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What am I missing?
celeste821
Posts: 543 Member
I hear a lot of you guys talking about the things you do on the sims so I think I may not be getting the concept. I don't do mods, I think the only mod I have is the relationship decay, I will do some cheats. I have get to work and outdoor retreat I plan on getting some packs. Am I supposed to be making recreation destination like restaurants, clubs and such and if so do I have to control them? I would much rather go out on a date and not have to be the one to cook and all.
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There's also deviant players that like to watch things burn and kill off sims in every way imaginable. You've got collectors that try to get every plant, rock, gem, frog, fish etc. Casual players mosey around and do lots of stuff. Some do challenges like living as a homeless sim or the 100 baby challenge.
Play around and find out what kind of simmer you are. The more packs you add to the game, the more interesting it gets. There are no clear objectives to The Sims. Their life is what you make it.
You can order food at bars if you have Get Together.
Since you only have Get To Work, I would recommend you make a shopping mall with different shops in it. You can have a boutique and an arcade, for example.
could you put screenshots? But that sounds like a lot of work like a mall with different stores? first of all you can only have 8 sims per lot so I really don't get the concept of how you control a mall, and do you have to create sims for that like a household???
No, the mall is put under retail (NPC- run). I'm not on my laptop right now so I can't give you screenshots. But I made two malls in the gallery, if you wanna check out.
https://www.thesims.com/en_GB/gallery/FAE95E3122FB11E58633A5705A387B1A?category=all&searchtype=ea_origin_id&sortby=downloads&time=all&searchquery=dekaythepunk&max=50&maxis=false
https://www.thesims.com/en_GB/gallery/FAACC2189E2611E5824FF961C4F63D79?category=all&searchtype=ea_origin_id&sortby=downloads&time=all&searchquery=DeKaythePUNK&max=50&maxis=false
The 8 sims limit is for a household . On a community or retail lot for example, you can have around 20 or so sims turning up, more if you use a mod. You can choose a household to buy and run a retail venue, or you can have npcs run it and use it as a place for your sims to visit.
You can either download specific lots from the gallery or build your own (like you build houses) you just have to mark them as community/retail/bar/nightclub etc. When you select what type of lot you would like to create, there will be a checklist showing the items required to make the lot work. For example a retail store will require a cash register amongst other things.
Your household would still only be up to 8 sims. If the household owns a retail lot, you can just take one sim if you want, they don't all have to go. When you open your store for the day, the game will generate customers to visit your store, you can't control the customers, just your sim. The amount of customers generated could be up to 20 sims, but usually less, and they are not usually all inside your store at the same time.
At the start it can be bit overwhelming, but you get used to it. You can hire employees to "help" you out (I don't find them helpful tbh), or you can just bring another of your household sims to the lot if available, but then you will need to control them as well. It's totally doable once you get the hang of it.
My retail lots are entirely run by household members, I never use the employees. I have between 2-4 household members staffing the store at once: serving customers, cleaning, restocking (or baking in my bakery). The days are sometimes full on, but I love it
Videos are good, it will probably make more sense once you've seen a few of them.
Edited to add: this post is if you are running your own retail. If you set it up to be run by NPC sims, you can visit the venue with your sims and buy stuff just for fun/something to do. Again, you will be only controlling your own household sims while you are there. Other sims will be generated by the game too, but you don't have to worry about controlling those.
You don't have to own the lot if you don't want. I've set up the mall so that the moment you put it into your game, all the things that can be sold should already be on sale and your sims can just visit it to shop there.
Does that makes sense?
ok this is what I am glad to hear, from the vids and what you guys were saying I didn't think I could make the store without having to run it, this sounds good. so I could just build a restaurant like you build a home without creating a sim first.
great, cause I tend to control a few households of all sizes and sometime I want to have them go out and relax, so yeah it make sense. I was actually thinking that it was going to come in an expansion pack like "dine out" or something. It sounds encouraging, I will definitely start out with just getting a store already made and placing it. Maybe I might surprise myself like with toddlers. I hated toddlers in sims two and I didn't play sims 3, so I wasn't looking forward to them in sims 4. But I am pleasantly surprise and now most of my families have them so maybe I may become some sort of entrepreneur lmao
As you have probably already found out, your sims can buy and run the restaurant themselves if you like. I haven't done this myself yet, will eventually, but currently just using the restaurants as a place to go.
Wherever I am friends call me Betty
Sim enim est vita
Awesome! Hope you like it, it's one of my favourite packs.
If you get Dine Out, it comes with some prebuilt Maxis ones in build mode, But you should try your hand at building your own. You set the menus even for NPC ran restaurants. Best addition since we first saw them in Hot Date. I can't play 'Sims' without restaurants being part of where they can go. It's a must for me. Set the menu, set the uniform for the employees etc. set the outfit category the Sims visiting the lot should wear, and then forget it. You don't have to run it yourself. Just build and set the things I mentioned. Maxis premade lots are already set, but you can even change those.
If I were you I would see all the worlds as one big one and reduce how many shops, (type) etc. such as only one gym, one library, one community pool, a few different restaurants to visit from Burger joints to fancy dining. (cheaper and higher prices) set only one park, how many do you need? add all the things you want to use there, such as a telescope etc. and horse shoes etc. cram it full because I think you need the space for other things instead of too many parks. Since you can travel from world to world you don't need two gyms etc. You don't need two clothing stores, etc. You can build a grocery store in TS4, buy it for awhile have your Sim gather all fruits and veggies in game and some odd things and put them in your store. Sell the store back to community and viola you have a grocery store you can visit and never garden again. Or you can download one from gallery. NPCs will run them.
If you get movie stuff pack you can build a theater with the big new TV in pack. You may have to mark it as bar and hide bar stools in a basement, etc. but it works as theater if they have no bar stools, and the tiny portable bar in GT. They can order a drink and before this last patch they all went to sit down and watch a movie etc. It worked great in my game though I was rigging it from a bar.
Consider moving Sims into Mag. Blossom instead of stores..you might like that area. It's a nice neighborhood if you put houses in it instead of businesses. You will have space for the stores and other things in Newcrest and WB when you get rid of too many gyms, etc.
ETA: You really only need one very good nightclub. The one in Willow Creek is more a bar than a nightclub, to me. So, only one pub, one 'bar' and one nightclub. It doesn't make sense for every world to have these things and so use their spaces for residential or something stranger.
You might also like building houses where the Library in Willow Creek is located. That's a great residential area and I think people just don't realize it, and leave it the way it was when it came out, but it's a busy place, and it's very good for four or five urban type houses in that area.