The Sims 4: Royalty & Legacy - Complete Dynasty Gameplay Breakdown & New Features

Today, another gameplay trailer dropped, dedicated to the dynasty theme. Just a reminder that previously, a general trailer for The Sims 4: Royalty & Legacy expansion was released, as well as a separate gameplay video focused on the new aristocrat career.

The new trailer runs for 3 minutes and covers the new mechanics related to dynasties:

Revamped Family Tree

Within the first few seconds, we're shown the new tree design with icons and indicators:

Here you can see relationship icons, dynasty designation, and even the heir. Another really important detail — deceased sims now appear in the tree as black-and-white icons, rather than faceless empty placeholders.

Although in this dynasty example, we see a ghost, just like before. Usually ghosts disappear over time and leave an empty space. Whether this will still happen after the update remains unknown.

Who Can Create a Dynasty?

It can be any Sims: a dynasty doesn't just mean aristocratic legacy, but the most ordinary families too. As mentioned in the expansion trailer, it could even be a dynasty of farmers on a horse ranch.

In the trailer, we were shown an aristocratic family:

The already familiar Goth family:

And the wealthy Landgraab family:

Creating a Dynasty in the "Royalty & Legacy" Expansion

Dynasties work on the same principle as clubs. First, you need to choose whether you want to establish your own dynasty or check out existing ones:

If you select creating your own dynasty, a window will open where you can come up with a name, create a crest, and invite sims:

The dynasty crest design looks more interesting than in regular clubs, where we're simply offered to pick a ready-made image:

Here you can choose the background and shape of the crest, as well as a colored icon. Apparently, this symbol will be displayed in the general family tree.

We can also select family values and skills that will be encouraged in the dynasty:

You can invite up to eight sims to the dynasty, and these can be relatives from other households. So living together in one house isn't mandatory. 

Getting ahead of ourselves a bit, the developers shared in a Discord Q&A session that there's no limit on adding sims to a dynasty. We can add more than eight sims, it's just that the interface displays exactly eight.

Dynasty Success Metrics

There are two metrics for dynasty success: unity and prestige.

Unity shows how well sims get along with each other and depends on relationships within the family. Prestige is earned if sims live according to the values that were chosen when creating the dynasty. It can also be lost if you behave inappropriately. 

Appointing an Heir

For the dynasty to continue existing, you need to appoint an heir who is truly worthy of taking on this role. Choose wisely.

What Affects Dynasty Prestige

Individual actions can slightly affect prestige, but it's important to watch every step. Here we see that flirting is encouraged in the dynasty, and unity is at a high level:

At the same time, there are actions that positively affect prestige, and completing them raises the dynasty's level.

Education

For example, you can take lessons from another sim. Similar to tutoring or mentorship. And such a mechanic already exists in the game — we can ask another sim to become a mentor and improve certain skills with their help.

Nepotism

Want an easy climb up the career ladder? Then this method is for you. Just ask — and your dream position is in the bag.

Forming Alliances

To increase prestige, you can form alliances with other dynasties.

If a rival appears in the form of another dynasty, this can be settled with a good old-fashioned duel. Seems like you can solve any problem this way now.

Be careful, because if you lose, your dynasty's prestige will drop and someone else might take your place.

What if your Sim doesn't like the dynasty they belong to? It's simple: create a new one! You can leave the old dynasty at any time and establish your own.

Though recruiting relatives there will be harder. The main thing is to make sure all dynasty members are interested in its development, not the opposite.

Intrigue, Scandals, and Investigations in Dynasties

Not all sims will behave according to the family's ideals, and there are consequences for that. For instance, in the trailer we were shown this couple:

But moments later, we see the husband cheating on his wife with another woman:

Such actions don't go unnoticed, even if the sim is confident they'll get away with it forever. You remember that what's done in the dark always comes to light, right? And other sims can help make that happen.

Hidden Family Connections in the Family Tree

In the trailer, we see a sneaky sim who's clearly sticking their nose where it doesn't belong. And here we're introduced to a new mechanic for discovering family connections in the family tree.

I'm sure many have had situations where you go into an NPC household and see a huge number of partners and children in the tree. Apparently, now illegitimate children will be hidden in the tree by default, and you can only see them after conducting an investigation.

Such connections will be marked with a dotted line:

Dynasty Journal

Throughout the trailer, we've been shown a journal multiple times where important events from the dynasty's life are recorded. A separate page is dedicated to scandals:

It displays the scandal's cause, a brief description, relevance, as well as the parties involved and severity level.

New Secrets and Blackmail Mechanic

You can decide what to do next: keep the secret hidden or blackmail the victim.

If you keep the secret, you get the opportunity to become a confidant whom everyone will trust with their secrets. Sounds pretty powerful, don't you think?

If you're unwilling to keep other people's secrets, you can resort to blackmail and gain even more power and simoleons that way.

The consequences of such a scandal can vary, but it will definitely affect prestige. You can banish the culprit from the dynasty and try to restore your reputation:

It all comes down to one question: will you want to claim the crown? The Sims 4: Royalty & Legacy expansion is showing great promise, revealing more and more interesting features. This trailer was apparently the last one, since there was no announcement of anything else at the end.

There are two weeks left until the expansion's release, and the developers are unlikely to stay silent this whole time. So we'll be waiting for new insights, although it seems there's already plenty of information as it is.