Handing the keys over to you...take that phrase how you will! Enjoy the new entry and being the new reining recordholder. I learned a lot about the game reading this and that's dangerous stuff. 
Congratulations, hazelnut! I always love reading your stories and this one was no exception. You're basically dynasty royalty at this point. I'll miss reading about the Carrs. Amazing work!
Thanks, both. *Blush*
Under the BonnetThe Museum
I was astonished when I added up the museum value. I knew it must be well in excess of the Woods' and I was hoping to get within sight of the highest values in the Hall of Fame but never imagined the total would be as much as it was.
The paintings and sculptures of Austin alone were worth more than the Woods' whole museum. OK, the game took 20 weeks longer to play through – partly as a matter of strategy and partly because things just happened, notably Morgan's reluctance to pair up and produce an heir – but that alone doesn't account for everything. The Woods' most valuable sculpture was worth §25,463; only RR's elder sculpture was worth less than that. The Woods' painting values couldn't even begin to compete. And then there were the photos…
To be fair to my younger self, I'd only been Simming for a few months when I played my first dynasty and wasn't particularly bothered about the museum value, especially as I didn't have World Adventures back then and had to pay the bills. I also seem to remember choosing less valuable paintings for the museum several times simply because I liked them better - and I was still using the default medium canvas size for portraits.
Anyway, how did the Carrs' museum end up being worth so much?
Let's start with the paintings. The base value matters here far more than appreciation: even the portraits of a level 10 painter will only appreciate by §10 per day while the artist is alive and by §20 per day afterwards, with a one-off §930 bonus on death. The base value goes up faster than that if the artist keeps practising, which was why Austin painted everything for the museum after Portia hit adulthood and most portraits were painted shortly before the subject's next birthday.
Opportunities are a matter of luck: Fresco Fest will boost the value of all future paintings (despite what the otherwise excellent painting article on SimsWiki says), while the Local Artists' Gallery will double the value of the next painting to be finished – or a whole series of them if you start paintings but don't finish them. Lotus was born when she was, a week or so earlier than planned, because Austin received the opportunity. It nearly backfired on me when Kia proved to be long-lived, but Lotus's toddler portrait was the most valuable in the museum.
Ford's elder portrait (which was brilliant rather than a masterpiece) was painted as part of the same batch and was the second most expensive painting. A fairly distant runner-up was RR's elder portrait, at §20,303.
I'm not sure whether it's an undocumented side-effect or merely a bug but the value of Austin's other paintings definitely took a hit immediately after the opp.
He also received the Fresco Fest opportunity at some point. I'm not sure when it was but, looking at the painting values, almost certainly while Morgan was an elder.
Darren was the only other painter to get Fresco Fest. It was near the end of his life but I think it benefitted Minnie's elder portrait and Austin's child and teen portraits. Darren and Riley both did the Local Artists' Gallery, and Minnie's YA portrait and Portia's toddler one are noticeably more valuable as a result.
Photos are the exact opposite of paintings: it's all about the appreciation. The maximum is §50 per day for a living photographer and §100 per day after death, with the same §930 bonus as paintings when the artist dies. I've written a post about photo values
here.
Minnie's young adult photo ended up as the most valuable in the museum (and, in fact, was worth more than her YA sculpture, which was the only one made by a non-supermaxed sculptor).
It wasn't quite a steady reduction from then on but the effort I put into getting high-value photos and completing collections was probably disproportionate. Case in point: Austin gradually worked his way through the Best in Class collection just for the boost in value on the final photo, SuperCop, which was intended to be RR's elder pic. In the event, Dumpster Diving, from the still incomplete Sims in Motion collection, was worth more
.
Tip for future Immortal Dynasty players: take the photos early and don't worry too much about the starting values – although it's well worth buying a snake charming basket as soon as travel is allowed. Also, have mortal photographers for as long as possible. Austin only took over museum duties after Kia, the last mortal, died.
Sculptures are somewhere in between: it's a balancing act between start value and appreciation. They are also much more valuable (60% of the total museum value came from sculptures). While the appreciation on paintings and photos is a flat rate, it's a percentage of the starting value for sculptures, which complicates things. I almost certainly picked the wrong item for the museum on some occasions early on, when I just chose the sculpture that was worth most as the subject's next birthday approached. Later, I took account of the start values and tried to predict future appreciation (although very approximately, since I wasn't sure how long the game would take and obviously had no idea how long the mortals would live).
Austin's child sculpture, a Jaycen masterpiece, was the most valuable.
There were five others worth over §100,000 and I suspect there might have been more if I'd chosen the museum items better.
The Mortals
My original plan was to have a mortal painter-photographer and a mortal sculptor for as long as possible, with younger artists being trained up as successors while there was still room in the household. Sculptors were given priority, since they took longer to train.
That was modified when Morris lived so much longer than expected: Nio, who'd been intended to be a sculptor, became an all-round artist and produced photos as well as sculptures for the museum. (But no paintings – this coincided with my realising that Austin's painting values had essentially become unbeatable.)
Romeo and Robin did the same. By the time Opal took over as primary artist, Minnie's sculptures had become so valuable that it was hard for a mere mortal to compete, even with the greater appreciation after death, and the only two Opal sculptures in the museum were created near the end of her life. I decided that it probably wasn't worth the effort of training up another sculptor and Kia contributed only photos.
All of the sculptors supermaxed. All of the portrait painters completed the Master Painter challenge and most supermaxed. I'm not sure whether Darren ever got to thirty paintings, since he only worked on large canvases, apart from medium portraits of her husband and younger son for Minnie's bedroom. The photographers all completed Photog (and Architectural Eye along the way, even though it was irrelevant to the museum) – and all had level 10 painting, even if they never practised the skill, for the reason I explained in the
photography post.
(Alert readers may have noticed that Evangeline doesn't appear in the mortals' gallery. That was my fault: no-one had learned photography by the time she died and it only occurred to me much too late that Darren could have painted her portrait instead.)
The ImmortalsMinnie spent most of her life sculpting (when she wasn't training toddlers):
Of course, since Morgan was in the same house for about half of her long life, she couldn't completely avoid picking up the athletic skill and ended up at level 6. She maxed charisma and cooking, and completed the gem and metal collecting challenges. Adding Master Controller after the official end of the dynasty revealed that she was at level 8 of the hidden Gnubb skill.
Austin, again, was primarily a dynasty slave.
He completed four out of five of the photography challenges. Shutternut finally registered when he'd completed seven collections
.
He maxed charisma and cooking, and, since he couldn't avoid Morgan entirely, reached level 4 of athletic. He also got to level 5 of handiness and social networking and completed the gem and metal collecting challenges.
He was the happiest of the immortals, probably thanks to the constant Stylin' moodlet, and ended up with 1,142,830 points. (Minnie also had over a million points – clearly, dynasty slavery isn't all that bad.)
Ambitious VW supermaxed the science, gardening and handiness skills and reached level 10 of athletic and charisma. She also got to level 9 of fishing, level 8 cooking, level 5 dancing and had a point or two in a number of other skills, including writing (no idea how that happened, since the only computer was locked in Ford's study). She completed the gem and beetle collecting challenges. Of the hidden skills, she maxed Gnubb and reached level 5 of trampolining.
She never gave up on trying to clone Portia. She rolled the wish several more times and ended up with nine samples of her DNA
. There were also four from Minnie and one from Lotus but none from the other immortals.
Portia supermaxed nectar-making, gardening and cooking. She reached level 10 of charisma and athletic, and completed the Body Builder challenge less than a day before RR ate ambrosia. Despite my hope that she would max dancing (which none of my Sims have done yet), she too only reached level 5.
On the other hand, she did max Gnubb and trampoline and reached level 9 of pool
.
Morgan supermaxed inventing and athletics and (ahem)
encouraged most of the rest of the family to work on their athletic and dancing skills.
(I can't quite decide whether to be amused or shocked that the training animation for ballet is exactly the same as for gym workouts
.)
He completed all three consignment challenges, mastered handiness and charisma, reached level 8 of cooking and was the most advanced dancer of the family at level 7. He also maxed the hidden trampoline and Gnubb skills.
Ford supermaxed writing and had written books in most genres by the end of the challenge. Despite being a couch potato, he was bullied by Morgan into maxing the athletic skill. He also reached level 10 of social networking and charisma, level 8 of cooking, level 7 of Gnubb and had made a tentative start on a few other skills. He was the only member of the family to learn the arcade machine hidden skill, reaching level 5.
Lotus supermaxed martial arts and reached level 10 of the athletic and charisma skills. Like Portia, she became a Body Builder towards the end of the game. She spent most of her time as an immortal chatting to other family members or breaking space rock blocks.
She reached level 10 of the trampoline skill and level 6 of Gnubb.
Rolls Royce, of course, didn't get the chance to do much more than achieve his dynasty goals. He supermaxed logic, and had level 10 athletics and charisma. He'd reached level 9 in the hidden chess skill. I'm not sure when he found the time but he was also at level 4 trampolining.
A footnote: I decided very early on to set myself the additional challenge of never collecting any money from the Carrs' properties. Given all of the sculpting and painting going on, that wasn't a problem for long and they ended up with over 32 million Simoleons in spare cash without ever collecting any rent.
