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Does anyone else "fake" seasons/holidays?
notetoself00x
Posts: 499 Member
Does anyone else pretend that seasons and holidays exist in their games even though they don't? Lol. Here's what I do:
I pretend that 1 sim week = 1 season. So I play 1 week of summer, 1 week of fall, etc. Sometimes I make it 2 weeks = 1 season. Whatever doesn't feel too short or too long!
I update my sims' wardrobe at the beginning of each "season" or sometimes just at the beginning of spring (lighter clothes) and the beginning of fall (heavier clothes). I base their activities on the season - swimming in the summer, warming up at bonfires in the fall, staying mostly inside with the fireplace lit in the winter, etc.
I also keep my sim children home during the summer, using their vacation days. Sometimes they won't have enough vacation days to take off all 5 weekdays that week, in that case I just keep them home for part of the "season" either right in the middle or immediately before/after the surrounding weekends. I usually send my family on a vacation to granite falls at that time, too.
Tip that I recommend: looking at the wonderful simmer-created vacation homes in the gallery and using "bb.enablefreebuild" to put them on your sims' vacation lot. I sometimes send them on winter vacations and download Christmas cottages, or if I send a couple away for love day, I'll download a honeymoon house! There's summer family homes with pools, etc etc etc.
And holidays - I mimic the sims 3 holidays! I have my sims (usually on Saturdays) celebrate Leisure Day in the summer with a pool party/barbecue, a costume party in the fall with tons of decorations that I'll usually put up on like Wednesday or Thursday to enjoy them for a few days, Snowflake Day in the winter where I'll have a feast party and I usually decorate for Christmas during the entire "season"/week, and love day in the spring where I usually set aside an evening for my sim couples to have romantic date nights.
I also love to actually purchase gifts from one sim to another for snowlfake day/christmas and between couples for love day. I will have a husband buy his wife flowers or perfume, or maybe something big like a maid service for 1 week, a weekend getaway at granite falls in a honeymoon house, or if they have the space something big like a hot tub or a massage table. I will have the wife buy the husband a video game console, cologne, a gaming device, something like that. It all depends on their personalities. For snowflake day I like to get each of the kids/teens 1 item each, either from "santa" or from the parents to the child. Depending on the parents' and childrens' personalities and the financial situation, I get them some kind of toy or something cool for them. I recently celebrated snowflake day with a family that has a daughter who just became a child and I bought her the puppet theater. Sometimes I'll buy something big that will go to more than 1 child, like if there are 2 children and a teen I'll get a video game console for the 3 of them and maybe some little clutter item for each individually. Sometimes I also get teens a gift when they graduate highschool and age up.
I also like throwing birthday parties and baking cakes, decorating a bit, and as they get older I even enjoy taking them to restaurants to have a cake there following a family meal. I also go out to restaurants to celebrate graduating highschool/promotions.
What do you guys do for seasons, holidays, birthdays, etc?
I pretend that 1 sim week = 1 season. So I play 1 week of summer, 1 week of fall, etc. Sometimes I make it 2 weeks = 1 season. Whatever doesn't feel too short or too long!
I update my sims' wardrobe at the beginning of each "season" or sometimes just at the beginning of spring (lighter clothes) and the beginning of fall (heavier clothes). I base their activities on the season - swimming in the summer, warming up at bonfires in the fall, staying mostly inside with the fireplace lit in the winter, etc.
I also keep my sim children home during the summer, using their vacation days. Sometimes they won't have enough vacation days to take off all 5 weekdays that week, in that case I just keep them home for part of the "season" either right in the middle or immediately before/after the surrounding weekends. I usually send my family on a vacation to granite falls at that time, too.
Tip that I recommend: looking at the wonderful simmer-created vacation homes in the gallery and using "bb.enablefreebuild" to put them on your sims' vacation lot. I sometimes send them on winter vacations and download Christmas cottages, or if I send a couple away for love day, I'll download a honeymoon house! There's summer family homes with pools, etc etc etc.
And holidays - I mimic the sims 3 holidays! I have my sims (usually on Saturdays) celebrate Leisure Day in the summer with a pool party/barbecue, a costume party in the fall with tons of decorations that I'll usually put up on like Wednesday or Thursday to enjoy them for a few days, Snowflake Day in the winter where I'll have a feast party and I usually decorate for Christmas during the entire "season"/week, and love day in the spring where I usually set aside an evening for my sim couples to have romantic date nights.
I also love to actually purchase gifts from one sim to another for snowlfake day/christmas and between couples for love day. I will have a husband buy his wife flowers or perfume, or maybe something big like a maid service for 1 week, a weekend getaway at granite falls in a honeymoon house, or if they have the space something big like a hot tub or a massage table. I will have the wife buy the husband a video game console, cologne, a gaming device, something like that. It all depends on their personalities. For snowflake day I like to get each of the kids/teens 1 item each, either from "santa" or from the parents to the child. Depending on the parents' and childrens' personalities and the financial situation, I get them some kind of toy or something cool for them. I recently celebrated snowflake day with a family that has a daughter who just became a child and I bought her the puppet theater. Sometimes I'll buy something big that will go to more than 1 child, like if there are 2 children and a teen I'll get a video game console for the 3 of them and maybe some little clutter item for each individually. Sometimes I also get teens a gift when they graduate highschool and age up.
I also like throwing birthday parties and baking cakes, decorating a bit, and as they get older I even enjoy taking them to restaurants to have a cake there following a family meal. I also go out to restaurants to celebrate graduating highschool/promotions.
What do you guys do for seasons, holidays, birthdays, etc?
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Comments
I don't see the point in Spooky Stuff and the free holiday content they add to the game every year as there is no context to them in game at the moment.
Right!! I know a lot of people will put the seasonal items in game when it is that season in RL, but that's such a long time which is why I pretend in game otherwise those items are useless! Lol... I am so hoping that we get a seasons EP someday
I play games to escape from the real world so it has never crossed my mind to mimic the current real life holiday in game.I don't do that because, I don't know, it would just feel fake if you know what I mean. I need the ingame context.
However, I love the holidays, weather etc. that come with season EPs. I think it would be a good idea if that content is ever released for this iteration if it had a UI option to allow players to manually trigger holidays so that they could choose to celebrate a holiday at the same time as the real life one.
I actually have no idea about them - in TS3 I had loads and loads of birthday parties.
I've just realised that I have never played a Sim long enough to probably get close to having a birthday.
I know that I have aged a baby up - to see what happens.
me sad now.
I love that too! My only thing is, I play sims waaaay too much, so if I went by real time holidays/seasons, then winter and Christmas would only come every like, 20 generations! Hahaha. Do you know what I mean? But that is awesome!!!
I've been wanting to try those mods out! That is cool that you use 5 days per season!! Do you also include holidays or just the weather changes?
Let me know what you come up with! I love to hear how everyone plays their game:)
I see what you mean about escaping real life - I play for the same reason! Lol
Hahaha don't be sad! Do you normally play with aging off, or do you just switch to another household before they get old enough to have a birthday? I love birthdays! Though I do get sad when they age
I come back to TS4 everytime there is a new SP/GP/EP - I then start a new game and repeat the process.
I just can't play long enough for a Sim to have a birthday.
I may never see one die of old age.
*sniff*
Still, there is always Skyrim and cheeseburgers.
some screenshots of mine:
S3 simblr: http://simplysimming.tumblr.com/
S4 simblr: http://simlogic.tumblr.com/
I also have a family right now in TS4 whose living room has had a Christmas tree up since about July, but that wasn't a conscious effort to fake a holiday. It was just mostly because I liked the look of it, and this is a LARGE extended family, so family get-togethers really do feel like a Christmas dinner.
I love video games because of the things that I could never do in real life... For instance, in the sims you can get a job and a house.
Origin ID: Mainmanvs100
“Instead of putting players in the role of Luke Skywalker, or Frodo Baggins, I'd rather put them in the role of George Lucas.”Will Wright.
Right now, the game as it is, feels a lot like my part of Australia.
Most of the weather here is sunny, and warm to hot.
That said, I'm not adverse to seasons being added to the game.
Snow is a novelty to me. Haven't seen it since I was a toddler (used to live very close to the snowfields in Victoria.)
Yes, it snows in parts of Australia, during winter, but christmas is always in summer.
If I do use the mods, I'll probably do it to match real time (like fall/winter IRL, than fall/winter in game). I don't feel like changing everyone's outfits so often (most of my sims have more than 1)
I usually don't do anything special for my legacy family (haha been kinda busy with as many kids as I've made them have), but this is an amazing idea and I really like it! I want to try doing that soon.
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