Comfort zone

LolaLuvsSims

Sometimes I really want to change up my play style but I really don't know how to do it. I've always given my sims the best life possible, the American Dream. Once I made a single gal steal Bjorn away after a torrid affair but then they settled into a happy life. I was watching a YouTuber yesterday who made me wish for a little drama in my game. I just don't know anything but one perfect family, then one of their children. I've never made it to where the 4th gen reaches YA, I always start a new save by then. Any advice?

RedDestiny92

well sometimes the best life is fun but it depends on the sims, I have a family going that I admit I've mentioned a few times but I like them so yeah gen five is made up of several baby mamas and I'll add another one. To keep them going I've had bad luck with them, when other saves have no issues twice I've had to move them to a new save when the saves seemed unplayable no matter what I did.

Basically, start with a random idea and just go for it, if you have mccc to help that's good too see I like no strings attached drama but when I used that my game was glitchy so being able to cheat the relationship back down because it means nothing is handy.

gen 1 they lived off collectibles and the mother's kleptomaniac ways, I immediately had them have their first baby while they shared a closed in area with bathroom that was in a shack. I'd add walls and take them away as we got money I just kept having kids with two sets of twins even moved out the eldest to let them have another child.

gen 2 let the heiress hook up with a random townie that spawned in their first night in, they were juiced I'd say nothing happened so I let them try again.

gen 3 I had her move out when she had no money and made a guy for her they met and that night she got pregnant with gen 4 though he also had a child after breaking up a marriage with two ladies that despise each other but meh don't want to be alone.

gen 4 got a baby mama twice from his alien coworker first got her pregnant then changed it so he could get pregnant and let her go to work, he got two friends pregnant and after his first baby mama's many rejections though she'll flirt with him he broke up a marriage too. Bella is his new girlfriend someone he actually likes though she gave him a hard time and I need to get her pregnant and get custody of the two babies he's waiting for she'll also leave her kids with Mortimer.

gen 5..well one of them is a brat the other is my little sweet pea we'll see how they do with all their half siblings.

LolaLuvsSims

I had a hard time following that @RedDestiny92

littlemissgogo

You could try different challenges? Lots of legacy challenges out there that are "outside of the box" compared to your usual stuff.

nani

Short story of a family i played a long time
A poor girl met a guy, they married and had a big family, one was a guy that married a vampire lady and had a son, then he died of age
One of the parents was bitten by a vampire and died of sun exposure, the other parent died of age
The family moved cause without their parents they were broke, one of the daughter married a man, to discover the day of her wedding that her man had an affair with her aunt
The same aunt had a wedding but got ditched at the altar pregnant by her ex fiancee

KismetRose

I felt like that for a while too so I did the "I'm surrounded by l.d.i.o.t.s" challenge and that really shook up my safe little gameplay lol It's where you only control your main Sim while the spouse and children can do whatever they please. It was pretty crazy for a while with my poor Sim being the only one to clean and cook (unless the spouse decided so kindly on her own to help lol) and especially taking care of the babies.. and omg this was before toddlers. Can't even imagine the chaos otherwise. It was a lot of fun though to send my Sim off to work since the spouse couldn't have a job and was left to do whatever she wanted at home. Usually that meant doing nothing productive. It was definitely not a familiar and comfortable style but so, so entertaining

LolaLuvsSims

Maybe I'll give that a try @KismetRose

KismetRose

@ikiamyetta If you do I'd love to see some updates and hear how it's going. I just love the chaos even in other people's games lol There's also a thread dedicated to that challenge in the storytelling forum where people share their experiences I just might give it another shot inbetween playing my current game since it's been a while.

LolaLuvsSims

When I have time to play (not so much now) I will find that thread and tag you @KismetRose. Thanks!

elanorbreton

My favourite gameplay to date has been my live-in nanny. I got the idea from another simmer here and it has been fantastic fun, though that may be because I love playing families.

My sim started off living in San Myshuno in an apartment with a bad husband. He was horrible to her and eventually threw her out on the street and she had nowhere to go. She was very lucky to get a job as a live-in nanny (I moved her in with the Bjergsen family). Then, when that started going downhill she just moved to live with another family. This one had three babies to look after! Later on, she got a job in a vampire home (though she didn't know they were vampires until one took a bite lol).

She ended up getting pregnant after a one-night stand with Don Lothario and the vampire family threw her out (with a large enough payment for her to buy a tiny trailer in Oasis Springs).

LolaLuvsSims

I've seen you post @elanorbreton. I'm afraid if I do that I'll have the nanny find love too quickly. Maybe even break up a family then live happily ever after. I've been playing since The Sims and I developed this style in TS2 so it's very hard to break out of

AvaSims4080

I'm exactly the same as you, I'm only used to having the perfect life where nothing goes wrong. As somebody else rightly mentioned, challenges and videos are ideal. I'm currently playing a mother who's doing to divorce her husband, meaning the husband will need to care for the child. I suggest trying something completely out of the ordinary or plan out a good storyline!

RedDestiny92

@ikiamyetta just play with a string of bad decisions let the drama come to you heh.

calaprfy

I cherish the evil and mean sims for a change to the happy norm. I even put them in a club that hangs out at bars and fights with other sims.

MoonSim

I've gotten that feeling many times! Sometimes I'll look for a new challenge to try, or I'll think of a family/group dynamic that I haven't tried before like a group of starkly different people or a family with live-in grandparents. It's really simple, but I just changed my whole gaming style just by extending the lifespan of the sims. Now they make even deeper connections and more complex storylines. Giving your sims not-so-desirable traits can also spice up the way they interact with each other. Sometimes I'll stick with one sim and even throughout having parents or spouses, I will only play this one sim and let everyone else do whatever they feel like. Otherwise, just adding drama to your gameplay can make it more exciting--getting laid off and starting a brand new career, child leaving home to live in another household, divorce, etc. I miss the midlife crisis moodlet and I'll simulate that sometimes with random huge purchases, makeovers, and dramatic changes in interests.

nani

I have a household where two families live together, they are not blood related but they are really close because their mom also lived together so they grew together like brother and sister
until one of my girl sims, already in couple with an alien girl, wanted to flirt with her mom's best friend, and that was really weird because the two acted more like aunt and niece her mom's best friend raised her (as weel as , you know, her actual mom) since they lived together ...game will find a way to surprise you

elanorbreton

The unfortunate thing with this game is that it is quite difficult to do anything but have that perfect family, without improvisation and a lot of imagination. So you may find that you end up playing that way no matter how you start out anyway.

Even at the start of my nanny game, with the horrible husband, he wasn't really horrible. I gave him the worst traits I could pick and he still behaved just like any other sim. I had to force him to do mean interactions and if I left him for a moment he would be chatting nicely to someone I had just made him insult.

So, why not just make the most of what you have and play your perfect families with a little bit of variety added in? Have a sim who likes collecting, one who likes gardening, a painter, a town populator etc. I think the most drama you could hope to achieve is probably to have someone die from over-emotion.

BereGhostsGIANTFan

I try to do legacy challenges but on the 2nd gen I give up lol. I'm currently doing a legacy and my first 2 sims have had a baby girl, she is now a toddler. I will see where it goes.

@nani that sounds like a crazy family to keep track of! :D

buzz_infamous

Same here. I used to play one family with maximum of 2 kids and when they died i just created a new one. Recently i started doing challenges and the furthest i got was to 7th generation. I really enjoyed seeing how genetics did their wonders. However, my play style was still safe and i did not really get that much out of my comfort zones. Now i found a perfect challenge for me - it is called Absolute Master. It lists many many sets of challenges per generation or rotation so that you will try absolutely everything in the game. For me there were just too many challenges per set so i edited it a bit. If you are willing to try it i can share the list i prepared

LolaLuvsSims

Definitely @buzz_infamous

taydev

Have you thought about another save? I'm in the same boat. My sims are just too perfect but I don't want to rattle and tear down what I've built. So my plan is to create another game, copy my families to the new save, and go all out with the drama and more autonomy. I'll keep my old "perfect" game to have the best of both worlds.

friendlysimmers

Me i made the choice to stay in my comfort zone and that comfort zone is never to let sims age or die

LolaLuvsSims

taydev wrote: »

Have you thought about another save? I'm in the same boat. My sims are just too perfect but I don't want to rattle and tear down what I've built. So my plan is to create another game, copy my families to the new save, and go all out with the drama and more autonomy. I'll keep my old "perfect" game to have the best of both worlds.

I have multiple saves. All with perfect sims