The County Set – A Short Immortal Dynasty

[hazelnut]

Getting Started
Comings and Goings
The First Immortal
Learning Recipes
Bereavement and Bliss
Coming Up Roses
Emergency Repairs
The Odd Couple
Gen 5 Is the New Gen 6
Graffiti and Guitars
Fishing for Clues
A Charmer - and a Crisis

[hazelnut]

Getting Started

Yes, you read that correctly – my latest mad project is playing the Immortal Dynasty to all of the usual rules but on the short lifespan.

(Note to any mods who may be reading this: I wasn’t sure whether to file this under dynasties or miscellaneous.  Please move it if I picked the wrong one.)

There are some pretty obvious strategies for this:

• Use self-employment or professions for the unique careers, with rabbitholes saved for second careers in case of a shortage of Black Ops.  Or alternatively, bung everyone into the investigator career after they’ve finished their unique one.
• Forget about museum value – it’s going to be tiny whatever happens, so keep it simple and just collect portraits.
• Have an all-female line, because life extensions from pregnancy are pretty significant on this speed.  I’m half-ignoring this one – the immortals that I think will have the trickier tasks will be female but I’m planning for four of each.
• Think carefully about which expansions to use: opportunities have definitely become less frequent on the later patches but simpler games seem to generate more, at least on my computer.  I’m playing this with Ambitions, Late Night, Supernatural, Showtime, University Life and Island Paradise.  In retrospect, that’s probably too many EPs but I’m stuck with them now.  I thought hard about World Adventures but eventually decided to play without it.  I love No Bills Ever and Meditative Trance Sleep but hate the way the WA opportunities keep popping up instead of the base-game ones.  Also, the extra time from travelling would make the short lifespan almost irrelevant after the first generation and I really wanted this to be a challenge.  To partly compensate for the lack of No Bills Ever, I’m playing with the Renault set from the store.
• Above all, play in Monte Vista, the place with the best dynasty slaves in the Simverse.  (Actually, some of the other towns may be equally good but I know and like the Monte Vistan townies.)

Enough blathering; on with the dynasty!



This is Clare.  She’s artistic, because she’s destined to be the main portrait painter for the dynasty.  She’s ambitious, for the extra LTHPs, and excitable, simply because it’s one of my favourite traits.  She’s also friendly and charismatic, because she’s going to need a lot of help to get her family established – she’d better make friends easily.

Clare moved into 27 Verona Way, conveniently located between the fire station and the elixir store, and with a pleasant sea view but not much else.



She left her empty lot immediately in search of helpers.  First stop, the GilsCarbo house.  This Carlotta proved much easier to persuade than the 4x4 version and before the morning was over Clare had a housemate.



They took a taxi up to the walled town together and then Clare went off to join the police temporarily, to fulfil a random wish, and then walked over to City Hall to register as an architect before returning down the hill to make use of the easel and bathroom at the fire station.  Meanwhile, Carlotta read gardening books at the library and then visited Gino Ferrari to swap recipes (with so few expansions, her lifetime wish wasn’t yet complete).



They got along brilliantly.  In fact, I think Carlotta might have been happy to dump Eduardo and take up with Gino instead.  She settled for inviting him over and then asking him to move in.  Gino sold his Ferrari Margaret Vaguester and Clare achieved her lifetime wish.  Not bad for her first day.



Clare’s wish to join the police force turned out to have been a stroke of luck.  Chan Seng, one of the two Monte Vistans who are capable of painting portraits at the start of the game, was allocated as her partner.  Before she forgot where he lived, Gino hurried over, exerted his considerable charm and persuaded Chan to join the household.



I’ve had the multitab from the store for a while but keep forgetting to use it.  This time, all of the helpers got one and life started to settle into a rhythm.  Carlotta, who had become largely nocturnal, fished and listened to gardening tabcasts.



Gino gardened and listened to cooking tabcasts.  Chan painted and listened to logic tabcasts.  Clare just painted.



Not that they could settle for long.  Not on this speed.  Clare still needed a husband.  So Gino visited Jayden James and asked him to join the group.





Jayden fitted right in, taking over the garden from Gino, who needed to concentrate on his career for the next few days, and starting to learn logic and painting – it was becoming obvious that a younger portrait painter would be needed as a back-up and Carlotta was too busy with other things.

All too soon, Chan aged up to elder and retired from the police force.  He was never going to achieve his lifetime wish and he might as well enjoy his last few days.



Clare suddenly noticed how attractive Jayden was.  Can’t imagine what triggered that



They progressed rapidly from first kiss to a marriage proposal…



… and then to first woohoo.



There were chimes.



"Ah!  Nooboo!"



And it was still week 1.

[hazelnut]

Comings and Goings

Week 2 started with Gino achieving his lifetime wish.



He retired as soon as he got home: it was highly unlikely that he’d live long enough to work another shift, so he might as well get paid for spending his remaining time pottering around the garden and filling his shiny new fridge with high-quality food.  Clare was out, taking a brief break from painting to see which townies had turned into supernaturals.  She and Alessandra Giordano got on so well that Clare invited her over, cured her lycanthropy and asked her to join the household.



Or to put it another way, I’d realised that I needed a back-up back-up painter.  Jayden was older than his fiancée to start with and now her age was temporarily frozen.  It wasn’t at all certain that he’d still be around to paint her elder portrait, especially if they had a second child.  On reflection, I should have moved in all three of the GilsCarbos back at the start.  At the time, having a toddler to train in addition to the rest of the start-up chaos seemed like too much to handle but I think now that it would have been doable, especially with the walker and playpen.  Eduardo and Goopy could have both been trained up as portrait painters and Goopy could have been the gen 2 spouse or, more likely, fathered one for gen 3 when the original townies will probably have died out.  (EA, why did you have to get rid of story progression?)  Gino, much as I like him – not to mention his expensive car and easy access to the chef’s fridge – wasn’t really a necessary addition to the household.  I might even have been able to manage without Chan – with Clare’s young adult life stage being extended by her pregnancy, it’s likely that artistic Eduardo would have been able to paint her portrait before she aged up.  Anyway…

On the Monday of week 2, the heir put in her appearance.  And it’s a yellowboo!  Welcome to the madhouse, Kerry.



The new parents had a private wedding in the garden while the baby was asleep.





Awww, their formal outfits look really Christmassy together.

The happiness didn’t last long.  That evening, Grim came for Chan.  He was 27 and his age bar had only just filled up .



RIP, Chan Seng (and thanks for the portrait and the police car).

Since his daughter Kannitha has become a fairy, it’s possible that Chan’s genes will find their way into the family tree at a later stage.  I certainly hope so.

Carlotta had been reading recipe books when she wasn’t fishing or visiting the elixir shop and achieved her lifetime wish by learning how to cook ambrosia, although I failed to get a screenshot.  She’d caught a dozen deathfish, despite her tendency to wander away from the lighthouse if I took my eye off her.  All we needed now was lifefruit.  They had plenty of money trees and enough flame fruit to live off baked angel food cake for the rest of the dynasty but only one of their special seeds so far had grown into a deathflower and lifeplants were notable by their absence.  Now that Gino had enough points for a collection helper, he and Jayden ran around town collecting every special seed that appeared.  Finally, they had lifefruit (and another two deathflowers).  Carlotta bought a replicator with her happiness points and started making ambrosia.



Mission accomplished!  The replicator was stocked and the half-made bowl of ambrosia stored in the attic in case it was needed again.  Carlotta knew it was there – not being able to reach the bowl to finish cooking the ambrosia drove her nuts.  Sorry, ‘Lotta.

Kerry aged up to toddler on her own.  I was too preoccupied with the adults to remember that she could have a cake earlier in the day.



That’s Jayden’s hair colour, I think, along with Clare’s dark brown eyes.  Her features look like a mixture of both parents.



Her favourite colour’s lime green but I’m not sure that’s going to go too well with her skin.

Clare and Carlotta shared the potty training and Kerry taught herself to walk, dodging neatly around the feet of the painting adults.



Then a playpen appeared and she taught herself to talk as well.  On her child birthday, she was ready for a cake as soon as everyone was up.





She spent the rest of the day being tutored by her father.  It seemed like a good point to pause the game and rebuild the house – and when I restarted, Kerry had mysteriously acquired homework .  Not the most fun birthday ever.

The main reason for the rebuild was that Clare had become a minor celebrity.  She’d had an opportunity to deliver a painting and it turned out that the customer was slightly famous.  Some of her fame rubbed off on Clare during the handover.  The first (oddly formal) paparazzi turned up just after the rebuild and were rather miffed to find that they couldn’t get into the house.  One of them was Giuseppe Esposito.  It was nice to see him again.



I was beginning to get worried about Clare’s career progress.  She’d had an entrepreneurial mindset from the beginning and had used a job booster from the elixir store but she wasn’t getting promotions as quickly as I’d expected.  The painting was going oddly as well.  I’d usually expect painters to get the three challenges at about the same time.  In fact, I’ve had several painters who got all three with the same painting, usually close to the point where they maxed the skill.  Clare was turning out to be very different.  She’d produced her first brilliant painting just after she hit level 6 and became a Proficient Painter at level 7 but it was clearly going to take a lot more than 30 paintings to max the skill and there was no prospect of a masterpiece yet.  I was getting bored of seeing the same paintings over and over again, so I bought her a drawing board and she switched over to sketching architecture for a few days.  With the help of a second job booster and perfect basil from the garden, she finally made it to the top of her profession.



Her elder birthday was now very close and she still hadn’t maxed painting or produced a single masterpiece, so she and Jayden tried for another life extension baby.  Despite several attempts, there were no chimes.



Then Clare was summoned to the town hall to be presented with the key to the city.  Just after she’d left the house this happened:





Rest in peace, Jayden James/County.  Thank you for the garden, the tutoring and the portraits.  And for passing on your interesting genes.  Will that impressive musculature be handed on down the family, I wonder?

Blissfully unaware of what was happening at home, Clare continued up the hill to her astonishingly sparsely attended celebration of great success.



(The ‘crowd’ consisted of that woman with the balloon and a single paparazza.)

As the brief ceremony ended and the mayor walked away, the news reached Clare.



Sadly, Grim hadn’t yet finished his work for the day.  Even before Clare returned home, he was back.



Goodbye and thank you yet again, Carlotta GilsCarbo, dynasty slave extraordinaire.  We couldn’t have done it without you.

[CeresIn]

You Are Brave.

Too much to do in little time, I know for sure that I would fail this if I tried (I'm not).

But it makes an interesting story with everything that happens in a single chapter. Good Luck!!

[starlives]

Wow what a challenge you have set yourself!  But then I have no doubt that it will work out for you - you always seem to have your strategies mapped out so well beforehand.
Love Clare's look and totally approve of her spouse choice.  I have played Jayden many times and have his offspring in many of my saved files.  But I have never seen him as an elder before so that was interesting.
Lovely screenshots as always and Monte Vista is one of my most played towns - the lighting is so glorious.
Have this bookmarked and look forward to your updates.
Just out of interest was there a particular reason you called this dynasty "The County Set"?

[hazelnut]

Thanks, both of you .  This is something I've been considering, on and off, for quite a while - in fact, rather longer than I thought.  I just went back and found the conversation I had with ratchie about playing the immortal dynasty on a shorter lifespan and was surprised to find that it was over four years ago  .  I got as far as starting a couple of times but gave up at an early stage.  It occurred to me a week or two back that some of the expansions I've bought since the last try would help a lot (alchemy's really useful, for example) and having played through the 4x4 was great experience.  I actually prefer the medium lifespan to the normal one for most games now.

It's the first time I've played Jayden, although one of my Sims married David and they both seem to become close friends with most of my Monte Vista families.  He's certainly very pleasant to look at .

Wow what a challenge you have set yourself!  But then I have no doubt that it will work out for you - you always seem to have your strategies mapped out so well beforehand.

Well, I thought I'd got it worked out, although I am finding things I could have done better...

Just out of interest was there a particular reason you called this dynasty "The County Set"?

Yes.  They're all going to be named after counties.  I recently found a spreadsheet I put together a while back with naming themes and realised that there were more than enough in the list of counties for an immortal dynasty.  Their surname was going to be Shires initially, until I realised that there are very few shire counties that work as names for people.  Co Clare and Co Kerry are both in Ireland - the plan is to use English, Welsh and Scottish county names as well later on.

[hazelnut]

The First Immortal

Soon after Carlotta’s death, Clare started feeling sick.  Was it just the stress of losing so many friends or had she conceived despite the lack of chimes?

That evening, Kerry aged up again.





She visited the mirror and chest of drawers to sort out her new look (primarily blue this time, with lime accents)…



…and then let herself into the newly unlocked skilling room to begin learning alchemy.



The following morning, Clare’s pregnancy was confirmed.



It was no great surprise by now.  I’ve rarely seen a Sim be sick quite so often.  It’s just as well that painting’s an enjoyable activity, since her watcher wasn’t going to let a little thing like a pregnancy stop her from insisting on as much skilling as possible.  It’s a good thing she wasn’t a writer.



A very pregnant Clare reached level 10 and turned out six masterpieces in a row.  Supermaxed at last!

Clare and Jayden’s second child, Devon, was born in the bedroom corridor…



…just before Gino had his appointment with Grim around the corner.  Gino had proved to be long-lived again – 35 is pretty impressive on this lifespan.

I was rather surprised to be able to choose both of Devon’s birth traits.  What with the morning-, afternoon- and evening-sickness and the double mourning moodlet from losing both her husband and her best friend, I have no idea how Clare stayed so happy.

A day after her son’s birth, the sparkles caught up with Clare.





It was OK (well, apart from the unfortunate hairstyle).  Almost all of her requirements were now in place.  All she needed were another two best friends (and alchemy could take care of them) and her final portrait and she’d be done.

While Clare was tying up the loose ends, Devon had his first birthday.



He looks to be almost the exact opposite of Kerry – he has Jayden’s eyes and Clare’s hair colour.  I’m pretty sure that his skin colour is Clare’s slider position on Jayden’s slider: Kerry is almost certainly the other way around.  Like his big sister, he taught himself to walk and talk.



At 24 days old (or 30, if you count the extra time from pregnancies), Clare’s requirements were complete.


                                            Clare’s portraits: YA by Chan, adult by Jayden and elder by Alessandra

She walked over to the replicator and pressed the button.

I did a quick double-check that she’d fulfilled all of the requirements and went into total panic mode: Adora Almeria had somehow slipped from best friend to good friend when I wasn’t looking.  Fortunately, Clare wasn’t hungry enough to eat the ambrosia autonomously and the rest of the household were busy elsewhere.  One phone call later, everything was in place again.





And Clare went off to the mirror to dye her hair back to a slightly softer version of its youthful shade.



One down; seven to go.


Clare County

Traits: artistic, ambitious, excitable, friendly, charismatic

Lifetime wish: Swimming in Cash
Career: Architect
Skill: Painting

Building: Civic Center
Property: Little Gipper Fishing Park

Unique lifetime rewards: Extra Creative, Fireproof Homestead, Moodlet Manager

Unique best friends

• Alessandra Giordano
• Goopy GilsCarbo
• Joaquin Costa
• Lakisha Costa
• Adora Almeria
• Marta Almeria

Unique opportunities

• Art Class
• A Medium Painting
• Popular Painter
• Networking Is Key
• Celebrity Body
• The Study of Art

Phew!  That was hectic.  It might have taken less than three Sim weeks to play through but it took far longer in real-life time than the first generation of a dynasty on the normal speed  Still, it’s the most fun I’ve had playing Sims in ages .

Of course, I may be totally deranged…

[KRae]

No Generations is a great idea. Graduation is a killer on short lifespan.

[PeregrineTook]

Wow, I can't imagine going for a dynasty on a short lifespan.  I've never gotten past the 5th generation with normal!
What a lovely, little, yellow heiress you've got there!  Can't wait to read more  :=)

[KCNDreams]

Congratulations on your first immortal! Just reading, it seems to zoom by, I can't imagine how it is to play. Only ~30 days in a lifetime must make every day feel jam packed and even more important. It seems like the biggest benefit of the short lifespan is that it won't take nearly as long in real time to complete, have you found any other benefits?


Good luck with the future immortals, I can't wait to see how the genetics play out, and your future strategy

[hazelnut]

No Generations is a great idea. Graduation is a killer on short lifespan.

I remember how much trouble you had with that with the Breves.  That was the main reason I chose not to use it.  Really missing the maternity outfits, the kids' hair and clothes and the motive mobile, though .

Wow, I can't imagine going for a dynasty on a short lifespan.  I've never gotten past the 5th generation with normal!
What a lovely, little, yellow heiress you've got there!  Can't wait to read more  :=)

Generation 6 is my bugbear.  I nearly lost the Woods at that stage and did lose the Rainbows.  Fingers crossed...

Congratulations on your first immortal! Just reading, it seems to zoom by, I can't imagine how it is to play. Only ~30 days in a lifetime must make every day feel jam packed and even more important. It seems like the biggest benefit of the short lifespan is that it won't take nearly as long in real time to complete, have you found any other benefits?

Good luck with the future immortals, I can't wait to see how the genetics play out, and your future strategy

The first generation wasn't actually faster at all in my time.  I'm hoping that will change as I get further through - and that the short lifespan will wipe out the boredom that tends to set in near the end of a normal-speed immortal dynasty.  It was also fun to plan.  I often find that I enjoy planning games as much as playing them; sometimes more.  Working out what careers and supermaxed skills I was reasonably confident of getting through in the time and then combining them was interesting and I'm hoping that the time pressure will mean that the game itself is just as absorbing.  So far, it's working out that way.

[hazelnut]

Learning Recipes

Kerry was not academically inclined, to say the least.  Despite going to school in a good mood every morning and spending the day talking to friends, she was always stressed by the time she got home.  She didn’t seem to be progressing as well as she should have done, either.  Jayden’s tutoring had got her through primary school but I’d thought she’d be OK on her own at high school.  Apparently not.  So Alessandra took a logic class, followed by intensive chess practice while listening to logic tabcasts, and tutored Kerry to an A just in time.  (That really was close – she was about half an hour from aging up.)





Despite her dislike of school, Kerry didn’t seem entirely happy about growing up.  Or maybe it was just the hair and clothes.  After trips to the mirror and dresser, she settled down a bit.



Now she could concentrate on her two great loves, cooking and alchemy. 

The obvious way to manage a cook/alchemist on a limited lifespan would be to do the alchemist career with a cooking supermax and the culinary librarian wish.  On the other hand, I’ve supermaxed cooking with loads of Sims but have only done alchemy once, with Sev in the Household Skills.  I decided to go the all-alchemy route instead.

I still wanted a back-up ambrosia cook as soon as possible, though, in case of bugs.  Under strict supervision, Kerry was allowed a multitab and spent her days researching alchemy while listening to cooking tabcasts.


Devon aged up to child.



Despite a lack of obviously suitable traits, he liked school a lot more than Kerry had.  Alessandra tutored him to an A and he spent the rest of his childhood (i.e. one day) playing with the blocks and toy oven, and fishing.

Clare retired.  I was getting tired of a map view full of architecture jobs that were never going to be carried out and she had plenty to do at home.  She, too, was cautiously allowed a multitab, so that she could get to level 5 logic and take over the tutoring duties.  (She still managed to sneak off and pick up level 1 fishing while I was watching Kerry.)  She’d also started to learn social networking from playing with her phone.  Although that was never going to be a high priority, it might be a simpler alternative to alchemy for future best friends, and I decided to let her carry on learning the skill in whatever free time she and I had.

Alessandra Giordano, the last of the dynasty helpers, had her appointment with Grim at 29 days.



She didn’t feature much in the screenshots but was vital in smoothing the transition from reliance on helpers to a largely self-sufficient dynasty.  Rest in peace, Alessandra.  I’ll miss you.

Kerry, four days into young adulthood, had reached the point where she had to start thinking seriously about the future of the dynasty.  I sent her up the hill to visit the Monty family, who had become werewolves.  Despite discovering almost immediately that they ought to be fundamentally incompatible (she was good; he was evil), Kerry and Antonio fell heavily for each other.  She pulled a potion out of her backpack and cured him…



…and then invited him to move in.



Once restored to humanity, Antonio was only a day from elder but I gave him a partial makeover anyway.  Kerry lost no time in proposing…



…and bringing in the next generation.




Devon had another birthday.



He became a green thumb and started on his only real task for the dynasty, that of improving the quality of the plants to give the future gardener the best possible start.  Talking of whom…



Kerry gave birth to the first male heir in the bedroom corridor.  This is threatening to become a family tradition.  Welcome, Ross.

In keeping with another tradition, Kerry and Antonio got married as soon as their son was settled in his cot.  Since it was dark by this time, they settled for an indoor wedding…





…with the bride’s mother and brother as vaguely bored spectators.



(And, of course, they immediately suffered a celebrity disgrace for having a child out of wedlock.)

[hazelnut]

Bereavement and Bliss

Birthdays are never far away on this speed.  Devon became a young adult…



…and Kerry aged up to full adulthood.  She was oddly happy about it.



Kerry seems far more excitable than Clare, despite not having the trait officially.  Exhibit B:



I’m pretty sure she also has a hidden absent-minded trait.  Either that or she’s just plain glitchy.  She keeps forgetting what she’s supposed to be doing.  Antonio had both of those traits, so maybe that’s why they got on so well.  It was a blissfully happy marriage (although that was partly because of the bride’s elixirs.  She was racking up the numbers for the making and throwing challenges by mass-producing vials of bliss.  The family and the doorstepping paparazzi were permanently blissed-out).

Their time together was tragically short, though - they were married for about a day and a half.  Like Chan, Antonio only just made it to 27 days and ran out of time while his son was still a baby.







He seemed content to go with Grim.  I suppose he’d had a long life, really, even though I didn’t see much of it.  He had been around since the start of the game, after all.  Grim was probably happy, too – Kerry took the chance to throw a vial at him.

Shortly afterwards, Ross became a toddler.



He inspired Clare's best painting yet (in my view.  The game disagreed.)





Despite her heartbreak, Kerry carried on with her alchemy and surprised me by achieving her lifetime wish the following day (and I missed another significant screenshot).



She’d reached the top of the alchemist career long before this, mostly by consigning elixirs that Carlotta had bought before she was born.  She ought to have completed all three consigning challenges by now but the game was refusing to recognise her impressive reputation.

Ross had another birthday.



Kerry supermaxed alchemy halfway through adulthood and turned her attention to cooking instead.  The timing was perfect – the food made by Gino and Carlotta was finally starting to run out.  She also joined the culinary career in pursuit of best friends and opportunities.

Ross became a teenager…



…and Kerry had her final birthday.  She cashed in the celebrity opportunity she’d been holding as a backup for the past week, had her portrait painted and sat down to her first plate of ambrosia.




Kerry County


                                   Kerry’s portraits: the first two by Jayden, the middle two by Alessandra and the final two by Clare

Traits: good, friendly, supernatural fan, born saleswoman, natural cook

Lifetime wish: Alchemy Artisan
Career: Alchemist
Skill: Alchemy
(She also maxed cooking and completed Menu Maven the day after achieving immortality.)

Building: Graciella's Groceries and Delfina's Diner
Property: Moonlit Stroll Park

Unique lifetime rewards: Born to Cook, Suave Seller, Teleportation Pad

Unique best friends

• Ross County
• Devon County
• Paola Romano
• Orlando Romano
• Ulysses Beckmann
• Karl Bryant

Unique opportunities

• After School Employment
• The Research Project
• From One Chef to Another
• Burgers for Sims in Uniform
• The Dish Showdown
• Broadway Cameo

[PeregrineTook]

Congratulations!  Seems like Kerry was certainly a roller coaster of an heiress for you!  I always panic about the honor roll.  I had an heir once who never got the notice that he'd made honor roll, but both parents had the wish to see him make honor roll and those wishes both got cashed in on his final day of returning from school. 
Glad Kerry managed to get so much done in such a short time.  Kudos!

[KCNDreams]

Oh my goodness, a second immortal! Congratulations!

 

The first generation wasn't actually faster at all in my time.  I'm hoping that will change as I get further through - and that the short lifespan will wipe out the boredom that tends to set in near the end of a normal-speed immortal dynasty.  It was also fun to plan.  I often find that I enjoy planning games as much as playing them; sometimes more.  Working out what careers and supermaxed skills I was reasonably confident of getting through in the time and then combining them was interesting and I'm hoping that the time pressure will mean that the game itself is just as absorbing.  So far, it's working out that way.

I'm surprised the first gen wasn't faster, is it because they're typically a rush in the beginning?

I'm also really big on planning, more than playing at times. I've been planning a dynasty for far longer than I probably should, or testing out certain strategies/founders instead of just starting it. I love reading stories and seeing how they're approached, and I'm still amazed at how much you've managed to accomplish in so little time!

[CeresIn]

Congrats for the second immortal!! You're tempting me to do this but I don't have time, although I'll put it on my to do sim-list.

Ross' toddler painting is beautiful no matter what the game says.

[hazelnut]

Congratulations!  Seems like Kerry was certainly a roller coaster of an heiress for you!  I always panic about the honor roll.  I had an heir once who never got the notice that he'd made honor roll, but both parents had the wish to see him make honor roll and those wishes both got cashed in on his final day of returning from school. 
Glad Kerry managed to get so much done in such a short time.  Kudos!

Thanks .  Getting on to the honour roll isn't too likely on this speed.  It should be just about possible for teenagers, with a lot of tutoring and if there are no weekends in the way.  There's no chance of children making it, since childhood is only two days.  (Irritatingly, the baby stage is the same length as child and toddler.)

Oh my goodness, a second immortal! Congratulations!

 

The first generation wasn't actually faster at all in my time.  I'm hoping that will change as I get further through - and that the short lifespan will wipe out the boredom that tends to set in near the end of a normal-speed immortal dynasty.  It was also fun to plan.  I often find that I enjoy planning games as much as playing them; sometimes more.  Working out what careers and supermaxed skills I was reasonably confident of getting through in the time and then combining them was interesting and I'm hoping that the time pressure will mean that the game itself is just as absorbing.  So far, it's working out that way.

I'm surprised the first gen wasn't faster, is it because they're typically a rush in the beginning?

I'm also really big on planning, more than playing at times. I've been planning a dynasty for far longer than I probably should, or testing out certain strategies/founders instead of just starting it. I love reading stories and seeing how they're approached, and I'm still amazed at how much you've managed to accomplish in so little time!

Thank you .  I think the first generation took a long time because I was playing so many Sims, all of them with tasks to perform.  I've started several normal-speed immortal dynasties and completed one.  Another got to generation six before I messed up terminally by letting a spouse help with the gardening and forgetting to check his inventory for deathflowers.  (I nearly blew the successful one at the same stage and have now developed a bit of a complex about gen 6.)  All but one of the previous dynasties were started with just the founder and spouse - and I gave up on the other one because I didn't like having to manage so many Sims at the start.  That was only two couples, while this household was up to seven Sims when Kerry arrived.

Congrats for the second immortal!! You're tempting me to do this but I don't have time, although I'll put it on my to do sim-list.

Ross' toddler painting is beautiful no matter what the game says.

Ah, the to-do Sim list.  I know it well   .

And thank you .

[hazelnut]

Coming Up Roses



Maybe it was his lucky trait.  Or maybe the random numbers just rolled that way.  Whatever the reason was, Ross sailed through life.  He became a self-employed gardener while he was still at school and joined Devon in the garden full-time as soon as he grew up.





By the end of young adulthood, he was pretty much set up for immortality, with his career maxed, lifetime wish completed (I missed the screenshot again  ), the gardening skill almost supermaxed and four opportunities completed.  Plenty of time to think about the future of the dynasty.  This was probably just as well, since finding a wife might be tricky.  The original townies were dying out, as predicted.  The humans were long gone, of course, and Beppe Bianchi, the last of the werewolves, had just died of old age.  That left a few fairies and vampires – with one obvious leading candidate to become Mrs County.  I sent Ross over to the Sengs' house to make friends with Kannitha.  He invited her back home, threw one of his mother’s Potent Cures and invited her to move in.



Grrr!  On her last day of adulthood.  Sorry, Chan.  Your genes aren’t getting into the family after all.

Plan B was to visit Clare’s old friends the Almerias – but if Kannitha was too old, her fellow fairy Adora must be too, however young she still looked.  That left her daughter Marta.



Marta might not have inherited her mother’s prettiness but she had lovely traits – and Ross was delighted to discover that she was also eco-friendly.  At last, someone who appreciated the importance of really good compost!



He invited her over, cured her vampirism and asked her to move in.

Yes!  It wasn’t yet her elder birthday.  On the other hand, tomorrow would be.  And it was already late afternoon.  Time for some serious flirting…



…and more.



Chimes first time!  OK, Marta, you can have a makeover now.



Of course, she only wore her new clothes for a few hours, but never mind.

At about this point, I noticed that all of the stockpiled deathflowers had disappeared from the attic.  Ross grabbed the collection helper from Clare’s inventory and spent two days chasing around town and gathering another batch of special seeds, before embarking on some intensive planting and fertilising.  Fortunately, three of them grew into deathflowers.

Naturally, Angus was born in the bedroom corridor  …



…and his parents got married immediately afterwards.



He aged up to toddler and proved to have inherited Marta’s hair and eye colour along with Ross’ skin.



Although logic is a free skill in this dynasty, Angus was the first heir who was allowed to learn it from the beginning.  He loved his pegbox.



Kannitha had spent most of her time in the dynasty house reading through their entire library and playing computer games and Gnubb but had also kept up her part-time job at the bookshop.  She’d just finished a shift when Grim caught up with her.



It was another of his days for two-for-one offers.  Almost immediately afterwards, Devon started sparkling.



Rest in peace, Devon.  Thank you for keeping the garden going until Ross could take over.



Devon County made it to 30 days.  He had points in a number of skills, was close to supermaxing gardening and had completed the omniplant opportunity chain.  He was also an expert trampolinist and Gnubb player.

The trampoline was new since Grim’s previous visit.  He hung around for a while trying it out.



Ross aged up to elder, sat (well, stood) for his final portrait and ate his first ambrosia.






Ross County


                                                                                      (All portraits painted by Clare)

Traits: loves the outdoors, heavy sleeper, eco-friendly, green thumb, lucky

Lifetime wish: Perfect Garden
Career: Gardener
Skill: Gardening

Building: Tasty Treats and Tomes
Property: Aleister's Elixirs and Sundries

Unique lifetime rewards: Super Green Thumb, Food Replicator, Flying Vacuum

Unique best friends

• Kerry County
• Cipriana Costa
• Mandie Meyers
• Feisal Rooney
• Renae Rooney
• Chrissie Jorgenson

(He was also best friends with Marta but Clare had claimed her already.)

Unique opportunities

• Stinky Bugs
• Work/School Learning Project
• Save the Herding
• Best Food in Town
• Perfect Produce
• Uncommonly Good

Clare had been carrying all of the urns around in her personal inventory but it was starting to get rather full, so I moved them all to the family inventory instead.  Except for Alessandra’s.  Something odd happened to hers during the transfer.  I’m not sure whether it’s stuck in a wall or the ground somewhere or has just become invisible.  Either way, it can’t be interacted with or moved and Alessandra’s ghost is now a regular visitor.

[PeregrineTook]

Wow, you are flying through this!  I'm also planning on using the head start approach on gardening in my decadynasty.  An heir can't be bothered with silly things like starting a garden!  Their  time is better investing in tending an already thriving garden  :=)
Marta looks really good in that hairstyle!  Kudos on the makeover!  Ross, of course, simply swam out of a really attractive gene pool.

[Ausette]

You're mad, hazelnut . Really enjoying this so far. You've got efficiency down to an art form.

It's always sad when the original townies die out. Let's hope their genes stick around at least. As cute as he is, I'm almost disappointed Angus takes so strongly after Ross; Marta's quite a lovely-looking Sim in my opinion and I'd have loved to see her features on the heir.

[CeresIn]

Congratulation to Ross! His face makes me remember someone, an actor maybe but I'm not good with names.

[hazelnut]

Wow, you are flying through this!  I'm also planning on using the head start approach on gardening in my decadynasty.  An heir can't be bothered with silly things like starting a garden!  Their  time is better investing in tending an already thriving garden  :=)
Marta looks really good in that hairstyle!  Kudos on the makeover!  Ross, of course, simply swam out of a really attractive gene pool.

Thanks!

Of course, I know from doing the Apocalypse Challenge that it’s perfectly possible to supermax gardening from a cold start but I far prefer doing it this way.  And anyway, I liked Devon.

You're mad, hazelnut .

I know!   

As cute as he is, I'm almost disappointed Angus takes so strongly after Ross; Marta's quite a lovely-looking Sim in my opinion and I'd have loved to see her features on the heir.

Angus isn’t a total Ross clone.  Apart from the hair and eye colours, there’s something of Marta in the shape of his face and ears.  And maybe her genes will surface more strongly in the next generation.

Congratulation to Ross! His face makes me remember someone, an actor maybe but I'm not good with names.

He also reminds me of someone (maybe the same someone), although exactly who it might be is eluding me.


Emergency Repairs



As a genius, Angus found schoolwork easy – although he had to turn down the two school opportunities he was offered.  I wonder how “I can’t clean out the bugs because my dad did that when he was at school” went down with his teacher?

He was the first child of the dynasty to grow up entirely surrounded by elders, most of whom would be around forever.  His father had achieved immortality while he was still a toddler; sadly, the person Angus was closest to was his mother, who wasn’t allowed to eat ambrosia.



Marta was another mortal who only just made it to the end of the short lifespan.  An hour or so before her son was due to become a teenager, she got up from the rocking chair and was overtaken by sparkles.



Like Antonio, she was content to go with Grim.  She’d also started the game as a toddler, after all.





Nobody felt much like celebrating Angus’s birthday after that.





At high school, he was asked to read Demand Excellence… and report back.  He’d have been happy to have a new book to read but it was a Friday and he was due to age up on the Sunday, so he refused.



Instead, he spent Saturday playing chess and had birthday cake for breakfast on Sunday.



Immediately afterwards, he walked next door and signed up as a firefighter.



He returned to find that the customary collection of blocked toilets had appeared in the front of the house.  (In fact, he didn’t have to repair all of them, since half of the indoor plumbing decided to break while he was in the middle of fixing the old stuff.)



Then he moved on to broken appliances…



…and upgrades.



By his adult birthday, he’d supermaxed handiness.

Because of the small-fire bugs, he made it to assistant fire chief without putting out a single blaze, although he did deal with an infestation of angry gnomes.

Kerry became a five-star chef and retired.



My previous Immortal Dynasty chefs have carried on working until the end of the game but there was too much going on in this one.  The second chef’s fridge went into the heir’s room.

Monte Vista had become a ghost town by this point.  There was never anyone around on the community lots around town and when I sent Clare and Ross out on a scouting mission, it turned out that only three houses were inhabited: apart from Adora Almeria, who, incongruously enough, was still an adult, there were only a few elderly townies.  Angus was going to have to look elsewhere for a wife.  So he took the university aptitude test.



I was only going to send him for a day or two to find a spouse, and then buy him an honorary science/medicine degree and stick him into the medical career, with all of its opportunities.  Then he got 18 credits towards a technology degree and I was reminded that a tech degree counts towards the law enforcement career.  So I changed my plans: Angus would attend uni for a full two weeks and complete his degree.  It would be quite nice to only have one Sim to watch for a while.  On the other hand, I still wanted to keep to the spirit of the challenge I’d set myself, so I’d only let him study or work on his athletic skill while he was there – completing his lifetime wish would have to wait until he returned home.

In the meantime, he had to reach the top of his first career.  It was a weekend, so he maintained the engine and alarm and then worked out until he hit level ten.



Then he made a quick phone call…



…and returned home briefly to say goodbye to the family.

[Ausette]

Aww, that last screenshot with everyone coming out to say hello is just adorable.

Is Adora Almeria too old to marry in? Related? Just out of curiosity. I'm very excited to see who Angus meets at uni.

[hazelnut]

Is Adora Almeria too old to marry in? Related?

Adora is Marta's widowed mother.  Even though she's a fairy, I'm pretty sure she ought to be an elder by now.


The Odd Couple

At the Meet and Greet, Angus met Bettie Franklin and was instantly smitten.



Over the next two weeks, I made sure he met almost every female on campus but none of them could compete with Bettie.

(I think I missed an opportunity here, by the way.  On the middle weekend, Angus was asked to do a whiteboard presentation for extra credit.  It appeared in the job slot but I was so convinced that uni opportunities wouldn’t count that I didn’t record it in the official list even though he completed it.  It was only when I saw Trip commenting in the immortal dynasty thread about valid opportunities for science & medical students that I realised I’d probably missed a trick.  There was a second one a day or two later involving lecturing but he turned that one down that one because I was afraid that it might unlock charisma.)



After a pretty uneventful couple of weeks, Angus completed his degree with an A grade.  I don’t know why he was so surprised – he’d been on the dean’s list for the past week.

The family turned up to watch him graduate.



It was chaos outside the sports hall.  Whether it was the fuss surrounding the arrival of the celebrities from Monte Vista or just a general lack of organisation, getting everyone into their gowns and through the doors was taking ages.  Angus eventually gave up and went in by another door without bothering to change.



I think he was pleased with his new diploma .




As soon as he was home again, he phoned Bettie and invited her to visit.  There seemed to be some travel problems and it took a few more days and another two calls before she finally arrived.  At least it gave Angus time to get established in his new career.



Erm, Angus dear, I’m not sure that talking about flies is the best approach to adopt here. On the other hand, maybe she should know about your dirt-eating habits.

Apparently, he knew Bettie better than I did.  Immediately after the fly conversation, she agreed to move in.

Oh!  She’s insane.  That explains it.



She ran indoors for a change of hairstyle and some new outfits.  I left her everyday clothes as they were: I like the way her jacket matches her eyes.



After softening her up with his grandmother’s amazing food, Angus decided it was time to move their relationship on.



Well, I wasn’t expecting that.  She said no.  And then rolled a wish to marry him.

Maybe she just wanted to be the one to propose.



Angus thought it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard.





And then they kissed and made up.



Pretty successfully.



All too soon, Angus had his final birthday.





The noise woke Bettie, who’d been napping in the rocking chair.  She’d been feeling oddly tired recently.  Shortly afterwards she found out why.



Now that she was expecting his child, would Bettie be more willing to accept a proposal from Angus?



Apparently she would.

Angus’ requirements were almost complete.  He stopped off at the library after work the following day to read a logic book and finish off his lifetime wish.



While he was there, he rolled a wish to marry Bettie.  He teleported home and went to look for his fiancée.  He found her in the basement, admiring his newly completed portrait collection.  It seemed as good a place as any to get married.





He was still short of three best friends,  The police career might be great for quick progression and job opportunities but it is a bit lacking in co-workers.  And now he was on leave anyway.

Help came from an unexpected direction.  I’d been assuming that going to uni and joining a different career would mean that Angus would have to forfeit his key to the city.  It seemed not.  On the day after his wedding he was summoned to City Hall.



The crowd this time was even sparser than for Clare’s presentation.  In fact, nobody else attended.



Maybe they knew that the mayor was a crook.  That box was empty – or, at least, nothing ever arrived in Angus’ inventory.

There were people in the main square, though.  Angus threw some elixirs.



And that was it.  Requirements done.  He went home and replicated a plate of ambrosia.




Angus County

Traits: brave, athletic, genius, handy, daredevil, heavy sleeper (degree)

Lifetime wish: The Tinkerer
Career: Firefighter
Skill: Handiness

Building: Flying V’s Coffeehouse
Property: Venice Beach

Unique lifetime rewards: Professional Slacker, Philosopher’s Stone, Efficient Inventor*

*Actually, on this speed, I’m not at all sure he’ll ever get enough free time (or enough of my attention as a former heir) to do any inventing at all.  On the other hand, it’s absolutely certain that no-one else will do any.

Unique best friends

• Bettie County
• Clare County
• Callie Duvall (his police partner)
• Roderick Barakat
• Venkat Gossett
• Augustine Cronin

Unique opportunities

• Puzzle Panic
• Fixing the Books
• Make-A-Dream
• Enroll in University
• Substitute Instructor
• Working the Late Shift

[Trip]

In my defense, I swear I've given out the science/medicine degree ops tip before.

I haven't commented yet but this short run is pretty insane. It's technically not Hall of Fame eligible but I might have to make a special mention if you succeed.

[hazelnut]

In my defense, I swear I've given out the science/medicine degree ops tip before.

You probably have.  I've not been following the dynasty threads recently.

I haven't commented yet but this short run is pretty insane. It's technically not Hall of Fame eligible but I might have to make a special mention if you succeed.

It's excluded on 'current patch' grounds as well.  My computer does not get on at all with 1.69.  It's not just Sims 3 that crashes all the time - we're talking complete train wreck territory.  I've gone back to 1.67, with Origin competely disabled.  Pretty infuriating, since I had three downloaded stuff packs: I've bought Town Life on disk as well but am doing without the other two.

A special mention would be nice, though .

[Nimrod Mikkusu]

Well. I'm on 1.67 too. 

Then anyways, I propably would'nt make a strict Dinasty. A legacy challenge with helpers, maybe.

[hazelnut]

Well. I'm on 1.67 too. 

Then anyways, I propably would'nt make a strict Dinasty. A legacy challenge with helpers, maybe.

Those are fun too


Gen 5 Is the New Gen 6

Amazingly, Bettie didn’t have her baby in the bedroom corridor.  She chose a spot right in front of the replicator and dishwasher instead.  It was just as well that the immortals had eaten their ambrosia a few hours before.



And it’s a purpleboo!  I thought that Bettie’s pale skintone might shift the colour away from the greeny-yellows if the baby was another rainboo but I wasn’t expecting such a dramatic difference  .



When little Gwynedd aged up to toddler, she proved to have inherited Bettie’s hair colour.  I’m not sure where those greyish eyes came from, though.  I’d been hoping that the baby would inherit her mother’s startling green eyes but grey probably works better with that skin tone.

With Clare and Kerry eager to share the childcare duties, Bettie took up a new hobby.



Since my computer always seems to spit out numbers at the high end of the range for the number of sculptures required for opportunities like An Old Ruse and Delivering the Green, I was getting the family inventory stocked up in advance. I also did this in the 4x4 – rather pointlessly as it turned out, since Mike didn’t get any of those opportunities.  Either my computer is spiteful or it’s cleverer than I am  .  Or it could just be random chance, of course.  I used the same strategy successfully with Clare at the beginning of this game –  she used Chan’s paintings for some of her opportunities.  It would have been even more helpful if she’d been self-employed or had had one of the ops to deliver a large number of paintings.



Gwynnie had another birthday.



Clare began tutoring her for school and I discovered that I’d started on the traditional gen 6 mess-ups a generation early.



Gwynedd had managed to unlock logic as a toddler, presumably by playing in either the walker or the playpen.  I really should have stuck to the traditional methods of teaching walking and talking.  Not a fatal mistake but irritating when I’d intended her to be a single-skill Sim.



Two days later, Gwynnie was old enough to start sculpting and I knocked through the wall between the two skilling rooms to make space for another sculpting station.



By her YA birthday, she’d reached level 8 of the sculpting skill and level 5 of the career (and level 5 in logic).



(I think that must be her self-employed sculptor’s work outfit.)

She chose Living in the Lap of Luxury as her lifetime wish and got it so fast that I missed the screenshot.  Yeah, another one .



Gwynedd grew up pretty, although the tendency to revert to neutral features seems to be kicking in, despite the lack of clone-faced spouses.



Of course, the first few opportunities she was offered were either celebrity ops that had already been claimed or logic ones that her dad had done.  I came very, very close to failing at this point – because of a few days’ break in playing, combined with tiredness that turned out to be the incubation period of the bug that’s going around here at the moment, I lost concentration and accepted Fixing the Books, which was one of Angus’ Black Ops.  Gwynedd was already on her way to the business office when I did a paranoid double-check and had to cancel the cue in a hurry.  My spreadsheet now has an extra sheet, with an alphabetical list of the opportunities that everyone has done.



At last, the first sculpting opportunity arrived.  Bettie posed for an ice sculpture and Gwynedd delivered it to the police station.  Shortly afterwards, she maxed the skill.



Two days before her adult birthday, Gwynnie retrieved her father’s philosopher’s stone from the family inventory…



…and bound Octavius Capp to the household.  They hit it off immediately.



One thing led to another…



…and. within a day, Gwynedd was both engaged and pregnant.

[hazelnut]

Choosing Octavius as the next spouse was probably another mistake.  He’s nice-looking, youngish and has good traits – but one of them is natural cook.  He quickly showed that he was keen to finish off half-made dishes and was rapidly building his cooking skill.  And, as a ghost, he would be perfectly capable of reaching that bowl of half-made ambrosia in the loft.  On the next Ambrosia Day, I sent Octavius out fishing and retrieved the bowl.   By now they had three replicators, although one was only half upgraded.  Nevertheless, I told Kerry to load all three and then to finish cooking the ambrosia and eat it.

In my normal-speed dynasties, I’ve kept an eye on the immortals and fed them ambrosia individually when their age bars were getting full.  This time, with ambrosia needed every fifth day, I’m keeping them all on the same schedule, with non-immortals kept busy or off the lot until they’ve finished topping up their immortality.  So far, it’s working pretty well.  Ross (yes, the supposedly lucky one) has had to use one deathflower, even though he was only 26 days old and should have been OK for at least another day, but everyone else has been fine.


Bettie nearly lived long enough to see her grandchild.  Shortly before Gwynedd was due to go into labour, her gazing at Clare’s painting certificate was rudely interrupted.



The labour pains hit while Gwynedd was sculpting, of course.



In a complete break with tradition, she insisted on having the baby in hospital.  I suppose I could have locked her in the house but I wasn’t that fussed.



And he’s pink!  Welcome to the dynasty, Leicester.

Gwynedd and Octavius had a private wedding the following morning.





I hadn’t noticed until then that ghosts don’t cast a shadow.  Logical enough, I suppose, but it looks rather odd when hugging and kissing with a normal Sim .



That evening, Gwynedd had her adult birthday and, minutes later, became an Ice Personality by carving her first masterpiece.



Leicester became a toddler.



I love that every (potential) immortal so far has a different hair colour, although they’re all dark.

Leicester was universally adored.  He was constantly pursued by a line of foot-tapping elders, all keen to attend to his every need.



He was taught his toddler skills by the time-honoured, adult-intensive methods and then turned to other things.  Musical skills are technically free in this dynasty.  Clare keeps rolling wishes to learn the guitar but, quite frankly, she’s far too busy, so Leicester’s likely to have a monopoly.  He started off by reaching level 3 in the xylophone skill…



…but still somehow had plenty of free time to play with other toys.



Meanwhile, his mother, who had been shamefully neglected in recent screenshots, finished her supermax.



She’d maxed the sculpting career some time before, so now went into business, purely for the opportunities.  She didn’t get any but she did make some new friends – and, after a worrying pause, the sculpting and celebrity ops started appearing again.

Ross won the fight to take Leicester to his next birthday cake.





Ambrosia Day arrived again – with a minor disaster.  Ross was on his way to replicate the first plateful when he stopped and looked blank.  I tried to get him to carry on but found that he could no longer interact with the replicator.  In fact, all three had suddenly lost their memories.

Clare gave Kerry one of the deathfish from her inventory and Kerry refilled the replicators, then carried on cooking and ate the original plateful herself.  Everyone else successfully ate replicated copies, while Octavius, who had been messing around learning various skills, felt a sudden compulsion to concentrate full-time on fishing, aided by potent invigorating elixirs.



Les aged up again…





…and started working on his supermax.





Gwynedd had her final birthday.



After all of the recent crises, it was quite a surprise to find that all of her requirements apart from her final portrait were already in place.  Less than a day later, she was ready to eat ambrosia for the first time.




Gwynedd County



Traits: artistic, couch potato, perfectionist, savvy sculptor, avant garde

Lifetime wish: Living in the Lap of Luxury
Career: Sculptor
Skill: Sculpting

Building: Slanciato Spa
Property: Sunbather’s Retreat

Unique lifetime rewards: Artisan Crafter, Dirt Defiant, Speedy Cleaner

Unique best friends

• Octavius County
• Leicester County
• Angus County
• Sherita Pool
• Wade Coffey*
• Cora Wade*

*Was the game beginning to run short of names?  She also had a boss called Devon Something-or-other.

Unique opportunities

• A Fishy Science Project
• Sims on Ice
• Larger Than Necessary Doorstop
• Authorised Biography
• An Old Ruse**
• Business Model

**Only four wooden sculptures were needed this time but Bettie’s preparatory work was still useful - Gwynedd was able to sell almost everything she sculpted.

[Ausette]

Congratulations hazelnut! Gwynedd's requirements sound like a nightmare. Opportunities and ambrosia days are fiddly at the best of times, let alone with so little time on your hands. I'm glad you made it through for now (with such a colourful family as a bonus!).

Shame about the bug. Hope you feel better soon. <3

[PeregrineTook]

Wow, you are really rocking this dynasty!  Love the kiddos.  Of course, you're going so quickly that I'd already missed a couple updates, and therefore, the chances to comment on them individually  ;=)

[KRae]

Did you get the replicators functioning normally again? I'm playing a ID for the fun(?) of it and I'm having that problem with the replicators losing their memory after less than one sim day. My immortal chef saves ambrosia in the replicator and then it's a race to get the other five to the replicator while it's still functioning. Clearing caches hasn't helped. I could try a factory reset, but they have hundreds of life fruit and a backyard pond so I guess I'll just go on as is.

[Nimrod Mikkusu]

So you're managing to do it!  Not everyone could do those Dinasties when using a lifespan that short!

[hazelnut]

Congratulations hazelnut! Gwynedd's requirements sound like a nightmare. Opportunities and ambrosia days are fiddly at the best of times, let alone with so little time on your hands. I'm glad you made it through for now (with such a colourful family as a bonus!).

Shame about the bug. Hope you feel better soon. <3

It did seem as though everything went wrong at once.  Hopefully I'm owed some good fortune now.

Thanks, I'm feeling quite a lot better now and am back at work ().  On the plus side, having a couple of days to play almost full-time after I got over the worst of it means I have played quite a long way ahead of the story and the end is almost in sight.

Wow, you are really rocking this dynasty!  Love the kiddos.  Of course, you're going so quickly that I'd already missed a couple updates, and therefore, the chances to comment on them individually  ;=)

Thanks, Pip .  I'm reallly happy with their skin colours.

Did you get the replicators functioning normally again? I'm playing a ID for the fun(?) of it and I'm having that problem with the replicators losing their memory after less than one sim day. My immortal chef saves ambrosia in the replicator and then it's a race to get the other five to the replicator while it's still functioning. Clearing caches hasn't helped. I could try a factory reset, but they have hundreds of life fruit and a backyard pond so I guess I'll just go on as is.

It was weird.  I've had the replicator bug before but it has always happened after closing the game down and then restarting.  Having it happen between telling a Sim to go to the replicator (a few feet away) and pressing the button is a new twist .

It recurred twice more.  I sold two of the replicators and decided to use the other purely as a way of feeding all of the immortals from a single serving.  Since then (touch wood) it's been fine.  I choose to think that now that it's outwitted me and I have plentiful supplies of ambrosia ingredients on hand, it's happy to just sit there and pretend to be a non-sentient game  .

So you're managing to do it!  Not everyone could do those Dinasties when using a lifespan that short!

Thank you .  Of course, it's not over yet but I am beginning to hope for success.

[hazelnut]

Note for non-Brits: Gwynedd and Leicester are pronounced ‘Gwyneth’ and ‘Lester’.

Graffiti and Guitars

Leicester turned out to be the academic star of the family, getting on to the honour roll in high school.  In the evenings, he relaxed by visiting Mick’s…



…and decorating stretches of plain wall around the house.



The next screenshot is largely pointless in itself but it’s the last picture I have of Octavius.  He lost his grip on the mortal realm aged 29 and slipped quietly back into his urn.  I hate the way the camera doesn’t pan across for the death (or whatever) of a ghost.



I was expecting the later spouses to be there purely to bring in the next generation but Octavius turned out to be vital to the family’s survival.  The replicators have now failed three times but it’s no longer a potential game-breaker: Octavius topped up the deathfish stocks to the point where Kerry could make fresh ambrosia every time, possibly until the end of the game and certainly until an immortal angler takes over.


Les grew up.





With school no longer getting in the way of his street art, he completed his lifetime wish that evening.



The following day, he supermaxed and returned to his first love, music.



After a while spent building up his skill level and number of performances, he decided to form a band.



He asked one of the paparazzi to join (without even finding out whether she had any musical skills) and then went off to the town hall to register as self-employed just before the birthday sparkles hit.



Ross had bought the elixir shop as his property and had installed a subway station as part of the upgrade.



Les made good use of it.  He got mugged once but only had 200-odd simoleons stolen.  Rather careless of the mugger considering Les had taken several thousand in tips that day.

[hazelnut]

I’d been intending to send Angus back to uni to find a wife for his grandson but the game stuck on the loading screen.   After restarting the computer, I sent him off again.  And again.  Every time, the game froze.  Then I tried sending some of the others – after all, they could go to university without completing the opportunity – but they didn’t have any more success.  Travel was clearly now impossible.  Two female vampires from Angus’ student days were still alive and could maybe be invited to visit – but Debbie Richards and Carol Chen are adults at the start of the game and so were unlikely to be young enough to have a child once cured, even if they did manage to get to Monte Vista.  So it was down to Clare and her social networking to find the perfect, if cloney, wife for Les.

Wanda Lawson was waiting outside the subway when he came up for air.



It was love at first sight – hardly surprising when they had compatible star signs and most of their traits were the same.  He immediately wished to ask her to join the band.  (She couldn't play any instruments either but at least she's a virtuoso.)



He invited her home to get better acquainted and to introduce her to his elderly relatives.





It was going fine until Wanda suddenly announced that she thought Ross was really hot.



Obviously Les had better act fast, before his great-grandfather stole his girlfriend.



They were married the following morning, on Venice Beach…



…and spent the rest of the day jamming.



At one point, they visited the recently installed all-in-one bathroom together, resulting in a shower of hearts and the sound of chimes.  Somehow, the absent paparazzi found out and they were disgraced for woohoo in public.  Celebrity disgraces seem to be inevitable whatever you do: I find it both amusing and a little irritating that the immortals are constantly being accused of peeing themselves in public when they (a) rarely leave the house and (b) have steel bladders.

After another long day busking in the subway, Leicester became a Legendary Musician.



In a move that must have astonished his fans, he then went to the theatre and started again at the bottom of the music career.  While he was there (and in the hope that a prolonged spell in a rabbithole would make an opportunity appear – which it didn’t), he took classes in piano, drums and bass.

The paparazzi, so mysteriously alert to newlyweds woohooing on a deserted beach, somehow failed to notice the celebrity giving birth on the front lawn a few feet away.





And it’s another very different rainboo .



Mona had her first birthday…





… on the same evening that Leicester had his last one.



Thanks to a last-minute flurry of opportunities, he was ready to eat ambrosia soon afterwards. 




Leicester County



Traits: artistic, virtuoso, lucky, avant garde, loves the outdoors, excitable (rebel)

Lifetime wish: Street Credible
Career: Band
Skill: Street Art
(He also reached level 10 of guitar and completed Money Maker)

Building: Teatro Fantastico
Property: Restful Mausoleum

Unique lifetime rewards: The Next Big Thing, Fertility Treatment, The Hustler

Unique best friends

• Wanda County
• Mona County
• Shayla McDermott (the other band member)
• Terrence Pool (no idea whether he’s related to Gwynedd’s friend Sherita – they’re both paparazzi and werewolves)
• Amos Akins
• Jon Easter

Unique opportunities

• Outside Reading
• Commissioned Street Art
• Rock Star Study
• In the End
• Floating in the Sea
• Walking Bass Line

Mona’s name is a bit of a cheat but there aren’t all that many county names for girls.  Derry’s too much like Kerry (although I would have considered it for a twin) and Merioneth and Gwynedd seemed altogether too eth-y.  Mona was the Roman name for Anglesey and also works as an anglicisation of the Welsh Ynys Môn.

[Ausette]

Yay greenboo!  Shame you couldn't get to uni but I'm glad Wanda added a little variety anyway. Congratulations on finishing another generation. I still can't believe how much you're getting done on this speed.

[Nimrod Mikkusu]

you can use the WA destinations and Oasis Landing for spouses.

[hazelnut]

Yay greenboo!  Shame you couldn't get to uni but I'm glad Wanda added a little variety anyway. Congratulations on finishing another generation. I still can't believe how much you're getting done on this speed.

Thanks .  I did plan the heck out of it.  I think nine supermaxes are possible on this speed (the eight I'm doing with the Countys, plus cooking).  Er, and athletic.  I keep forgetting about the skills that are free in this run-through.  Actually, maybe even more - I have a feeling social networking and nectar making would also be doable.  Photography should also be OK, with travel to the WA destinations, although I hate that supermax because it's so buggy.  Careers are much easier - a lot of the self-employed careers are straightforward even on this speed, together with most of the Ambitions professions and probably all three from Showtime.  Acrobat would certainly be a doddle.  Then it was just a question of coming up with eight combinations of career, skill and LTW and the order to do them in.

you can use the WA destinations and Oasis Landing for spouses.

Well, I could, if only I was playing with all of the expansions.  I disabled a lot in the hope of getting fewer bugs and more opportunities.  Uni's the only travel destination available in this game.

[KRae]

Have you had any problems with your impending immortals being disgraced and losing their friends?

[hazelnut]

Have you had any problems with your impending immortals being disgraced and losing their friends?

Yes, a few - but they're mostly making their friends towards the end of adulthood and I'm (ab)using elixirs in a big way.  With such a short time and with charisma not being a free skill, it's the only sensible option.

[Nimrod Mikkusu]

Yeah. You tend to use elixirs a lot in those challenges.

[hazelnut]

Yeah. You tend to use elixirs a lot in those challenges.

This is actually the first dynasty I've played since I bought Supernatural - but elixirs certainly make things a lot easier on this speed.


Fishing for Clues

Clare taught Mona to talk.



“I really like weddings but they always happen in a such a rush in this family and you can’t have one at all.”
“A tall?”

After this shaky start, she picked up the toddler skills quickly and was ready for a cake on her birthday morning.





Mona was the only member of the family who could have made a start on her supermaxed skill as a child but, because of the demands of school, tutoring and portrait-painting, she ended up starting as a teenager, like everyone else.





As soon as she’d sorted out her new wardrobe, she visited the supermarket to take a fishing class and then registered as self-employed.  After that, her teen days (which included a whole weekend) were largely spent on the beach behind the house.



On the day before her daughter’s next birthday, Wanda ran out of time.



Everyone gathered to mourn the passing of the last mortal  .




Mona had another early-morning cake…





…and went right back to fishing, becoming an Amateur Ichthyologist before the end of the day.



For the next few days, she fished constantly, reaching level 5 of the angler career and completing her lifetime wish.





Then, like Leicester, she changed track.  She temporarily gave up fishing and registered as an investigator.  She solved three cases, all for the fairy who was running the consignment store these days…



…but mostly progressed through her career by drinking liquid job boosters and being tutored in logic by Angus.



Then the scientists at Dr Simano’s asked for help with their astronomical research…



…and the resulting logic boost both maxed the skill and earned her her final promotion.  Since she was flying through her requirements, I decided to delay the arrival of the final member of the family.  She wasn’t going to need the extra time.  Also, I haven’t had a meteor strike in a Sims game for months and was irrationally convinced that Mona would be the next target, so I wanted to be able to give her my full attention while she ploughed through the rest of Commercial Fisherman.

[hazelnut]

Mona aged up to full adulthood…



…and was summoned to yet another sparsely attended 'celebration of great success'.





With two days left before her elder birthday and only another 27 fish needed for her supermax, Mona visited the graveyard with a dusty old lamp that Alessandra had bought in the early days of the dynasty.





There was still one eligible bachelor in town, even if he was currently dead.  The genie did his stuff…



…and Malvolio Romano was returned to life.



The attraction was immediate.





Mona invited her new boyfriend home for more romantic interactions…



…interrupted and commented on, as usual, by the elders.





At least her bedroom was private.



As once before in this game, there were no chimes – but Mona woke up on what should have been her birthday morning feeling queasy.





She spent most of her pregnancy at the spa or dozing in the rocking chair at home, although she was on her way to a fishing spot when the contractions started.



She wasn’t far from home but I sent her off to the hospital anyway.  Malvolio had left the house without saying goodbye early in the pregnancy and had taken a job as a proprietor.  Mona kept wishing to be with him but he was permanently unavailable.  I was hoping that he’d at least turn up for his son’s birth but Mona was left to have the baby on her own.



Rats!  Just missed a full set of rainboos!  Er, I mean, welcome to the family, Tyrone.

Mona left Clare in charge of the baby and went out fishing before it was fully light, pursued by the paparazzi, who were clearly desperate for news stories.



At long last, she caught her 350th fish…



…and, a few hours later, was forcibly hit by a birthday.



One portrait and a few potent friendship elixirs later, she sat down to eat her first ambrosia.






Mona County



Traits: loves the outdoors, perceptive, angler, brave, over-emotional

Lifetime wish: Presenting the Perfect Private Aquarium
Career: Investigator
Skill: Fishing
(She also reached level 10 of logic)

Building: Simcatti Industries
Property: Seafood Hideaway Fishing Park

Unique lifetime rewards: Opportunistic, Master of Seduction, Complimentary Entertainment

Unique best friends

• Malvolio Romano
• Gwynedd County
• Alec Major
• Becky Parks
• Andres Hawk
• Dalma Tyler

Unique opportunities

• Pile of Permission Slips
• Digging for Dirt
• The Case of Gnome Footsy
• The Case of the Hacker Elite
• A Fish of Life and Death
• Fixing the Celestial Slump

[Trip]

I was really rooting for you to get all rainboos too. It's sad that there isn't much rhyme or reason to who gets skintones. They just...do and you have to suck it up.

Oh my god though. Almost there with this crazy challenge!

[Nimrod Mikkusu]

The last one may not be a rainboo... but you could still give him colorful hair 

At the end of this immortal dinasty you should switch back to normal lifespan and give them all Youth Potions.

[PeregrineTook]

Wow!  You've flown through most of this challenge in less time than it's taken me to do a single generation of either of my dynasties!
Amusingly, I was thinking as the last update started that it was so wonderful that you'd been so fortunate with the rainbow genes showing up every time.  Ah well.  Given that he's the only non-rainboo, he simply adds more diversity to the family  :=)

[Trip]

Wow!  You've flown through most of this challenge in less time than it's taken me to do a single generation of either of my dynasties!
Amusingly, I was thinking as the last update started that it was so wonderful that you'd been so fortunate with the rainbow genes showing up every time.  Ah well.  Given that he's the only non-rainboo, he simply adds more diversity to the family  :=)

Brown is a color too.

[Nimrod Mikkusu]

Wow!  You've flown through most of this challenge in less time than it's taken me to do a single generation of either of my dynasties!
Amusingly, I was thinking as the last update started that it was so wonderful that you'd been so fortunate with the rainbow genes showing up every time.  Ah well.  Given that he's the only non-rainboo, he simply adds more diversity to the family  :=)

Brown is a color too.

Yeah. When everyone is a rainboo, it's the regular sims that are colorful! 

[hazelnut]

I was really rooting for you to get all rainboos too. It's sad that there isn't much rhyme or reason to who gets skintones. They just...do and you have to suck it up.

Amusingly, I was thinking as the last update started that it was so wonderful that you'd been so fortunate with the rainbow genes showing up every time.  Ah well.  Given that he's the only non-rainboo, he simply adds more diversity to the family  :=)

Yeah. When everyone is a rainboo, it's the regular sims that are colorful! 

It was odd: early on I kept thinking that the next baby must come out with a normal skin colour but then, as more and more of them came out on the rainbow slider, I was almost expecting it even though it must still have been a 50/50 chance.  I really wanted a blueboo to round out the set nicely 

Brown is a color too.

True.  I wouldn't have been sorry if Gwynedd had inherited Bettie's skin, either - she looked so pink next to the rest of the family .

The last one may not be a rainboo... but you could still give him colorful hair 

At the end of this immortal dinasty you should switch back to normal lifespan and give them all Youth Potions.

I have changed hair colours in some games but they're all keeping their natural shades in this one.  That said...  wait and see .

Sadly, they can't have youth potions unless I install Generations - and the file's so buggy that I'll probably just stop when I reach the end.  I'll see how I feel when I get there.

Oh my god though. Almost there with this crazy challenge!

Wow!  You've flown through most of this challenge in less time than it's taken me to do a single generation of either of my dynasties!

The benefits of playing on the short lifespan have really kicked in since gen 2-3.  The early game was completely insane but, once there was essentally only one Sim at a time who needed watching, it settled into being really fun to play and just a pleasantly brisk pace.

[Nimrod Mikkusu]

Yeah.  DInasties usually take years to do.  Same for RTJs and Legacies.

[hazelnut]

Yeah.  DInasties usually take years to do.  Same for RTJs and Legacies.

Well, unless you're KRae or Alex, of course .


A Charmer – and a Crisis

Tyrone had his first cake and…





…wow, this kid is full of surprises.  Where did that hair come from?  Seven generations of dark-haired rainboos and then I get a normal-skinned blond.



Just random variation, I guess.

Tyrone was a charmer right from the start, even before he’d got most of his traits.  Everyone was keen to help to teach his toddler skills.



Nice toddler-appropriate subject matter there, Angus.



They also spent a lot of time talking about the finer points of ball games, although that did at least make a small amount of sense: they’re both athletic.  Ty obviously didn’t mind – it was Angus who had the honour of carrying him to his next birthday cake.





As usual on this speed, childhood was a mad whirl of schooling and tutoring from Clare – although he did fit in time to make a start on one challenge for his as-yet-unlocked supermax skill.



And when Tyrone finally got some time to himself to play with his toys, another birthday intervened.





Back to the tutoring .



He unlocked charisma halfway through his teens and got the celebrity challenge almost at once, while he was still at level 2.



All of the immortals gathered to see the final member of the family grow up.





Tyrone rushed off up to the walled town as soon as Clare had started on his latest portrait, to register as a lifeguard.



While he was waiting for his first day on duty at the beach, he worked on his athletic skill.



The actual baywatching bit turned out to be pretty dull.  He was the only person who seemed to use the beaches.





He jogged up and down the sand and talked to the paparazzi when they finally caught up with him near the end of each shift.  If he could build his skills a little, the time wouldn’t be totally wasted.

With nobody else in the household doing anything much, the time seemed to go past even quicker than usual and Tyrone was soon having another birthday.








And that’s where things went seriously wrong, although I didn’t realise it until later.  Ty finished his first career, supermaxed charisma and completed his remaining requirements – apart from one.  He hadn’t had a single opportunity as an adult.  The day before his elder birthday, he had a late career change and became a private eye like his mother – which was when the extent of the problem became obvious.  He couldn’t get any jobs as a PI.  He’d go into the police station or sit down at the computer and search, but no case appeared.  Ty was an opportunity-free zone.

It took a factory reset and a return to just after his adult birthday (thanks, Trip!) to cure the problem.

[hazelnut]

Ty became a level 10 lifeguard by working out at home on his day off and then joined the political career.  He spent most of the rest of the day chatting to Alessandra, who’d taken to haunting full-time.



His first day as a podium polisher was uneventful but on the second he received two opportunities in quick succession.  (Yay!)  Then it was the weekend – and his elder birthday was looming again.  He concentrated on his skills, getting his last fraction of an athletic point on the Saturday and maxing charisma in the library on Sunday evening…



…just before ageing up in the loos.



Socialising with his colleagues at work following day earned him his tenth best friend.  As before, he supermaxed without completing his lifetime wish.  I don’t remember that happening with any of my other charisma Sims, although I knew the requirements were different for the Super Friendly challenge and Super Popular LTW.  After work, he walked over to the square and introduced himself to a few more people.



Lifetime wish complete!  Even better, a charisma opportunity appeared while he was chatting.  All he needed was one more – but time was getting short.  The elder life stage is only 5 days on this speed – and the game was showing signs of bugginess again.



That’s Gwynedd, who is artistic but has no painting skill points, continuing Clare’s portrait of Tyrone.  Weird.  I stopped her as soon as I noticed and moved the easel into a locked room, although it was very tempting to let her carry on and see what happened.  (How much would the painting be worth and who would be credited as the artist?)

Tyrone was asked to read There Is No ‘No’ and report back to work.



He made a good start but was too tired to finish the book.



Thank goodness for high-quality beds.  He was awake early and able to finish reading before the start of his shift.



He returned home that afternoon…



…and went straight to the replicator.



Tyrone County became immortal at 25 days…



…and the dynasty was complete.


Tyrone County



Traits: athletic, friendly, loves to swim, good sense of humour, charismatic

Lifetime wish: Super Popular
Career: Lifeguard
Skill: Charisma
(He also reached level 10 of athletic)

Building: Good Guys, Inc.
Property: Landgraab Sell’n’Swap

Unique lifetime rewards: Long-Distance Friend, Lungs of Steel, Map to the Stars

Unique best friends

• Latoya Olson
• Sarah Way
• Shannan Villegas
• Lourdes Keene
• Bonnie Staples
• Charity Lynn

(All of his best friends were made in the conventional way, without the use of elixirs)

Unique opportunities

• The Complete Circuit
• Sprint to the Finish!
• A Charming Experiment
• Election Check
• Lobster Crisis
• You Really Mean “Yes”

The Immortals

Clare was the hardest-working member of the family, painting most of the portraits and also tutoring the younger family members for school.  She became a high-level nerd somewhere around generation 3 and gained the family-oriented trait, because she really ought to have had it already.  When she wasn’t busy painting or tutoring, she mostly stood around chatting with her descendants.



She finished the game with supermaxed painting and maxed logic (plus Teacher Extraordinaire) and social networking.

Kerry supermaxed cooking as well as alchemy, mostly by finishing off dishes that the others had started to prepare.  She became neat as a result of nerd influence and spent most of her time making beds or doing laundry, when she wasn’t playing Gnubb in her nightie.



Ross was undoubtedly the worst Sim gardener I’ve played.  He never ever tended the garden autonomously.  It was just as well that the combination of his completed challenges and the gardening station made the plants largely self-sufficient. Oddly for an outdoors-loving Sim, his favourite activity was sitting on the living-room floor, meditating in front of the ExtraordinAIRe-inator.



Angus was the immortal who kept working for the longest.  Sometime during Gwynedd’s adulthood, I looked up from the sculpting room and found a burglar helping himself to food from the fridge.  Then I realised it was just Angus in one of his undercover disguises.





He worked as a superspy well into generation 7, either chatting with his partner or sleeping through his shifts.  In his free time, he upgraded solar panels and wind turbines.



Thanks to his efforts, the household bills stayed pretty low, just edging over 2000 simoleons in the last few weeks.  After retiring, Angus joined his father’s meditation sessions.  He supermaxed handiness, mastered the logic and athletic skills and autonomously completed the Body Builder challenge late in the game.

Gwynedd had the least to do after becoming immortal.  She whiled away the time chatting with Clare and critiquing the décor.



Leicester supermaxed street art, mastered guitar, reached level 6 in both bass and drums and level 3 in piano.  He retired shortly after Wanda’s death, when he reached level 5 of the music career…



…and spent most  of the rest of the game playing his guitar.



Like her grandmother, Mona did very little once she was no longer the active Sim, dividing her time between watching Leicester and relaxing in the hot tub.



Which brings us back to Tyrone.  He got to level 5 of politics before completing his requirements but was holding a wish to retire, no doubt to join his relatives in doing nothing much in his pyjamas.


The challenge was completed on week 23, day 4 and the museum value was an unimpressive §126,635.

[PeregrineTook]

Excellent job!  Congratulations on a glorious success!

[Nimrod Mikkusu]

Yeah! Congrats on finishing this! 

[KCNDreams]

Congratulations! That was incredibly impressive! I'm still amazed at how jampacked the updates were, and glad you were able to finish it!

Edit: it's so cool to see how long the rainbow slider lasted! Really lucked out with it. Even if Ty wasn't a rainboo, he still looked unique next to everyone else. Congrats again!

[KRae]

Great job! This looked exhausting.

[Ausette]

Congratulations hazelnut! Can't believe someone pulled this off! And I love the festive decorations in your final screenshot. Hope you had a nice Christmas <3

[hazelnut]

Thanks, everyone .

@KCNDreams: The persistent rainbow slider was one of the best things about the game.  I'm amazed it lasted so long just by chance, when all of the spouses had normal skin.

@KRae: No, not exhausting.  Iintense but fun.  The bugs were infuriating but that's true on any speed.  I really should have given up on the file early on when it became obvious that it was a particularly bad one, but I'd grown fond of Clare and Kerry.  I was trying to play a game on normal speed yesterday but gave up because it was so boringly slow.  Maybe I need to do something else for a while...

@Ausette: I suddenly realised I'd not used any of the Sims Christmas stuff this year, so decorated the house for that final screenshot.  Must have been a bit of a shock for the Countys - the house had been pretty minimal up to then.  They'd not even had curtains before .

And yes, we had a good, if quiet, Christmas.  Hope you did too . 

[CeresIn]

It must be gratifying to have succeeded, it shows that it was well planned beforehand. Congrats!

[FrancescaFiori]

I've been following along and just wanted to add my congratulations. This was a really cool and impressive challenge you set for yourself! I am in awe.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Nimrod Mikkusu]

Yeah! Congratulations! 

[hazelnut]

Thank you

[Trip]

Sorry about the mixup with this getting sent to the Graveyard! Congrats on finishing and sorry about Photobucket being a greedy piece of crap.

[hazelnut]

All sorted out now.  And thanks again for moving the story to the right place .