The Sims 4 Rival Dynasties Challenge

[jaycravn]

okay, so I've FINALLY finished reading through the whole thread! & I'd like to ask for some rule clarifications, if I may?

1) Regarding this:

With the new changes in gender customization, we've added the following rule:n

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.

You can always use whatever hair and clothing you want.

a) Its not in the main rules post, only in the 'rule changes' post - does that mean its been rescinded, or is it still in effect?

b) If so, which aspects of customisation are irreversible/one-time-only? I mean, is it 'only open the custom gender section once' or 'each custom gender option can only be changed once'?

Example: a sim i thought was a girl grows up to teen and is actually a boy, & I can customise his gender so that the game labels him as male. I don't change his reproductive ability from the 'can become pregnant' default.

c) If he later marries a woman who also by default 'can become pregnant', can i change my sim to 'can get others pregnant', since it would be the first time i changed that setting, even though i changed the other settings previously? (i mean in real life there is often a big gap between changing legal gender and changing/losing reproductive capabilities, so...)

d) Can the 'fashion preference' setting only be changed once, or is it only the gender & reproduction settings that are irreversible and my sim can like masculine clothes on Fridays and feminine on Tuesdays?

e) And if i change fashion preference at one point can i later change the gender & reproduction settings? eg If when the example sim became a teen i kept him labelled as a girl but gave him masculine fashion preference, when he became an adult would i be allowed to customise his gender to label him as male?

f) Also do the changes have to happen at teen/ya or can they happen at adult/elder too? What If we move in an elder helper, can we not customise them? Or does this rule only apply to heirs/founders?

2) i am doing the retail option and wondering: how much of the shop(/restaurant/vet clinic) work needs to be done by the founder/heir?
can it all be done by the spouse?
does the heir need to do the cooking in a restaurant or can they be the waiter, or can they leave the entire thing to the spouse and helpers?
does the heir need to be the vet if the family run a clinic, or can the spouse do everything while the heir writes poetry?

sorry this is so long, but i prefer to be precise, and to prepare for all eventualities!

EDIT: one last q, does an heir have to marry, or can they have a live-in unmarried partner?

[oshizu]

@jaycravn

Hello! I'm not on the Challenges Team but I do have two quick answers for you about (a) rule changes and (d) fashion preference.

(a) Rule changes
The rules at the top of Page 1 represented the latest version of the challenge rules.
The rule changes post let us know the date and nature of each change.

(d) Fashion preference
The fashion preference setting in Gender Customization can easily be over-ridden in CAS.
After entering CAS by using a mirror or dresser to Change sim/Plan outfits, when you pick an outfit category, there's an arrow at the top left of the double CAS columns.
Click that and you'll see several options to set color choices, fabrics, outfit category, etc.; one of the options is Fashion Choice: Feminine or Masculine.
(I'm not in-game at the moment and don't exactly remember if "Fashion Choice" is the option name, but you'll see Masculine/Feminine checkboxes by clicking each option)
This Feminine/Masculine choice is also available for hair, make-up, and accessories. This can be done without changing gender.
You could create multiple everyday outfits for your sim, some in masculine style and some in feminine style, if you wish.

Best wishes with your new challenge!

[MarianT]

okay, so I've FINALLY finished reading through the whole thread! & I'd like to ask for some rule clarifications, if I may?

1) Regarding this:

With the new changes in gender customization, we've added the following rule:n

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.

You can always use whatever hair and clothing you want.

a) Its not in the main rules post, only in the 'rule changes' post - does that mean its been rescinded, or is it still in effect?

b) If so, which aspects of customisation are irreversible/one-time-only? I mean, is it 'only open the custom gender section once' or 'each custom gender option can only be changed once'?

Example: a sim i thought was a girl grows up to teen and is actually a boy, & I can customise his gender so that the game labels him as male. I don't change his reproductive ability from the 'can become pregnant' default.

c) If he later marries a woman who also by default 'can become pregnant', can i change my sim to 'can get others pregnant', since it would be the first time i changed that setting, even though i changed the other settings previously? (i mean in real life there is often a big gap between changing legal gender and changing/losing reproductive capabilities, so...)

d) Can the 'fashion preference' setting only be changed once, or is it only the gender & reproduction settings that are irreversible and my sim can like masculine clothes on Fridays and feminine on Tuesdays?

e) And if i change fashion preference at one point can i later change the gender & reproduction settings? eg If when the example sim became a teen i kept him labelled as a girl but gave him masculine fashion preference, when he became an adult would i be allowed to customise his gender to label him as male?

f) Also do the changes have to happen at teen/ya or can they happen at adult/elder too? What If we move in an elder helper, can we not customise them? Or does this rule only apply to heirs/founders?

2) i am doing the retail option and wondering: how much of the shop(/restaurant/vet clinic) work needs to be done by the founder/heir?
can it all be done by the spouse?
does the heir need to do the cooking in a restaurant or can they be the waiter, or can they leave the entire thing to the spouse and helpers?
does the heir need to be the vet if the family run a clinic, or can the spouse do everything while the heir writes poetry?

sorry this is so long, but i prefer to be precise, and to prepare for all eventualities!

EDIT: one last q, does an heir have to marry, or can they have a live-in unmarried partner?

I think all of your questions about gender customization are answered in the rule: "If you want to customize the gender of any of your Sims, you may do that once." Once, here is the operative word. You can open the customization box once for your Sim, either as a teen, or later as a YA, but not for both ages. You can do it only for the heir or founder. And there's no restriction on clothing or hair choices.

Gender customization is limited to heirs and the founder because these are going to be the principal characters in your dynasty. If you have so much interest in a minor character that you want to make him or her transgender, you might want to save the Sim to your library to use in a story later.

As for the question about whether the heirs  or founder needs to do all the work for a retail store, restaurant, or vet clinic, the answer is that they need to do some of the work; similarly, an alien heir needs to do some of the work on a rocket ship. It doesn't have to be all the work, as it does for collections and portrait painting, but it should be more than a token amount.

[jaycravn]

...i am way too used to ts2, cause i completely forgot about outfits. thank you, oshizu, for the reminder, and for the well-wishing!!


MarianT, i understand why repeatedly changing sims' reproductive abilities would be against the rules, but if heirs and founders are allowed a single change i really dont understand why this is forbidden for spares/helpers/etc !

Much like it seems cishet simmers' sims are cishet by default, ALL of my sims are LGBT in some way. Its not that i have 'too much interest in a minor character', it is simply how my sims games work. Frankly, if ts4 didnt have its meagre gender customisation options, i wouldn't bother playing it! ^^

And to add to that, possibly because i'm autistic, i anthropomorphise/empathise with my sims to a slightly ridiculous extent. If my sim doesn't want to do something I do not make them do it!
my retail founder is a trans man who is horrified by the idea of getting pregnant, and my other two founders are lesbians, the vampire of whom is capable of getting pregnant, and the other of whom is an alien, ie canonically a species who can perform whichever role they want in a pregnancy. if spouses/spares/helpers are not permitted even a single one-time-only gender customisation, then my retail founder will have to break up with his boyfriend to find & marry a cis woman he doesnt love, and my vampire founder will NEVER be able to reproduce!!! (the alien founder will be fine cause she'd be happy to use her single opportunity for customisation. she's not relevant. her kids probably will be.)

So, if you wouldn't mind clarifying why i have to either a) make all my sims cishet or b) force them to become pregnant against their admittedly fictional wishes in order to take part in this challenge i would really like to know!✨🌈✨

(thank you for taking the time to read my posts, i'm sorry theyre so long! if its any consolation, im even word-vomit-ier in person haha)


in unrelated news, i am experiencing what is clearly The Worst Glitch Ever: inability to adopt a cat 😿

[Metropolis Man]

MarianT, i understand why repeatedly changing sims' reproductive abilities would be against the rules, but if heirs and founders are allowed a single change i really dont understand why this is forbidden for spares/helpers/etc !
-----
So, if you wouldn't mind clarifying why i have to either a) make all my sims cishet or b) force them to become pregnant against their admittedly fictional wishes in order to take part in this challenge i would really like to know!✨🌈✨

Marian answered your question earlier....

Gender customization is limited to heirs and the founder because these are going to be the principal characters in your dynasty. If you have so much interest in a minor character that you want to make him or her transgender, you might want to save the Sim to your library to use in a story later.

[dontmindme]

Um, excuse me for butting in but when did the gender customization become limited only to heirs and founders? Because this is the rule here when it was posted: 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.

The 'any' here seems to me to mean 'a sim under your control within the proper age range who has not had their gender customized before'. So I am just curious if the team could provide me with the details of when 'any' changed to 'heirs'. Thanks.

[jaycravn]

sorry my post last night was so... rambling... i had a headache so my thoughts weren't as coherent as they could've been.

now, i really dont mean to be obtuse, but i just dont understand what being a main or minor character has to do with a sim's trans-ness?? its essentially a makeover, so i dont understand why its limited to heirs.
like dontmindme said, i had been going to interpret "any of your sims" as 'any sims in the three households you are currently controlling', ie not townies, homeless or otherwise, unless theyve been moved in/married.

[Metropolis Man]

Not every rule in every single challenge is going to make total sense to you. Sure, for the most part, we all can wrap our heads around the various rules. But, with some of them, maybe you don't understand. And that's fine. But, it's a computer game, not a psychology class. Just go for it. If Marian wants to jump in and explain herself more, great. But, she does not need to, so hopefully we can just move on.

[dontmindme]

Metro/The Challenge Team, I would like to know when and why the rule regarding gender customization changed. I have been operating under the assumption that I could change any sim under my control for some time and I need to know whether I have failed due to that or how I should operate going forward. Thank you and I hope you have a good day.

[MarianT]

Metro/The Challenge Team, I would like to know when and why the rule regarding gender customization changed. I have been operating under the assumption that I could change any sim under my control for some time and I need to know whether I have failed due to that or how I should operate going forward. Thank you and I hope you have a good day.

The rule never changed. When EA introduced the gender customization option, the team agreed to allow that on a one-time basis for heirs and founders when they were teens or young adults. I'll check with the team on whether you can keep going forward.

[MarianT]

@jaycravn, @DON'tmind me, You're both right. The rule does say any of your Sims, so you're fine. My mistake -- I guess I'm old enough to call it a senior moment.

[rika1431]

I wanted to double check something that I believe I read someone do in their rival dynasty. The rules say you can age up townie sims that are outside of your household. If I'm raising a helper in one dynasty lineage, would it be okay for another of the 3 dynasty lineages to make good friends with the helper on their week and age them up?

So, for example, because I'm bad at clarifying myself:

- Alien bloodline has two young adult helpers in the house, they have a baby. Baby waits for real birthday to age up to toddler. Their week ends.
- Vampire bloodline week begins, they go visit the alien family, bring a cake with them, and make good friends with the helper's toddler, then age them up to child.

Is that allowed?

[MarianT]

I wanted to double check something that I believe I read someone do in their rival dynasty. The rules say you can age up townie sims that are outside of your household. If I'm raising a helper in one dynasty lineage, would it be okay for another of the 3 dynasty lineages to make good friends with the helper on their week and age them up?

So, for example, because I'm bad at clarifying myself:

- Alien bloodline has two young adult helpers in the house, they have a baby. Baby waits for real birthday to age up to toddler. Their week ends.
- Vampire bloodline week begins, they go visit the alien family, bring a cake with them, and make good friends with the helper's toddler, then age them up to child.

Is that allowed?

It is allowed, but I don't think it's easy to become good friends with a toddler if you're not in the same household. Still, if you can manage it, go for it.

[rika1431]

It is allowed, but I don't think it's easy to become good friends with a toddler if you're not in the same household. Still, if you can manage it, go for it.

Awesome, thank you so much! Just a tip I'd thought I'd mention related to this, in case anyone else wants to befriend a toddler and work toward good friends--sims with the 'incredibly friendly' reward trait(2,000 points), almost always hit 'friend' status immediately upon using 'friendly introduction.' I was able to afford incredibly friendly even on my alien bloodline, so it is possible even if you're buying a bunch of other traits.  I got it to make friend of the world easier, but it'll help for this, too!

My alien with incredibly friendly even got a good friend with just an introduction once! I was shocked.

[LenaLJ]

The spreadsheet for the Rival Dynasty has been updated with missing skills and aspirations from the Jungle Adventures pack.

If you are already far in your dynasty i would recommend to you to go to the BloodLineOptions sheet and copy over the data for "Aspirations", "Skills", "Careers" over to your own spreadsheet.
If you are not far i would recommend to just write all your data in a new sheet.

 Spreadsheet can be found here