Author Topic: The Legacy Help, Tips, and Strategies Thread (Read 17488 times)

LlamaMama · « **on:** June 20, 2010, 11:45:22 PM »

After checking with Pam, I learned we don't have an existing thread for posting Legacy-related questions, tips, or favorite strategies. This thread is intended to be a resource for the community, not just for me. I'll start:

I'm just starting my first legacy. In terms of a fun and successful 10-generation legacy, does it work out best to have two-parent couples living together, or not? Or maybe is it mostly important in early generations when there are fewer family members to help with the kids? Or maybe just for heirs?

[Edited to remove too many questions.

]

Please chime in with any tips or information that you wish to share with the community here!

Click here for a link to the Pinstar Legacy Challenge rules. -Pam

Pam · « **Reply #1 on:** June 21, 2010, 04:13:16 AM »

Are you playing by Pinstar's Legacy rules? And do you plan to count points and follow the rules to the letter? I can help you better if I know this information. I successfully played Pinstar's legacy to 13 generations.

LlamaMama · « **Reply #2 on:** June 21, 2010, 12:24:55 PM »

I'm going to play Pinstar's rules without counting points, with Matriarchal and Family Trait rules. I have zero experience raising children in the game, and I've only played for a few months, so I'm playing with long lives (at least at first).

I'm also wondering what kind of family traits turn out to be fun, and which ones turn out to be worthless or too much hassle.

AriaGirl77 · « **Reply #3 on:** June 21, 2010, 01:43:25 PM »

It's been a while since I've used Pinstar's rules to the letter, but don't you have to random roll for traits? If not, I guess I've been playing the hard way! lol

I usually only play with one couple at a time, although I know you can play with more if you like. For me it's easier to just have one. And then I always make sure they have at least 2 kids, that way I can choose which one I want to be the heir. The other will be the "spare" in case something terrible happens with the heir before they're able to produce children. It's basically a way to insure that the Legacy won't die out or end early. The spare is mostly used to complete a LTW and gain a point. Plus it adds another adult to the household to help with child care.

LlamaMama · « **Reply #4 on:** June 21, 2010, 02:02:22 PM »

I'm going to keep one trait constant in all the descendents, randomizing the others. My heirs will all be female, so I guess I'll have to have spare female siblings too. Oy, maybe not the matriarchal rule, haha.

I just reread the rules and as far as keeping the fathers around, since their LTWs matter too, I guess it must be worth it to keep them around. I wonder what people do when there are multiple mates to the same female sim. All under the same roof?

Swede1992 · « **Reply #5 on:** June 21, 2010, 05:30:17 PM »

Quote from: LlamaMama on June 21, 2010, 12:24:55 PM

I'm also wondering what kind of family traits turn out to be fun, and which ones turn out to be worthless or too much hassle.

I don't play with Pinstar's rules for a legacy (I don't even think you could call my games legacies

), but I do play multi-generational games and one trait I find amusing is the evil trait. Almost every single sim I've ever played has been evil.

What is good with them is that especially ghosts usually complain about something, like they're hungry (starvation ghosts), they need to take a shower (fire ghosts) or they just pass out in the living room (aging ghosts). After the first couple of generations, the remaining evil sims will be genuinely amused by all ghosts that walk around and give them that nifty little mood boost. Evil sims also don't complain about poor lighting, so you could save money from not buying lamps nor paying electric bills for them.

In either case, evilness is certainly not a hassle!

Wova4 · « **Reply #6 on:** June 21, 2010, 05:57:44 PM »

I've been thinking about a utility Mummy strategy for legacy play. The idea is to use a mummy to obtain a few passive bonuses, freeing up LTH points and skill time:

1. Have a teen sleep in the cursed sarcophagus until transformed. Using a teen maximizes lifespan of the mummy.

2. Maximize the mummy's handiness skill for the build mode discount

3. Pick up No Bills Forever LTHR to shut down bills

4. Store the mummy in the sarcophagus so you don't have to deal with interrupts. My understanding is that a sarcophagus freezes needs and a mummy will sleep indefinitely in one.

AriaGirl77 · « **Reply #7 on:** June 21, 2010, 08:07:11 PM »

I just recently started a new Legacy with a fireman as the Founder. It was an excellent way to go! He pretty much never left the fire station for the first couple of weeks, and only ended up building on his lot because he got married and started a family. It worked out great! And when he retired he received a 12,000 per day pay check!

LlamaMama · « **Reply #8 on:** June 21, 2010, 09:02:40 PM »

Quote from: AriaGirl77 on June 21, 2010, 01:43:25 PM

I usually only play with one couple at a time, although I know you can play with more if you like. For me it's easier to just have one. And then I always make sure they have at least 2 kids, that way I can choose which one I want to be the heir. The other will be the "spare" in case something terrible happens with the heir before they're able to produce children. It's basically a way to insure that the Legacy won't die out or end early. The spare is mostly used to complete a LTW and gain a point. Plus it adds another adult to the household to help with child care.

So you let the spares do their own thing with freewill, making sure they don't move out until they get their LTW? Do you play the elders once a new heir is chosen, or leave them up to freewill?

AriaGirl77 · « **Reply #9 on:** June 21, 2010, 11:57:33 PM »

I do let my sims do a lot on free will, I often just let go of the mouse and watch to see what they'll do. But I will also work with the spares to make sure they fulfill their LTW. I'll set them up to work on a skill, or adjust their workplace tone, to make sure they're working towards their LTW. I probably pay the least amount of attention to the kids. I teach the toddlers what they need to know to age up well, but then I pretty much do nothing for kids or teens. Seems like they automatically work on their homework and get good grades with very little intervention from me. I pay the most amount of attention to whichever sim has the most demanding LTW. Right now for instance, my heir had a super easy LTW (lap of luxury) so she completed that very early on in life. So now I'm focusing on her husband who is an interior designer. The spare wants to be a Rock Star, so that's super easy too, not much attention needed there.

Anyway, that's how I roll.

Pam · « **Reply #10 on:** June 22, 2010, 12:01:15 AM »

On the subject of toddlers...

The whole point of teaching them how to walk, talk, and potty is so they will age up well. That means you get to pick their traits. But in a Legacy Challenge, all traits are rolled random, so you don't get to pick their traits after all. So then, what's the point of teaching them that stuff? They'll still age up and the game will choose a trait for them. I personally go ahead and teach toddlers because I'm overly fond of them, but I think anyone could skip all that and still be within the rules of the Legacy Challenge.

cndneh · « **Reply #11 on:** June 22, 2010, 12:28:15 AM »

Just to ask some (perhaps dumb) questions -

What are legacy families?

Wnd who is Pinstar and what are his/her rules?

OR... is there a link so you don't have to repeat something already said?

Thanks!

Pam · « **Reply #12 on:** June 22, 2010, 12:37:07 AM »

Pinstar is a member on the official Sims 3 forum who is somewhat well known for designing challenges. Probably his most popular is the Legacy Challenge where you play a family that starts with a very poor founder. The objective is to make it to 10 generations without breaking any of the gazillion rules he puts in place. Click here for a link to the Pinstar Legacy Challenge rules. It's a popular challenge and many players write stories around their Legacy families. There are a couple of other legacy challenges that have different rules than Pinstar's, but I don't know anything about them. I feel Pinstar's rules are what most people use.

LlamaMama · « **Reply #13 on:** June 24, 2010, 05:25:28 PM »

Last night I tried out parenting for the first time, with one of my other, established couples. While I had experience with adopting a sim child, the sim baby and toddler years are new for me. My first impressions of toddlerhood is that the kid is almost unplayably creepy to me!! He has the proportions of a 6-year-old, but in miniature, so he looks like a six year old who can't do anything but roll around and cry. Did this stage strike any of you in the same way? Maybe it's worse because I'm playing long lifespan.

jmz95 · « **Reply #14 on:** June 24, 2010, 05:34:01 PM »

Quote from: Pam on June 22, 2010, 12:01:15 AM

On the subject of toddlers...

The whole point of teaching them how to walk, talk, and potty is so they will age up well. That means you get to pick their traits. But in a Legacy Challenge, all traits are rolled random, so you don't get to pick their traits after all. So then, what's the point of teaching them that stuff? They'll still age up and the game will choose a trait for them. I personally go ahead and teach toddlers because I'm overly fond of them, but I think anyone could skip all that and still be within the rules of the Legacy Challenge.

Well, if you don't teach the toddlers their skills, doesn't the game give you a "bad" trait automatically? Kind of like if your pregnant sim is in a super bad mood the whole time and never reads a pregnancy book or visits the doctor, the baby could get a trait like technophobe or something.

Pam · « **Reply #15 on:** June 24, 2010, 07:02:14 PM »

Quote from: jmz95 on June 24, 2010, 05:34:01 PM

Well, if you don't teach the toddlers their skills, doesn't the game give you a "bad" trait automatically? Kind of like if your pregnant sim is in a super bad mood the whole time and never reads a pregnancy book or visits the doctor, the baby could get a trait like technophobe or something.

Not in my experience. They just get a random trait that could be anything.

Quote from: LlamaMama on June 24, 2010, 05:25:28 PM

Last night I tried out parenting for the first time, with one of my other, established couples. While I had experience with adopting a sim child, the sim baby and toddler years are new for me. My first impressions of toddlerhood is that the kid is almost unplayably creepy to me!! He has the proportions of a 6-year-old, but in miniature, so he looks like a six year old who can't do anything but roll around and cry. Did this stage strike any of you in the same way? Maybe it's worse because I'm playing long lifespan.

Hehe. No, I think toddlers are just adorable! Their interactions with others are really cute.

LlamaMama · « **Reply #16 on:** June 24, 2010, 07:51:17 PM »

The real life parent in me prompted me to put up fences around the pools as soon as my sim got pregnant. Is it even possible for sim children to drown or get hit by a car? How closely do I need to keep an eye on them around the house? Oy, my stay-at-home trait is showing...

I'm assuming anyone can die from meteors.

jmz95 · « **Reply #17 on:** June 24, 2010, 09:20:31 PM »

Quote from: LlamaMama on June 24, 2010, 07:51:17 PM

The real life parent in me prompted me to put up fences around the pools as soon as my sim got pregnant. Is it even possible for sim children to drown or get hit by a car? How closely do I need to keep an eye on them around the house? Oy, my stay-at-home trait is showing...

I'm assuming anyone can die from meteors.

Haha it's okay, since this is your first sim-parent experience, don't worry about it. I'm pretty sure that neither babies nor toddlers can die of anything, but I'm not 100% sure about the meteors.

cndneh · « **Reply #18 on:** June 24, 2010, 10:12:05 PM »

Quote from: jmz95 on June 24, 2010, 09:20:31 PM

Haha it's okay, since this is your first sim-parent experience, don't worry about it. I'm pretty sure that neither babies nor toddlers can die of anything, but I'm not 100% sure about the meteors.

Well anyone can die if not looked after, but in a home you are actively playing you would have to go out of your way to kill a baby/toddler sim. They wont fall in pools or hit by cars. So you're safe there.

Have yet to see a meteor.

And thanks for the info Pam, I'll check out Pinstars rules, maybe start a Legacy family of my own!

LlamaMama · « **Reply #19 on:** June 24, 2010, 10:53:04 PM »

I wish I could put a deathflower in my real life kids' inventories!

Pam · « **Reply #20 on:** June 24, 2010, 11:05:13 PM »

Quote from: jmz95 on June 24, 2010, 09:20:31 PM

I'm pretty sure that neither babies nor toddlers can die of anything, but I'm not 100% sure about the meteors.

There's something odd with this, though. I've seen infants outside my active household die of drowning. The baby shows up on the family tree as a ghost. But I've never had one die that was under my control. I'm not sure what the deal is with all the dying babies in the newspaper. Some players have several baby ghosts in the family tree. And check this thread out. Esther1981 got a shot of ghost babies haunting! It's creepy.

LlamaMama · « **Reply #21 on:** June 25, 2010, 01:23:15 PM »

That's just bizarre!

Now I need to start making walls and rooms on my empty lot, with a baby coming. Is there a way to put a pre-made house from the library onto my founder's lot, or do I need to build one?

Kaitlin9613 · « **Reply #22 on:** June 25, 2010, 02:37:38 PM »

I'm not sure if this is in the rules, as I haven't read them recently, but what I do, with WA installed, is send my founder to China with their money, take all the books and the stereo from Base Camp, and then do some adventures for money. When I get home, I sell the stuff, and get around 30,000 for them.

I only do this if I can't be bothered though - half of the fun of a Legacy is coping with the lack of money at the beginning, and the sense of achievement when they gain their fortunes.

jmz95 · « **Reply #23 on:** June 25, 2010, 04:23:48 PM »

Quote from: cndneh on June 24, 2010, 10:12:05 PM

Well anyone can die if not looked after, but in a home you are actively playing you would have to go out of your way to kill a baby/toddler sim. They wont fall in pools or hit by cars. So you're safe there.

Have yet to see a meteor.

And thanks for the info Pam, I'll check out Pinstars rules, maybe start a Legacy family of my own!

But if you don't feed a baby, the social worker will just come and take them away. Also, how would you get a a baby to drown, and cribs can't catch fire and I think that a teen or older sim will autonomously bring a baby away from a fire.

samoht04 · « **Reply #24 on:** June 26, 2010, 05:02:24 AM »

The game will kill off any Sim if the town has a high population as that can cause lag. So if a lot of sims get pregnant then there are not many older they will kill off the young. I think children can drown, can they burn? I don't think babies or toddlers can if you control them.