Founder: Ulrike Faust
I chose Ulrike to start the Dynasty mainly because she already has Level 5 painting skill.
In my practice, she married Gunther Munch. The Munches are a good family for getting lots of points quickly because of Mila and Gunther's high skill levels. However, they got points a bit too quickly and I wound up controlling my heir too soon. So this time, I decided to try something different and sent Ulrike in pursuit of Gavin Richards.
Things progressed quickly. They have to when you only have 10 days to get your 10 item collection together, meet and marry someone, and produce an heir!
Museum: check. (Note: there are 10 paintings in addition to the portrait of Maaike.)
Wedding: check. We got a gold medal! That's 1 point, so we're off to a good start.
Heir: check. This is Audrey Faust.
Things that nearly went wrong:
Both J and Mitchell came home from work with their energy bars completely in the red. Even though they reached the "pass out" stage while still at work, they both managed to make it to bed in time.
Gavin got the giggly illness and quickly went into "very playful" due to the +3 Happy from having the baby. Mitchell, of course, thinks that's a good time to start telling Gavin jokes! I paused the game and tried to think of a way to get Gavin away from Mitchell. Ulrike tried discussing focusing methods, but that wasn't enough to overcome the playful mood. Then, I noticed that Gavin's energy was less than half full, so I had Ulrike ask him to woohoo. He fell right to sleep afterwards and slept until the danger was past. Whew! Tip: If you have a bathtub, lock the door so that only your controlled Sim has access to it. Sims REALLY love bubble baths and I really hate the playful mood.
My basic strategy:
Ulrike painted until she was at Level 9 in order to get the highest value paintings possible for the museum. I kept her from getting to level 10 because maxing a skill is worth 2 points.
When Ulrike moved in, Zoe was at Level 7 of Start-Up Entrepreneur, but did not have the skills to match. In other words, she would never get promoted (1 point). On the first free day, I had all Sims that were at home take a vacation day (Ulrike had already quit her job). Zoe and J both got new jobs, Zoe in culinary and J in Athletic. I had Mitchell and Zoe skill up to level 6 Cooking, Level 4 Mixology, and Level 2 Gourmet Cooking. That would take them to Level 6 in the Culinary Career. J worked on his charisma, but only got to Level 3. I chose the Homey lot trait, so he didn't get a boost to his skilling. Gavin wrote books and got to Level 6 writing. Since there is no penalty on free days, I used some of Ulrike's satisfaction to buy them moodlet solvers so they could skill for almost the entire 24 hours.
Since Culinary and Writer both have Inspired as the preferred work mood, Ulrike can ask Zoe, Mitchell, and Gavin to cloudgaze (separately, of course) to get them in the right mood. J is frequently energized because he's active, but his work mood isn't as easy to get without controlling him. Having three Sims set up to gain promotions is good enough though! If it looks like a Sim is going to get promoted on a free day, use a vacation day if you have it so they get promoted the next day and you get the point. J was actually at work in the Tech Guru career when we got our last point, so I missed out when he was promoted.
First 10 points:
Designated skill: Gourmet Cooking --2 points
Job promotions: 3 points (EDIT: Mitchell, Gavin, and Ulrike each got one promotion)
Satisfaction (1000 points): 1 point
Good friends: Morgan Fyres--1 point (Ulrike was already good friends with Gavin when she moved in, so I didn't count him)
Gold parties: Wedding--1 point
Maxed job/skill/aspiration: Maxed painting--2 points
Museum value: 10 paintings and portrait of Maaike worth $28230.
Aspirations Completed: Painter Extraordinaire (happened after the free day, so it goes toward the next 10 points).
Lots: Cottage Am See, Cacti Casa
Sorry for the lack of pictures. I need to get myself in the habit of taking screen shots! By the way, does anyone know how to get rid of the notification that comes up when using the in-game camera? I've unchecked the box that says "Show dialog after something something" but it still comes up every time.
