All of the Sims here can earn the family points as long as they remain within the Legacy Family house.
There has been a little confusion and a little ambiguity regarding spares, non-primary spouses, cadet branches, and the children of spares in terms of who can earn points for the family. I hope this post will clarify a few things. If this post contradicts any past rulings I’ve given on the subject, this update takes precedence. With Alien pregnancies, adoptions, and the plethora of different succession law choices, having an open rule like this makes it a lot easier to figure out scoring without fundamentally changing the challenge.
Anyone who is living in the Legacy House is eligible to earn you points, period. Be them heirs, spares, primary or non-primary spouses, spouses of spares, children of spares (aka cadet branches)…if they are in the active house, they can earn the family points. Keep in mind that certain distinctions are very important for other parts of the challenge. Who your eligible and ineligible heirs are (based on your succession law) is important for future generations, who your “Primary Spouses” are is important for the Love category of points.
What is important is that they MUST be in the Legacy family lot in order to earn you points. Keep in mind that any mod that allows you to exceed the 8-sims per household limit would be considered cheating, as it would give you an advantage over a player who was limited to 8 sims max.
You may move out Sims (besides the heir) at any time. When you do this, they cease to be allowed to earn you points. Any points they HAVE earned thus far can be kept, and you may do things like spend all their aspiration points for youth potions for points…but once they are out of the house, they cease to earn points. Parts of the family who have thus been moved out but who still live in the neighborhood are known as “Cadet Branches”.
Don’t forget that once a Sim has moved out of the Legacy household, they may never be moved back in.
There is no need to restart your current Legacies with this change. Just grandfather in the new rules as you see fit. If you want to keep the rules more strict, feel free to stick with the old way.