Auroraskies....Thanks ..this is a great thread due to the input of so many very nice simmers who have shared ideas ...it has been so so so beneficial to me.
I started playing sims 4 in november of last year. (I have played each of the series of the sims however beginning in 2001..in 2014 I left the sims and was gone for five years.
I did so love reading your input. I also play on a 28 season with aging turned off. I have n.a.p.s turned off too....i just got Eco Living last week. you offer a lot of helpful ideas on setting up your sims play....i do not use cheats other then motherlode ... i do love building and i do all that for my communities. I am on my fifteenth save but i have deleted previous plays/saves. I have autonomy full on...i don't think i have to worry about the special sims like the ones from Realm of magic or Santa ..the Bunny etc because aging is off.
I don't know what you mean about needing to use cheats for "server" sims though.
I think your orphanage sounds fantastic ...how fun to consider what these young lives will grow up to be in your community..I really like that.
I think NewCrest will eventually be an extension of Willow Creek in my scheme of things ...i currently have all my sims living there and it is pretty much self contained with the exception of a Vet Clinic ..but this play will grow.
I very much enjoyed reading your input and found it to be very informative ..thanks for posting!
elanorbreton....you seem familiar ..i bet we ran into each other posting in sims 3 did you have the same name by any chance or am i pipe dreaming? in sims 3 i used to have a long running thread called ..what did your sims do today.....anyways ..i think that in my rotational play that I will have a set up similar to yours. I have four married couples and four sims who currently are single but eventually will hook up. That means that my rotational play population is twelve sims total. Each sim has something to contribute to the community of WillowCreek. I love seeing the variety of what you have going on..it is awesome. Thanks so much for posting in this thread it is very much appreciated.
Willow Creek is the place for environmentally aware scientists, gardeners, botanists and florists; it will have a green footprint, a communal garden, a huge flower production garden selling its flowers in a shop, a botanical garden for cultural visits, a vegetarian restaurant and an old crashed alien ship where the descendants of Mother is living, waiting for their destiny to start... and so forth, for each world.
this sounds so awesome!
that...that is all I wanted to say really
I started a rotational save recently. I play with aging on only for the active household. I spend one day on each household before rotating at 8:00 am. I’m playing all of the premade families in Willow Creek and Oasis Springs.
I just started rotational playing. The tip to rotate like between 6 and 8 am is a good one. I have a married couple as my central focus. They have one child who is a toddler. From there I rotate through their parents and their best friends, another married couple and their parents. Once the kids are old enough to have their own families, I will lump them in the rotation. I have at least two that have jobs where I can go with them, a police officer and an actor and at least one in college. It makes for a very interesting playstyle. Before I went to this I was playing my core family and their children only (who at the time where young adults). I decided to back up to a much earlier version of my main family and start over again since I had learned so much recently about certain aspects of the game. I am so happy with my decision to do that I love all the tips in this thread too. Thank you everyone!
Willow Creek is the place for environmentally aware scientists, gardeners, botanists and florists; it will have a green footprint, a communal garden, a huge flower production garden selling its flowers in a shop, a botanical garden for cultural visits, a vegetarian restaurant and an old crashed alien ship where the descendants of Mother is living, waiting for their destiny to start... and so forth, for each world.
Do you have pictures of your version of Willow Creek? Would love to see what you've done with the place.
I'm very random and unorganized when it comes to who I play and when. I have one main heir each generation but will check in on relatives now and then and make sure things are running smoothly (or not so smooth, depending on my storylines).
I started my save file with two sims, one founder and the guy she ultimately married. I didn't play with the guy until he moved into my female sim's household so there was no rotational playing going on at the time.
Fast forward an entire generation and I now have three adult kids for generation two, as well as my heir's future wife's family (that I've played with a bit to give them some jobs and relationships). I have a specific heir that I'll be focusing on, but I also really love the two other kids and will likely play with their households once their respective families start growing. At the moment the eldest is married and pregnant. She'll be having the first gen 3 babies.
I played with her household for major events like her wedding day and to get her pregnant. I also went in and out of her household a few times over the next couple days to get some baby bump pictures. My sim pregnancies last six days instead of three so I'm not feeling too rushed when I'm in other households. That's definitely an important part for me- having longer lifespans and longer pregnancies so I can do more and not feel like people are going to age up on me. Having MCCC is good for controlling sims in the meantime too, and making sure they won't have surprise birthdays. (I have paused aging altogether at some points when I wanted to do some storytelling and not have everyone grow up too quickly. You can do that if you're feeling stressed out!).
My heir is the middle child and he lives with his brother at the moment in an apartment in San Myshuno. They'll eventually go their separate ways when they get together with significant others, but for now I get to develop both of them.
I'm sure when I start getting gen 3 kids and they start growing up, it'll be A LOT harder to rotate between all of them. I might have to choose a few favorites to focus on and let MCCC do the rest of the story progression for me. I don't think I can handle 20+ active households LOL.
One day when I get bored of this save file (hopefully not for a VERY long time!), I want to make Newcrest into a "soap opera" type town where I play with 9-10 families at once. If I do end up doing that, I'll probably play one sim week in each household and have a specific schedule so everyone will get equal play time. I haven't done it, it might end up feeling too strict for my taste, but it's something I'd like to at least try.
I was a bit like you where I never really did rotational play and then learned from some folks in the forum how this could be done in a great working system i never even thought of!
I have always been a family player and I play generations, but whenever my first household gets split in multiple households due to their kids getting married and so on, I used to just choose my favorite household to play with and continue from there while neglecting the other siblings which irritated me up to a certain point. Then I came across this system where you can have as many households as you want, you turn aging ON only when you completed an entire rotation with the same household each time, so you basically get to play with all households without loosing time or aging. Which means, household A will have aging on and gets to be played with for let's say a week, then I turn aging off and play with household B, then C, then D and so on until I come back to Household A again and get to turn aging on to play another week. If I want to celebrate birthdays in my other households, I just move the aging ON system to the next household and create a new rotation.
Ok phew, that was a bit messy to explain I guess.
1. So basically the rules above. If I want to play any household in my world, I just play with aging off so it won't matter the time I spend playing them.
2.I play families, so could be a family of 5 or 3 or sometimes a lot of pets and elders living with them. Sometimes roommate siblings and a fiance or bf/gf living with them at some point. It changes a lot due their life decisions. I like to keep it moving.
3. Years and probably until the next series come along. I started this in 2016 and I still play the same family, just 3 generations further.
4. I started re-doing all my worlds without CC and I organized everything to make sense. There are different kind of themed subhoods now. It depends on which household I play to where they will live. I have sims in rich apartments as well as slobby ones in SM, a family in a suburban home in WB, a few in modern townhouses I build in NC and one moved to DSV who is eventually going to move in with her bf to OS where I created something like Malibu condo's in a rich subhood.
5. It can be annoying to manage that much. I wish we had story progression, drama and sims that could take care of their life goals themselves according to their personality or experiences. At some point I don't want to manage 20+ households and leaving them be turns into sims never getting relationships, jobs or skills..
6. Always family play! I used to start off with a single mom and a kid in all my Sims series, but that got kinda old. in TS4 i created a background story that I originally started in TS3 with a handsome successful doctor married to a nurse and them having a toddler. The background story was that he never really intended to be with her, but kind of got.. stuck. Then she got married and so on. in TS4 I took this story back onto their YA lives where he, her and another roommate/good friend all lived together as roommates and started off as interns on their first day at the job.
@TS1299 Speaking for myself, I don't worry about the seasonal rotation lining up with my family rotation. I set my seasons to 4 weeks each because I have 15 households now and will move to 17 soon, and I like spreading out the repetition of the weather. I play every household once before I play any of them the next time, so they all age at the same rate, but I don't play in the same order every time. I usually choose my order based on who I want to play in a specific season or on a particular holiday.
In my mind, each rotation everyone ages about 4 years, so they are really all experiencing all seasons four times, I am only watching each house for one season during that time.
@wickichick Oh, I'm glad to hear that! I had fun writing it down.
What do you mean with having NewCrest as an extension of Willow Creek?
I think sims aging and sims being culled are different things. Some sims are permanently removed from the game, for performance reasons, to keep the sim amount down, and can be removed 'culled', despite aging being off. I think the sims that have no or weak relationship with the player's active sims are the ones taken first. Therefore I save any sim not often socialized with, but that I think I might want much later on in gameplay, just in case; like the special sims from the packs, for instance Father Winter.
To make service sims, that is the sims that work as nannies, bartenders, in the spa etc; you give them their 'job', that is, a 'trait'; with a cheat. I plan to give my orphans matching traits (in CAS), and skills for their intended 'career'. So for instance create a sim with CAS traits Cheerful, Good and Creative, and skill them up in the orhanage in cooking and parenting, and also give them some nice reward traits, like Great Storyteller and Incredibly Friendly; and then give them their nanny trait with the cheat: traits.equip_trait isNanny, careers.add_career Nanny
Here is one of the few teens in my game. She lives in Willow Creek with her family, who wants her to join a business career, but she would much rather cook delightful dishes. And also, peace on earth, duh.
Here is the restaurant build waiting for her fate unfolded in gameplay:
Haseki Imaret will serve vegetarian and halal dishes, hopefully attracting the environmentally aware population in Willow Creek, and a few hipsters from other parts of the world as well.
It will be a place of relaxed gathering, with low prices and a community out-reach in terms of hired personnel.
Question Guys, How do you utilize Seasons with rotational Play?
Hi there...I bet this could almost be a question generating it's own thread..lol!! Let me share with you what i do and hopefully others will as the answer will be extraordinarily varied.
My Seasons is set to a 28 day rotation.
I wanted each family to begin their own "traditions" based on personality, believes, and business. Each family will offer a service beneficial to others in my rotational play and seasons will play a large part in how they manage and build on their "chosen" path.
Spring....Easter holiday is prominent and each family will create their own tradition ...example: John and his new wife Julia Easter is a holiday signifying "rebirth"/New beginnings...they plant and name a tree in honor of that tradition ...They own a bakery and dream of feeding their community with healthy recipes with earthly fresh ingredients. Since John and Julia live on a farm their spring season begins their planting and seasonal rotation crops that their business is built upon.
Summer is a booming busy time for currently single Keri who is a fitness coach for her business. Keri loves all things outside so summer is her season to shine...swimming..basket ball....rock climbing...and outdoor yoga is popular with her clients. She embraces celebrating 4th of July and remembers her family leaving Sulani to setting into Willow Creek. She puts on a community wide Park celebration with free yoga ..fireworks and plenty of grilled fruit and peppers.
Fall is single Gregory's particular favorite time of year. He was born with extraordinary "gifts" that he uses to the fullest extent ..but in secret of course. What would the fine citizens of Willow Creek think if they knew what all Gregory can do..he keeps that a secret...especially from girl friend Keri. While the citizens enjoy the changing colors of the "harvest" season Gregory appreciates halloween when he can be a bit more who he really is without "letting the cat out of the bag" so to speak.
Winter...Willow Creek celebrates their annual Snow Festival with ice skating and hot chocolate in the park. Raven Whitely owns an art museum and Winter is when she hosts her Young Artists Fair for all of Willow Creeks aspiring little creatives. The whole town participates in this whimsical annual event whose only contender is Father Christmas. Everyone adores him but the man does harbor a deep personal secret.
I use seasons to create traditions, build on the various storylines, and to create a bonding between my own imagination and the lives that it affects in my town.
What a very good question ..thanks for your interest in rotational play.
Auroraskies.....What do you mean with having NewCrest as an extension of Willow Creek?
I "pretend" that New Crest is on the out skirts of WillowCreek because it is where many of the larger businesses are set up. I wanted Willow Creek to have its own story and because of the little streams about in the center of town ...I decided Brindleton Bay would be a neighboring town ...just so their stories could cross over. Towns need a rival town ya know! WillowCreek is a bit more classy and wanted their neighborhoods to be beautiful without the clutter of a busy downtown area ..Brindleton has allowed their fishing industry to not only mess things up but there is a certain "air" about.
So the part of town where all the businesses are located is called Willow Creek North ..aka NewCrest.
Auroraskies...thanks for the link regarding service sims ..Heck yes, I am interested. I am loving these creative ideas!! I also love the pictures ..i need to relearn how to move in game picks to the forum ..i used to do photobucket ..posting pictures was so fun ...so thanks for that as well.
Oh, I really like the idea of picturing the worlds as geographically related, what a great idea; I must think of how mine would be if they were.
I use imgur for pictures, it's very easy, you just copy the BBCode, presented as an option when choosing one of your uploaded images, and paste it in this forum.
Simtown15...Hi there ..I think one full sim day and then moving on would be ok and really change up things a lot too. Right now I just play the sim or sims of my choice until it feels right to move on ..I am just getting started really and need to develop these sims so they have a life like appeal ...I really do appreciate everyone who has been so helpful to contribute to this thread.
@TS1299 I have no rules for when I switch between households, and my aging is off, so I don't need to keep a structure for seasons. But having them set to 28 days gives enough time to play a few households during each, if I want to; and I switch to the ones that have some sort of important relation to a particular season, like gardeners, when that season arrives, and during winter I switch to the city folk and the party goers.. for instance.
I have deleted all the premade holidays and made my own. Not all holidays are celebrated by all my sims; and so I switch household to the ones that do when that holiday approaches. The game gives a notification one day before.
MelsieYT...wow from two sims came ..did you say 22 families? I love it! lol....oh what stories you could tell!! I do enjoy playing according to my moods ..so with really concrete rules ..I already know that I would not love it. Your "later" idea for NewCrest sounds interesting. I wonder if I got a little too carried away with my beginning sims for my first time rotationally playing ..I have or will have six couples ...it makes me giggle to think what could happen since you started with two. oh well, right? Thanks for posting!
I've been thinking of doing rotational play; so far I mostly just been working with one Sim, or one household, at a time. All these suggestions have been useful.
I've been playing one save file for over 4 years. That is a rotational save file, that included (at its start) - 4 generations. Great grandparents, grand parents, parents, and teen children. I played with aging off, and made "events" using Seasons expansion for their birthdays, which I would have every "sim year" so they would all get to experience "living" I would switch every 3 Sim days to another family. Each family, had their own home and extended family. This resulted in 6 families to start. Today its closer to 30.
Since that time, the great grandparents and the grandparents have died off. The teens are adults, with their own teen children about to head off to college, and the parents are now grandparents. In addition to the regular families, which I continue to switch from every 3-5 days. The families get together for holidays and birthdays, and the same "year" principal applies to the new children. I have also added many families to meet the need for friends of the growing children as well as the adults. These "friends" are used as future life partners, as well as friends to attend parties and outings.
I still play with aging off. I have also "fleshed out" the lifestyles now. So with the babies (they get aged up immediately) With the toddlers, they "appear" as young babies using mods for around a year to a whole sim year. This is done with baby hairs, and baby booties, bonnets, and onesies, and full outfits, which appear as something a younger baby would wear. I also have "smaller" toddler beds, which have "cribs" around them, and other baby related items for cc. This is usually only until they level up their movement skill though, once they start running, I typically raise their heights back up and dress them in more "traditional" toddler clothes, with longer hair, and less baby features. I also change their bed to a traditional toddler bed, delete "baby item" cc (like deco diapers and diaper bags and younger toys) - I also remove the diapers cc I have them wearing and put on their Pullup cc I made once they learn to use the potty on their own. This is also when the toddlers begin to eat the same food as everyone else. When they are "baby toddlers" they only eat food that is made from a mod which allows for baby plates, bottles, and mashed cereal, as well as the applesauce and peas from the game (more traditional baby foods for young toddlers) After they age into an older toddler, they can eat regular food and have sippy cups. This is also when I enroll my older toddlers in pre-school using mods.
After a year usually of "older" toddlerhood, I age that toddler up into a child. I use the height slider to make my children smaller, while dressing them in "younger" appearing children clothing. I make their bedrooms more "juvenile" using mods and themes for their bedroom with cc. They engage in "younger" child things, like playing outside on the swingset and watching custom movies. They also typically have unkempt hair, mismatching clothes and socks, just to give the illusion they are a young child. They might also join the scouting options or join an after school group using mods. I imagine this age of the child to be 7-9. I also change their appearance with mods for teeth and in game options (this applies to all the child age groups. Younger toddlers will have only a few teeth, which I gradually fill in over time using mods.
After about a year of this, I raise their height and use the "pre-teen" mod, to make them appear as pre-teens. This changes their body shape, and makes them appear older. I also change their hair and add makeup. They get clothing that appears "older" and also journals. I use mods to hold sleepovers and outings, and they also begin "dating" with mods. I use a cellphone restriction mod to restrict cellphone use, and this is also the time, the pre-teen gets access to their cellphone. I also update their rooms to appear "less childish" and more "grown up" but not" teen level grown. I have cc that looks "pre-teen" They can also join more after school activities using mods, as well as "tween reading materials" (mods) I usually give them braces at this time too.
Of course from here, I age them to teens, and they are also shrunk a little using a height slider, so they don't appear as adults. The same typical teen life follows. Including dates and school, as well as more after school activities, as well as college prep with University EP. Later bedtimes also follow and more advanced reading materials (mod) This is when they'll learn how to cook and start to gain lifeskills.
From there, its just typical young adult life.. sometimes they move out, sometimes they go to college. Usually they'll begin dating and trying to find a life partner, while working and figuring out what they want to do with their lives... until the cycle repeats and a new generation is born.
--- So basically, how I play with my rotational play, is LOTS of generations and families with full fleshed out lifestyles and LOTS of MODS.. LOL. I switch to a new house every 3-5 Sim days, and play with aging off. I did play with aging on for the first couple Sim years, and this was a VERY bad idea. All my older sims started dying off one after the other, and it resulted in deaths in homes that no one was there to witness. The graves were deleted, and the grieving family members had no place to pay their respects. (I've since added a graveyard lot using mods) and also elder sims get moved to a nursing home now, so the graves of the deceased no longer disappear if they are the last person living in the house. I also have funerals with mods as well. From birth to death, I've used the game (mostly mods) to completely experience every aspect of life and every life stage to the fullest for many generations. I don't have a goal in this, just to continue to give each sim their own life, experiences, and ambitions, and goals.
My rotational save it is around premade households, but I'm playing only TS4 base game. I really missed Sims 3 characters diversity at first glance on TS4 when it was released, but now I think its cast is incredible as TS3 cast used to be. To accomplish it, I needed to go through SimGurus profiles to get those promotional Sims and Maxis profile to get the rest of them (and some special as Star Wars ones... it is amazing to look Yoda playing with my Sims kids at the park or Vader drinking at the bar hahaha). Also SimCreator050 has some good Sims from trailers (as Dyana Fire and Drew Current from ghosts trailer).
Right now, I'm still on first generation (but rotated two times all 10 households [Goth, Landgraab, SKL, Caliente, Zest, BFF, Roomies, Fogel, Morse, Pancakes]. I let them loose to choose what they want to learn, or to whom they want to talk and everything that Autonomy let rolls (like when try for a baby). I usually rotate between households whenever someone grows up (and I let all unplayed Sims without aging to always fill the city with people - if I want to add one of them at the rotational, I just move'em to a home and start to play). My only usual interference on Sims lives are to help them accomplish their whims (sometimes I only buy new items to their homes when they wish it). The best part of this rotational has been doing social events - it reminds me a lot of my memories from TS1 House Party events that used to be so cool (cake, cake!).
I've also noticed that my Sims seems to be more interesting now that they grown skills and relationships. The game flows better and there's some quite random funny things (Nina Caliente using a voodoo doll at the bar, people visiting my Sims homes and using different objects). I don't know, could be only my impression but I'm really touched by it hahaha
Question Guys, How do you utilize Seasons with rotational Play?
I have red different approaches for this. Some players only play in the current season in RL and I get that. It feels right. I don't like playing Christmas when it's full on summer where I live.
But if you play rotational it's not always useful this way. I just set the seasons all for 14 days and I go with however that turns out. If I want to host a Christmas party at a particular household, I just change the rotational circle and play with whoever I want (mostly aging off). In my game I have two Christmas days, so I get to choose from two families each year which is more than enough for me. I do something similar with other seasons fests.
elanorbreton....you seem familiar ..i bet we ran into each other posting in sims 3 did you have the same name by any chance or am i pipe dreaming? in sims 3 i used to have a long running thread called ..what did your sims do today.....anyways ..i think that in my rotational play that I will have a set up similar to yours. I have four married couples and four sims who currently are single but eventually will hook up. That means that my rotational play population is twelve sims total. Each sim has something to contribute to the community of WillowCreek. I love seeing the variety of what you have going on..it is awesome. Thanks so much for posting in this thread it is very much appreciated.
Haha yeah, same name when I was posting during the sims 3 era. I posted a lot back then too
I have recently changed the seasons length to 28 days in my game and it seems like they last forever but it's so much nicer. With shorter season length it always felt lie festivities were like every other day. This means also more days to open Christmas presents. I play on random rotation, meaning I just play whatever household I fancy that play session.
Comments
I started playing sims 4 in november of last year. (I have played each of the series of the sims however beginning in 2001..in 2014 I left the sims and was gone for five years.
I did so love reading your input. I also play on a 28 season with aging turned off. I have n.a.p.s turned off too....i just got Eco Living last week. you offer a lot of helpful ideas on setting up your sims play....i do not use cheats other then motherlode ... i do love building and i do all that for my communities. I am on my fifteenth save but i have deleted previous plays/saves. I have autonomy full on...i don't think i have to worry about the special sims like the ones from Realm of magic or Santa ..the Bunny etc because aging is off.
I don't know what you mean about needing to use cheats for "server" sims though.
I think your orphanage sounds fantastic ...how fun to consider what these young lives will grow up to be in your community..I really like that.
I think NewCrest will eventually be an extension of Willow Creek in my scheme of things ...i currently have all my sims living there and it is pretty much self contained with the exception of a Vet Clinic ..but this play will grow.
I very much enjoyed reading your input and found it to be very informative ..thanks for posting!
this sounds so awesome!
that...that is all I wanted to say really
My Plumbob is GREEN today
Do you have pictures of your version of Willow Creek? Would love to see what you've done with the place.
TINY HOUSE CHALLENGE
The May Family
Modeling Career?
I started my save file with two sims, one founder and the guy she ultimately married. I didn't play with the guy until he moved into my female sim's household so there was no rotational playing going on at the time.
Fast forward an entire generation and I now have three adult kids for generation two, as well as my heir's future wife's family (that I've played with a bit to give them some jobs and relationships). I have a specific heir that I'll be focusing on, but I also really love the two other kids and will likely play with their households once their respective families start growing. At the moment the eldest is married and pregnant. She'll be having the first gen 3 babies.
I played with her household for major events like her wedding day and to get her pregnant. I also went in and out of her household a few times over the next couple days to get some baby bump pictures. My sim pregnancies last six days instead of three so I'm not feeling too rushed when I'm in other households. That's definitely an important part for me- having longer lifespans and longer pregnancies so I can do more and not feel like people are going to age up on me. Having MCCC is good for controlling sims in the meantime too, and making sure they won't have surprise birthdays. (I have paused aging altogether at some points when I wanted to do some storytelling and not have everyone grow up too quickly. You can do that if you're feeling stressed out!).
My heir is the middle child and he lives with his brother at the moment in an apartment in San Myshuno. They'll eventually go their separate ways when they get together with significant others, but for now I get to develop both of them.
I'm sure when I start getting gen 3 kids and they start growing up, it'll be A LOT harder to rotate between all of them. I might have to choose a few favorites to focus on and let MCCC do the rest of the story progression for me. I don't think I can handle 20+ active households LOL.
One day when I get bored of this save file (hopefully not for a VERY long time!), I want to make Newcrest into a "soap opera" type town where I play with 9-10 families at once. If I do end up doing that, I'll probably play one sim week in each household and have a specific schedule so everyone will get equal play time. I haven't done it, it might end up feeling too strict for my taste, but it's something I'd like to at least try.
I have always been a family player and I play generations, but whenever my first household gets split in multiple households due to their kids getting married and so on, I used to just choose my favorite household to play with and continue from there while neglecting the other siblings which irritated me up to a certain point.
Then I came across this system where you can have as many households as you want, you turn aging ON only when you completed an entire rotation with the same household each time, so you basically get to play with all households without loosing time or aging. Which means, household A will have aging on and gets to be played with for let's say a week, then I turn aging off and play with household B, then C, then D and so on until I come back to Household A again and get to turn aging on to play another week. If I want to celebrate birthdays in my other households, I just move the aging ON system to the next household and create a new rotation.
Ok phew, that was a bit messy to explain I guess.
1. So basically the rules above. If I want to play any household in my world, I just play with aging off so it won't matter the time I spend playing them.
2.I play families, so could be a family of 5 or 3 or sometimes a lot of pets and elders living with them. Sometimes roommate siblings and a fiance or bf/gf living with them at some point. It changes a lot due their life decisions. I like to keep it moving.
3. Years and probably until the next series come along. I started this in 2016 and I still play the same family, just 3 generations further.
4. I started re-doing all my worlds without CC and I organized everything to make sense. There are different kind of themed subhoods now. It depends on which household I play to where they will live. I have sims in rich apartments as well as slobby ones in SM, a family in a suburban home in WB, a few in modern townhouses I build in NC and one moved to DSV who is eventually going to move in with her bf to OS where I created something like Malibu condo's in a rich subhood.
5. It can be annoying to manage that much. I wish we had story progression, drama and sims that could take care of their life goals themselves according to their personality or experiences. At some point I don't want to manage 20+ households and leaving them be turns into sims never getting relationships, jobs or skills..
6. Always family play! I used to start off with a single mom and a kid in all my Sims series, but that got kinda old. in TS4 i created a background story that I originally started in TS3 with a handsome successful doctor married to a nurse and them having a toddler. The background story was that he never really intended to be with her, but kind of got.. stuck. Then she got married and so on. in TS4 I took this story back onto their YA lives where he, her and another roommate/good friend all lived together as roommates and started off as interns on their first day at the job.
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/924539/features-that-needs-depth-and-ways-to-improve
In my mind, each rotation everyone ages about 4 years, so they are really all experiencing all seasons four times, I am only watching each house for one season during that time.
What do you mean with having NewCrest as an extension of Willow Creek?
I think sims aging and sims being culled are different things. Some sims are permanently removed from the game, for performance reasons, to keep the sim amount down, and can be removed 'culled', despite aging being off. I think the sims that have no or weak relationship with the player's active sims are the ones taken first. Therefore I save any sim not often socialized with, but that I think I might want much later on in gameplay, just in case; like the special sims from the packs, for instance Father Winter.
To make service sims, that is the sims that work as nannies, bartenders, in the spa etc; you give them their 'job', that is, a 'trait'; with a cheat. I plan to give my orphans matching traits (in CAS), and skills for their intended 'career'. So for instance create a sim with CAS traits Cheerful, Good and Creative, and skill them up in the orhanage in cooking and parenting, and also give them some nice reward traits, like Great Storyteller and Incredibly Friendly; and then give them their nanny trait with the cheat: traits.equip_trait isNanny, careers.add_career Nanny
Here is an informative thread on how to give the service sims their traits/jobs:
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/941386/tutorial-turning-your-sims-into-service-npc-no-mods-required
If you want to try it let me know if you need more info.
@RavenSpit Thank you, that made me very happy to read.
@catmando830 I took a few pictures for you.
Here is the restaurant build waiting for her fate unfolded in gameplay:
Haseki Imaret will serve vegetarian and halal dishes, hopefully attracting the environmentally aware population in Willow Creek, and a few hipsters from other parts of the world as well.
It will be a place of relaxed gathering, with low prices and a community out-reach in terms of hired personnel.
Hi there...I bet this could almost be a question generating it's own thread..lol!! Let me share with you what i do and hopefully others will as the answer will be extraordinarily varied.
My Seasons is set to a 28 day rotation.
I wanted each family to begin their own "traditions" based on personality, believes, and business. Each family will offer a service beneficial to others in my rotational play and seasons will play a large part in how they manage and build on their "chosen" path.
Spring....Easter holiday is prominent and each family will create their own tradition ...example: John and his new wife Julia Easter is a holiday signifying "rebirth"/New beginnings...they plant and name a tree in honor of that tradition ...They own a bakery and dream of feeding their community with healthy recipes with earthly fresh ingredients. Since John and Julia live on a farm their spring season begins their planting and seasonal rotation crops that their business is built upon.
Summer is a booming busy time for currently single Keri who is a fitness coach for her business. Keri loves all things outside so summer is her season to shine...swimming..basket ball....rock climbing...and outdoor yoga is popular with her clients. She embraces celebrating 4th of July and remembers her family leaving Sulani to setting into Willow Creek. She puts on a community wide Park celebration with free yoga ..fireworks and plenty of grilled fruit and peppers.
Fall is single Gregory's particular favorite time of year. He was born with extraordinary "gifts" that he uses to the fullest extent ..but in secret of course. What would the fine citizens of Willow Creek think if they knew what all Gregory can do..he keeps that a secret...especially from girl friend Keri. While the citizens enjoy the changing colors of the "harvest" season Gregory appreciates halloween when he can be a bit more who he really is without "letting the cat out of the bag" so to speak.
Winter...Willow Creek celebrates their annual Snow Festival with ice skating and hot chocolate in the park. Raven Whitely owns an art museum and Winter is when she hosts her Young Artists Fair for all of Willow Creeks aspiring little creatives. The whole town participates in this whimsical annual event whose only contender is Father Christmas. Everyone adores him but the man does harbor a deep personal secret.
I use seasons to create traditions, build on the various storylines, and to create a bonding between my own imagination and the lives that it affects in my town.
What a very good question ..thanks for your interest in rotational play.
I "pretend" that New Crest is on the out skirts of WillowCreek because it is where many of the larger businesses are set up. I wanted Willow Creek to have its own story and because of the little streams about in the center of town ...I decided Brindleton Bay would be a neighboring town ...just so their stories could cross over. Towns need a rival town ya know! WillowCreek is a bit more classy and wanted their neighborhoods to be beautiful without the clutter of a busy downtown area ..Brindleton has allowed their fishing industry to not only mess things up but there is a certain "air" about.
So the part of town where all the businesses are located is called Willow Creek North ..aka NewCrest.
I use imgur for pictures, it's very easy, you just copy the BBCode, presented as an option when choosing one of your uploaded images, and paste it in this forum.
I have deleted all the premade holidays and made my own. Not all holidays are celebrated by all my sims; and so I switch household to the ones that do when that holiday approaches. The game gives a notification one day before.
Since that time, the great grandparents and the grandparents have died off. The teens are adults, with their own teen children about to head off to college, and the parents are now grandparents. In addition to the regular families, which I continue to switch from every 3-5 days. The families get together for holidays and birthdays, and the same "year" principal applies to the new children. I have also added many families to meet the need for friends of the growing children as well as the adults. These "friends" are used as future life partners, as well as friends to attend parties and outings.
I still play with aging off. I have also "fleshed out" the lifestyles now. So with the babies (they get aged up immediately) With the toddlers, they "appear" as young babies using mods for around a year to a whole sim year. This is done with baby hairs, and baby booties, bonnets, and onesies, and full outfits, which appear as something a younger baby would wear. I also have "smaller" toddler beds, which have "cribs" around them, and other baby related items for cc. This is usually only until they level up their movement skill though, once they start running, I typically raise their heights back up and dress them in more "traditional" toddler clothes, with longer hair, and less baby features. I also change their bed to a traditional toddler bed, delete "baby item" cc (like deco diapers and diaper bags and younger toys) - I also remove the diapers cc I have them wearing and put on their Pullup cc I made once they learn to use the potty on their own. This is also when the toddlers begin to eat the same food as everyone else. When they are "baby toddlers" they only eat food that is made from a mod which allows for baby plates, bottles, and mashed cereal, as well as the applesauce and peas from the game (more traditional baby foods for young toddlers) After they age into an older toddler, they can eat regular food and have sippy cups. This is also when I enroll my older toddlers in pre-school using mods.
After a year usually of "older" toddlerhood, I age that toddler up into a child. I use the height slider to make my children smaller, while dressing them in "younger" appearing children clothing. I make their bedrooms more "juvenile" using mods and themes for their bedroom with cc. They engage in "younger" child things, like playing outside on the swingset and watching custom movies. They also typically have unkempt hair, mismatching clothes and socks, just to give the illusion they are a young child. They might also join the scouting options or join an after school group using mods. I imagine this age of the child to be 7-9. I also change their appearance with mods for teeth and in game options (this applies to all the child age groups. Younger toddlers will have only a few teeth, which I gradually fill in over time using mods.
After about a year of this, I raise their height and use the "pre-teen" mod, to make them appear as pre-teens. This changes their body shape, and makes them appear older. I also change their hair and add makeup. They get clothing that appears "older" and also journals. I use mods to hold sleepovers and outings, and they also begin "dating" with mods. I use a cellphone restriction mod to restrict cellphone use, and this is also the time, the pre-teen gets access to their cellphone. I also update their rooms to appear "less childish" and more "grown up" but not" teen level grown. I have cc that looks "pre-teen" They can also join more after school activities using mods, as well as "tween reading materials" (mods) I usually give them braces at this time too.
Of course from here, I age them to teens, and they are also shrunk a little using a height slider, so they don't appear as adults. The same typical teen life follows. Including dates and school, as well as more after school activities, as well as college prep with University EP. Later bedtimes also follow and more advanced reading materials (mod) This is when they'll learn how to cook and start to gain lifeskills.
From there, its just typical young adult life.. sometimes they move out, sometimes they go to college. Usually they'll begin dating and trying to find a life partner, while working and figuring out what they want to do with their lives... until the cycle repeats and a new generation is born.
--- So basically, how I play with my rotational play, is LOTS of generations and families with full fleshed out lifestyles and LOTS of MODS.. LOL. I switch to a new house every 3-5 Sim days, and play with aging off. I did play with aging on for the first couple Sim years, and this was a VERY bad idea. All my older sims started dying off one after the other, and it resulted in deaths in homes that no one was there to witness. The graves were deleted, and the grieving family members had no place to pay their respects. (I've since added a graveyard lot using mods) and also elder sims get moved to a nursing home now, so the graves of the deceased no longer disappear if they are the last person living in the house. I also have funerals with mods as well. From birth to death, I've used the game (mostly mods) to completely experience every aspect of life and every life stage to the fullest for many generations. I don't have a goal in this, just to continue to give each sim their own life, experiences, and ambitions, and goals.
Right now, I'm still on first generation (but rotated two times all 10 households [Goth, Landgraab, SKL, Caliente, Zest, BFF, Roomies, Fogel, Morse, Pancakes]. I let them loose to choose what they want to learn, or to whom they want to talk and everything that Autonomy let rolls (like when try for a baby). I usually rotate between households whenever someone grows up (and I let all unplayed Sims without aging to always fill the city with people - if I want to add one of them at the rotational, I just move'em to a home and start to play). My only usual interference on Sims lives are to help them accomplish their whims (sometimes I only buy new items to their homes when they wish it). The best part of this rotational has been doing social events - it reminds me a lot of my memories from TS1 House Party events that used to be so cool (cake, cake!).
I've also noticed that my Sims seems to be more interesting now that they grown skills and relationships. The game flows better and there's some quite random funny things (Nina Caliente using a voodoo doll at the bar, people visiting my Sims homes and using different objects). I don't know, could be only my impression but I'm really touched by it hahaha
I love rotational play ❤️
I have red different approaches for this. Some players only play in the current season in RL and I get that. It feels right. I don't like playing Christmas when it's full on summer where I live.
But if you play rotational it's not always useful this way. I just set the seasons all for 14 days and I go with however that turns out. If I want to host a Christmas party at a particular household, I just change the rotational circle and play with whoever I want (mostly aging off). In my game I have two Christmas days, so I get to choose from two families each year which is more than enough for me. I do something similar with other seasons fests.
Haha yeah, same name when I was posting during the sims 3 era. I posted a lot back then too