The Sims 4 Dynasty Gameplay Q&A With The Developers

Question: Can kids join a dinasty?

SimDevNat: Yes! They can be invited to any Dynasty started by their direct family members (parents, grandparents, etc)

SimDevAzure: Is there a cap on dynasty members? There’s no cap on Dynasty members. You can have as many members as you’d like. (The UI will show you 8 but you can add more members beyond that.)

Question: Is it possible to edit skills and values in a dynasty ever?

SimDevNat: Yes, the Head of a Dynasty can change the skills and ideals at any point. Although, some Sims may not be happy if you make a change that doesn’t align with their traits.

Question: Can you have a dynasty without being royalty?

SimDevNat: Yes! Any family can become a Dynasty.

Question: I’m sure you have a lot coming in but I was curious how inviting other households into your dynasty works? Are they now related to your Sim?

SimDevXènia: Yeah! They have to be related either by family ties or by marriage. If there’s a Sim you really want to be part of your family, you can always propose or adopt them.

Question: Is the scandal system only limited to dynasties or can other sims suffer them as well?

SimDevAzure: The Scandal System is not limited to Dynasties. The features are separate. Your Sims who aren’t in Dynasties can still have secrets/Scandals and extorts Sims etc.

Question: How do you earn the dynasty perks?

SimDevNat: As your Dynasty members follow the values and do aligned actions, the Dynasty will increase in Prestige Level. Each Prestige level gained grants points that you can spend on Dynasty Perks.

Question: Will there be any cross-pack dynastic ideals?

SimDevXènia: Yeah! All of the ideals cover all of base game and all the x-play that was eligible. The list is thorough

Question: Can you set a dynasty approved outfit like for example the panda suit from outdoor retreat?

SimDevXènia: No dynasty outfits </3, but you could always set up an additional outfit for them in CAS for all categories. Pandas everywhere!

Question: Are there any special dynasty perks related to occults?

SimDevXènia: We have a dynasty value entirely dedicated to occults! I’m a huge fan of occults myself, we always try to honor them. It’s called mysterious, and it’s perfect for supernatural families.

Question: Can there be a child of two dynasties? Like what happens if for example, The capps and the Monty have two heirs who marry, what dynasty will their child belong to?

SimDevNat: When a new baby is born to parents from different Dynasties, you’ll be able to choose which Dynasty you want them to join at birth.

Question: In the trailer, it shows only two options for if you discover a scandal: agreeing to keep it a secret or extorting the other sim (just like with secrets in For Rent). Is there not an option to reveal the scandal to everyone?

SimDevAzure: There are lots of options for Scandals. If your Sims discover another Sims secret they can expose it to the world (causing a Scandal) you can also extort for money, headship of the dynasty, or if the Sim is a Noble you can force them to abdicate.

Question: Will there be any cross-pack dynastic ideals?

SimDevAzure: Yes! The Ideals include encouraged and discouraged careers, activities and extracurriculars from past packs. Skills as well.

Question: They can create their own ‘merged’ dynasty I believe

SimDevNat: You can merge Dynasties when two members get married, creating a new Dynasty with a starting boost to Prestige based on the original Dynasties.

Question: Does this pack’s features have any cross overs with the political career at all

SimDevXènia: Yeah! if your politician Sim is in a Dynasty with the Diplomatic Value, they will gain more prestige for the family each time they go to work and rank faster within the Dynasty positions.

Question: Wait can you adopt adults now?

SimDevXènia: You can!

Question: So would this mean that vampires who are turned by your sim won’t be eligible?

SimDevXènia: They will be eligible. We have a soft spot for occults and always root for them. We’ve made the Vampire Offspring ‘relationship’ eligible for dynasty members.

Question: Will this all be retroactive to current saves or will we have to start new saves to have full play.

SimDevXènia: Retroactive! I playtested this with my 10 year old save file.

Question: My only question is, is it possible to import the new Goth / Landgraabs Dynasty into older saves? Want to play with the reworked households without restarting

SimDevNat: We can’t modify your existing saves, but if you like the values we chose you can recreate their Dynasties in your older saves.

Question: How does it work inviting other households into your dynasty? Do they automatically become related to your Sim?

SimDevAzure: Your Sims can only add other Sims who are related to them (by blood or by marriage) to their Dynasties. They can invite family members who live in other households to join their Dynasty.

Question: Can a sim be part of more than one dynasties?

SimDevXènia: No, just the one! But your dynasty can form alliances with any other dynasties that you consider a good match for your Sims

Question: Does a dynasty mean they’re a royal family or does or just mean an influential family

SimDevXènia: Just influential. You can have dynasts only, royals only or a combination of both. Play however you want

Question: Is it possible for one dynasty to have two or even more kingdom rulers? kinda like conquering the world?

SimDevNat: Yes! Dynasty membership is only restricted to family (not world, household or career) – so if you have family members who rule in different neighborhoods, they can all be in the same Dynasty.

Question: Is it possible to edit skills and values in a dynasty ever?

SimDevAzure: The Head of the Dynasty can edit the Dynasty Values (Skills and Ideals) at any time!

Question: Will we be able to have larger family trees with the new system and will there be vast overhaul or merely backend code upgrades to the family tree system?

SimDevXènia: The family trees look definitely larger. We visualize more Sims in the screen (both vertically and horizontally), and you have many new family ties categories. There will also be new frames for the portraits depending on their royal rank (if any), and special icons on top of the portraits reflecting their power dynamic within the family (leader, heir, outcast…)

Question: Yeah, like do you have to manually designate an heir or is it automatic?

SimDevXènia: Yes, it has to be manually chosen by players in the Heir slot. It’s not permanent, you can change it whenever you want

Question: will scandals/extortion automously happen to our sims from households we aren’t playing or can only the active household trigger them onto other sims?

SimDevNat: Extortion will only happen to Sims you’re playing (either through your Sims extorting others, or your Sims being extorted) but you can reveal the Scandals of Sims outside of your Household and see the effects happening to them.

Question: How can a sim discover scandals of other dynasties?

SimDevAzure: Sims can discover another Dynasties secrets by asking a Sim they both know if they know any secrets about the target Sim. You can also dig through trash, hack for secrets, exploring the secret passageway, asking the enchanted mirror, or buying secrets from the Info Brokers website.

Question: Can the “secret” children in dynasties be made in CAS or generated in-game like the long lost family members from Growing Together?

SimDevXènia: Not in CAS, it has to be in-game only! The ‘secrecy’ is generated upon birth, when you choose from a drop down menu who the ‘baby daddy’ will be

Question: Can we make our own kings/queens in cas.. and they will stay as king/queen if some of they’re children say no?

SimDevXènia: Regency is gain by working hard; so not in CAS, but playing through the career. (you can always use cheats though)

Question: If you’re a royal on the throne, can you hire a royal advisor? And if so can the advisor be a family member?

SimDevXènia: yes! (and yes)

Question: Do new family members get automatically put in the dynasties?

SimDevAzure: No, the Dynasty Head has to choose which family members to add to the Dynasty.

Question: I have the most important question of all the questions: Are Thebes and Capps related in Sims 4? (As they’re in Sims 2)

SimDevAzure: Yes.

Question: In the trailer, the option for someone to reject being the heir was shown. Is there something that triggers that or is it random?

SimDevXènia: There are a series of criteria taken into consideration for this outcome. I won’t say which, but it is not random

Question: Is a child only considered worthy of being an heir if the parents are married, or can a child born out of wedlock still become the heir?

SimDevNat: If the child is a member of the Dynasty, they can be set as the heir.

Question: Is a child only considered worthy of being an heir if the parents are married, or can a child born out of wedlock still become the heir? (Royality)

SimDevXènia: out of wedlock counts! they’re the heir… by BLOOD!

Question: How do alliances work? Can they only be forged by monarchs or dynasty heads?

SimDevNat: Only Dynasty Heads can forge Alliances with other Dynasty Heads. No other titles are required to become the Head as we wanted Dynasties and Nobility to work independently, depending on how you want to play.

SimDevXènia: Replying to the polyamory question (I’ve lost track of where it was, sorry!). Scandals take into consideration relationship boundaries, so if your Sim is in a polyamorous relationship, engaging romantically with others will /not/ be scandalous. Fun fact: we actually had to put Cordelia in a monogamous relationship so she could have a Scandal going on. She and Thiago were originally poly!

Question: Can the royals arrange marriages for their children like most do IRL?

SimDevNat: Dynasty members can be “Encouraged to Court” a specific Sim if your Dynasty Head is feeling like playing matchmaker. But it may not always go to plan!

Question: Can ghosts be the head of a dynasty?

SimDevXènia: of course, occult loooove! all occults welcome

SimDevAzure: Sorry I lost the question, but there are reward traits for the dynasty. You can buy reward traits that allow your progeny to inherit mental, physical, social, creative boosts.

Question: Is there anything you can tell us that hasn’t been a question yet?

SimDevXènia: that depends, how interested are you in scandals about secret babies

Question: Can famous sims interact with royal sims without causing scandal?

SimDevXènia: Meaning a celebrity chatting with a queen? They can, talking is not scandalous

Question: Is it extortion/secrets being revealed all player directed, or is there a chance a played sim can get extorted or get their secrets revealed by a NPC? This was kinda touched on before but I didn’t get a clear sense of it

SimDevNat: An NPC may call your Sim and threaten to extort them. If you don’t pay up or find another way to silence the extortionist, then that Sim’s Scandal will be revealed. (This can be turned off in settings)

Question: Can neighborhood stories create dynasties on its own, or is it sort of like clubs in that way?

SimDevAzure: No. Neighborhood Stories will not create Dynasties on it’s own.

Question: is every baby out of wedlock a scandal or only if one of the parents is married

SimDevNat: It’s only a Scandal if the pregnant Sim lies about the parenthood of the baby. Otherwise, a baby out of wedlock is not considered scandalous, and in the other case it would be the affair itself which is the scandal.

Question: Very interested! Spill the tea please!

SimDevXènia: If a Sim is pregnant from another Sim who does not match with the spouse is, there will be a dropwdown upon birth to ‘choose’ who the cannon baby daddy will be. There will be a series of interactions to deal (or not!) with that later, and it will potentially trigger a scandal as well

Question: Do the new families have scandals we can discover outside of Cordelia?

SimDevXènia: yes! pay attention to their notebooks. we curated their personalities as much as we could. we love lore

Question: Does a dynasty mean they’re a royal family or does or just mean an influential family

SimDevAzure: Influential. Dynasty and the Noble Career are separate (Dynasty gameplay does pair nicely with a family of Nobles though).

Question: What are the other ways to silence them?

SimDevXènia: There’s also an Information Broker that you can pay via the computer to ‘bury’ Sim secrets… And that Sim might be in the neighborhood as well, who knows

Question: This is so cool! Is that tied directly to the dynasty system, or can a “regular” family still have the drama?

SimDevNat: Scandals are for everyone! Bring on the drama

SimDevXènia: There’s a dotted line to the fake dad and one to the real dad if you access the UI from the sim who gave birth. If you access from either of the other SIms, you will only see their parenthood. Meaning, sims who know the truth will see it all, others sims will only see what they ‘know’

Question: What happens if a king from world A and a queen from world B get a child. (without moving in together) To which family will that child belong.

SimDevNat: The baby would join the household of the parent who gives birth to them, but you can choose which Dynasty they will join.

SimDevXènia: for those asking if the adopted sims will appear as adopted in the fam tree: it’s a setting! You can choose how you want it to display

Question: Can sims paint their dinasty crest and hang it on the wall?

SimDevNat: Kind of. There is a new crest wall decor object that you can put your motif onto, and your Sims could paint it from reference, if they wanted that hand-painted touch.

Question: If the monarch dies before the heir reaches adulthood, can the heir still take over as monarch king/queen? Considering its a career (royality)

SimDevXènia: They keep their title (almost cosmetically, since they cannot action on it til they are teens), but can claim it when they reach the age! That will let them jump into the career at level 10, effectively making them King, Queen or any custom title you prefer

Question: How does a sim have a secret baby?

SimDevAzure: Sims can have a baby with a Sim that is not their spouse and then lie to their Spouse about the parentage. This will create the Secret Baby relationship.

Question: Is the dynasty heir separate from the throne heir in the noble profession?

SimDevAzure: Yes

Question: I created a save years ago (you many know it as the Tales Of Yore Save) and this is literally my dream pack! I just wanted to know if it would be possible to have like an Emperor Sim who rules all the worlds (with monarchs still in each world). Probably not, but just wanted to confirm.

SimDevXènia: There is not a Sim who rules all worlds, HOWEVER…. in your case, you could create a Dynasty of Emperors and Empresses, and have each of them live in a different world. This way each of them can rule a region, but all share the same crest. That’s how I’d try to tell your story at least.

Question: Can any dynasty member go for the head of no hero is chosen

SimDevNat: Dynasty members who want to be Heir can ask (or even extort) their Head into choosing them as Heir. Or if they have specific values, they can challenge the Head for their position through a Chess Match, Duel or even a fight. Otherwise, any Dynasty member who is ranked higher than the Head can just Usurp the position!

Question: Can we hear more about The Noble Frog Prince?? Is there lore for him??

SimDevXènia: There is not a single prince or princess! They might not even have that rank. There are many noble frogs, and each have their own rank. Starting from level 4, which is already quite of a shortcut into the nobility career if you were to marry them!

Question: Is the green hood guy in the trailer the burglar???

SimDevXènia: Hahaha, yes! We have a new burglar with strong feelings for the ‘Tax the Rich’ motto. Low income Sims love them

Question: Life & Death crosspack question: Can we have one monarch that constantly occupies the throne in various incarnations of themselves.. A monarch lives and dies and reincarnates right back on their same throne –> Think of it as a Dalai Lama situation

SimDevNat: This sounds like a really fun story! There’s no direct way to “promise to inherit” to your unborn reincarnation, but if there was a spouse or adult child who could “hold” the title for you and promise it to your incarnation, then this could definitely work.

SimDevAzure: Can we pass headship of a dynasty/titles to a spouse/sibling/parent and declare them our heir if we don’t have children? Answer: You can pass the headship of the Dynasty to any Dynasty member (not just your kids). For Noble Titles you can promise to inherit a Noble Title to your kids or Spouse.

Question: I wanted to ask what Knights are, what they do, and how they are relevant to dynasties? Also the same for the Advisors?

SimDevXènia: Knight Sims are any Sim in the level 1 of the Noble Career. They can still get a noble advisor (any other Sim), and additionally be noble advisors themselves (to someone else). You don’t have to be a noble to be an advisor, but you can combine it if you want. I think around level 4 nobles gain the ability to Knight other Sims

Question: Omg! We getting R** H*?!

SimDevXènia: the very same. or at least, or re-imagined version of him. hope you like meeting them!

Question: will stepfamily and halfsiblings finally have proper relation tags?

SimDevXènia: yesssss

Question: Are there any dynastic criteria that can be linked to piracy?

SimDevNat: Personally I think the Bold and Vicious Dynasty Ideals would work well for a Pirate Dynasty

Question: When a character becomes a king, does his fame level automatically max out?

SimDevAzure: As Sims rise through the Noble Career their Fame will increase throughout the whole process.

Question: Family tree display settings …. Tell us more !!!! (please)

SimDevAzure: We will be having a family tree Discord qna soon!

Question: Can pets be in dynasties or royalty??

SimDevNat: If you have the Cats & Dogs expansion pack, your feline friends can certainly dress the part!

Question: How do secret passages work?

SimDevXènia: Passages do many things! Sims gotta inspect them first to find out shortcuts available, and those can be explored for Sims to appear ‘somewhere else’ where there is a Passageway as well. They can also serve as an /intimate spot/ for Sims, and be tampered with…

Question: Will Dynasties have their own heirlooms cross play like in life and death? Like if I want to have an heirloom that has been in the Dynasty forever could that be an option? Will we be able to have a scandal for breaking the heirloom blarfy?

SimDevNat: There’s no specific tie between Dynasties or Scandals and heirlooms, but players who have Life and Death can definitely tell some cool stories of items passed down through the Dynasty.

Question: Can you reveal examples of decrees?

SimDevXènia: Yes! For example, we have a decree called The Silver Charter that gives benefits to Elders. They no longer get ‘woohoo exhausted’ and have improved skill gain.

Question: Can we legitimise illegitimate children or at least partially recognise them somehow?

SimDevAzure: Secret Children can be discovered, the secret can be exposed and then everyone will know about them. The child can then be added to the dynasty.

Question: Can Passageways work like elevators, yes or no? This is very important to me lol. If I click go here will my sim automatically go to the Passageway (If theyve inspected them first)?

SimDevXènia: if you mean like Portals, yes!

Question: Thankyou! It’s a shame the sims have to inspect them first because otherwise they’d be so versatile but Im glad to know that they can be used as elevators! This is amazing.

SimDevXènia: We have a player facing cheat though – for builders!

Question: If you have for rent and this pack can you set up a castle with a butlers quarters and a maids quarters and a knights barracks?

SimDevXènia: I did playtest this with the butler from Vintage Glamour. But yeah you should be able to have staff in quarters with For Rent, what a great idea