each bloodline, the winning family would be determined by museum worth. Aren't the alien bloodlines at a huge disadvantage there since their collections are so limited? Nothing that they can contribute could possibly compete with paintings, high-level crafted items, etc.

[Nutella]

@reggikko

Alien museum -- actual plants.  Just the fruit would be too easy.

In the event of a tie:
No, Alien are not at a disadvantage.  Alien have 2 portraits each generation (instead of 1), if you do paintings instead of photographs, Alien might come out on top.

[reggikko]

@reggikko

Alien museum -- actual plants.  Just the fruit would be too easy.

In the event of a tie:
No, Alien are not at a disadvantage.  Alien have 2 portraits each generation (instead of 1), if you do paintings instead of photographs, Alien might come out on top.

True! I guess I'd better get those Aliens some painting skill, then. I'm doing a practice run now and so far it's a lot of fun.

EDIT: I think it's still mathematically impossible unless the player does not allow the other families to contribute paintings as museum pieces. If we assume that everyone has at least one family member that can paint masterpieces and, just for the sake of argument, assign a value of $5000 per masterpiece (some could be higher, some a bit lower), the Alien family could paint 10 masterpieces (2 portraits for the founder and 4 heirs). 10X5000 = $50000. The other families could contribute 5 masterpieces for the founder and 4 heirs plus 7 museum pieces. That would be 12X5000=$60000. Nothing the Aliens could place in their museum could overcome that $10000 deficit, I don't think, especially when you factor in that the other families could also put other high value items in. In other words, I don't think the Aliens could win in the event of a tie without the player intervening and stacking the deck in their favor.

Of course, I could also be overlooking something. It's happened before!

[MarianT]

reggiko, you do raise a valid point. In the event of a tie, if you have only one alien family, that family will probably not have the highest value museum. But if your other sims are trying to get the highest value items, then they're taking time that could be spent in moving the next heir out. And the aliens have a slight advantage in terms of speed in that a male alien can get abducted and produce an heir without going to the trouble of finding a mate.

[simfulicious]

I think I'm going to do all the same bloodline option to keep it on a level playing field.  And if I'm ambitious enough, I will do 3 different dynasties, all with a different bloodline choice.

[Nutella]

In my test dynasty, my Alien bloodline was winning the race in terms of value.  If you just look at reggikko's numbers, yes alien will lose.  However don't forget one important thing - heir must be the one that collect/craft the museum items, while portraits can be painted by someone else (like spouse or household member).

My heirs were plenty busy trying to finish up the aspiration and getting two unique skills, didn't leave me much time to craft super value items for the museum.   All 3 of my bloodlines were moving along at the same pace, but if I were to craft super value museum items - there is no way my mansion and retail bloodline will move at the same speed like Alien. 

[simfulicious]

From the rules:

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, or use one of the Maxis pre-builts in your library. Your heirs have the same options when they move.

Can we put any other maxis pre-builts in our library before we start this file?  Not all of them currently exist in the library on their own, but I don't think they are any different than the ones that are there (in terms of gameplay)...they just didn't put them in the library when they put the other ones there.

[Nutella]

Can we put any other maxis pre-builts in our library before we start this file?  Not all of them currently exist in the library on their own, but I don't think they are any different than the ones that are there (in terms of gameplay)...they just didn't put them in the library when they put the other ones there.

I don't have a problem with this, I say yes.  Team thoughts?

[simfulicious]

I do have to say that I just went and saved the ones I would want into my library, and they go under the heading of "mine" instead of "maxis."  However, I think most of us by now know which houses come with a clean hood, and which ones don't. 

[reggikko]

I really do love this challenge because the strategy is quite complicated. I've already figured out a couple of things I'll do differently when the challenge goes live and I haven't even gotten through all three founders' first weeks.