Population & DNA

While the main goal for the project is to develop a new smalltown, the biggest challenge might be to populate it.

In such a  limited community, based on only 4 couples, 3rd generation will count many cousins, and finding everyone a spouse will be tough. And because cousins can't breed, there will be trouble unless the number of males match the number of females. A "wrong" gender or a "wrong" marriage might make it even more complicated. In a quick test nearly all the generation 2 babies were boys - I'm glad it was just a test :-)

This chart is per settler couple - so should be multiplied by 4.

I plan to organize the couples into traditional households. If a small group of people were to populate a new community for real, I think they might have formed a different community structure, because securing their race would be more important than avoiding jealousy. But I don't want  to deal with too much jealousy, so there won't be much breeding accross households.

Separate households also make it possible to build up tribes in a different way. Not that it would make much of a difference in such a small group where all will be distantly related, no matter what, but the background stories will be more diverse and perhaps give a tribe-like feel.

The population plan goes like this:

Gen 1: 8 sims (4 settler households)
Gen 2: 4 kids per couple = 16 new sims (gives 8 households)
Gen 3: 3 kids per couple = 24 new sims (gives 12 households)

If success, and if the first 8 settlers are still alive, on generation 3 the population will count 48 sims and 12 households, not counting gen 3's kids. There will of course be a few sims not reproducing, some might even die by accidents before reproducing, but there might also be some twins on 4th try, and breeding accross generations as long as the two sims are not closely related.

From generation 4 I think 2-3 kids per family will be enough to keep it going, and eventually secure a slight growth to fill the new smalltown.

So - do you think this could work well DNA-wise?