Taking notes while you play?

cleo00 · June 2017

Hello! This really could apply to ts1, 2, 3, or 4, but since I do it in ts2 I'm posting it here.
I was curious, does anyone else take notes while they play?
I have this college generations thing going on where I have 8 girls and 8 boys each generation and I have a notebook I keep next to me of which of the 16 bedrooms each sim has, their majors, who is dating who etc, and if I ever am somewhere where i have my laptop but not the notebook i won't play that family.
Just was curious, if anyone else took notes as they played.

joleaco · June 2017

Definitely. I have 2 notebooks, one for the Sims 2 and one for the Sims 4. Same as you, no notebook = no play, I would stuff something up otherwise.

Seera1024 · June 2017

I play the Build a City Challenge and I have a spreadsheet for that neighborhood XD

What jobs are open, what businesses are what ranks, how each Sim entered the population (Townie, CAS, Birth), as well as certain aspects of the Sim that affect job openings (like what badges they have).

I use the site Family Echo to track who is dating whom.

samemie · June 2017

I do, I like to play as if a day is a year and so I give my sims birth and death dates. Also can be handy to write down traits, aspirations etc. Thanks for making this thread though as I always thought I was a total weirdo for it :p

Scribal_Goddess · June 2017

Yeah, I do this. I'm currently playing a Build a City Challenge, and I need to keep track of things like taxes, engagements, business rank, and cooking fires.

I have an old notebook (it's the back half of the notebook I used in Latin 101) full of this, with a handy cheat sheet for predicting people's bolts for matchmaking, and a list of baby names.

Rflong7 · June 2017

I do, too. I've cleaned out all my old ones last year. I still have about 5 from neighborhoods I quit playing from this year. XD

If only I'd finish them with pictures... I do that, too.

Sad, I know.

Aeriexo11 · June 2017

I have an excel spreadsheet of sims in my main save and they are highlighted according to their age. I also have another section with just pregnant sims so i can keep up with new sims. I also utilize online family trees such as Family Echo and Plum Tree to keep track of relationships.

Godlike · June 2017

Yep! Have a whole excel sheet for my favorite hood

BoergeAarg61 · June 2017

Definitely not that many notes.
I sometimes make notes on crying guests to deal with their aspirations later, and single sims in need for some match making.
In rare occasions, I also make notes on non-playable teenagers who are regular visitors at families or work in stores in order to send them to college later.

At college, I only make notes on who are in love or at least close friends with whom after graduation. Those notes are used for pairing the right sims up afterwards. Most other information I consider none of my business.

MidnightAura · June 2017

I have notebooks for all my sims games!

RadioAChicken · June 2017

I have note file on my computer for my main TS2 hood that I play in rotation. I normally note down what days events like Xmas etc. are going to happen and details of the families so I can remember what they were doing or working towards last time that I played them.

kamra19610 · June 2017

Yes but moist of my worlds I only keep index cards on each family with info of type of sim (romance etc.), LTW, hobby, job and so on. But sometimes I keep a DB or just write in a notebook more detail and story line. Love the sims but sims 2 is still the best for me.

Kandy · June 2017

The closest I got to this was when I used to plan out my families before I created them in CAS. But no, I don't keep notebooks when I play. I just kind of go where the game takes me. However, if I ever played a serious, intense challenge, I would probably have a notebook to keep track of everything.

mctsimmer · June 2017

In Sims 2, I use a notebook to know who is dating who in my families. In the beginning, I winged it and ended up having several couples near divorce. Also, keeping a list of the relationship status helped me with a Ottoman family disaster. I have adopted kids and grandkids that the game tends to forget are part of the family line and allows romances with half-siblings of their parents.

My main rule is no notebook, no play.

Cupid · June 2017

heavens no

I took enough notes in school to want to come home and take more in my free time

Scribal_Goddess · June 2017

mctsimmer wrote: »

In Sims 2, I use a notebook to know who is dating who in my families. In the beginning, I winged it and ended up having several couples near divorce. Also, keeping a list of the relationship status helped me with a Ottoman family disaster. I have adopted kids and grandkids that the game tends to forget are part of the family line and allows romances with half-siblings of their parents.

My main rule is no notebook, no play.

I avoid this with judicious use of ACR 2.0's friend zone. The notebook reminds me who is who.

halouja · June 2017

Oh indeed I do keep notes - I completed the 10 Generation Legacy Challenge in Sims 2 many years ago and couldn't have managed without all the notes I made as I played. Nowadays I also play Sims 3 and Sims 4, and I have a separate notebook for each version of the game. I couldn't keep track of everything without my notes!

EmilyLouise95 · June 2017

I'm curious to know what the notes include? The only thing which i used to do which i found the other day is write down a list of names that i haven't used for new babies. But now i just go onto google and search names and find a good one there. What type of things do you write down?

cleo00 · June 2017

What my notes consist of it two lists: the boys and the girls. Then since there is 16 of them I have which of the 16 bedrooms each sleeps in or I'd forget. I also have their major because I set the exams to go in order of the majors so it's not all 16 at ones ie History has their exam first and Psychology has their exam last. I also have written down which of the 3 "cliques" they're in: of they're more of a jock and play kickybag, if they're a nerd and play videogames, or if they're any variety of alternative and sit and hang out. That is all written in pen, and then I use pencil to draw lines between who is dating so I can erase it when they break up, cheat, etc.
I then have a separate notebook for overall lists of each generations sims, a page for girl names, a page for boy names, and a page for really funky -ski -vich etc surnames I borrow from findagrave.com

keekee53 · June 2017

I usually jot notes down when my rotations start to get huge. Now I have notes all over the place. I think I really should consider a notebook to stay more organized...lol

Rflong7 · June 2017

Since I do a lot of Challenges.. Mostly Apocalypse, I write a week per page, day by day so I can keep track and so I can mark if I used up my daily allotment of Building supplies.

Mon: * (indicates I built) - Worked- Promotions- Who- Level- Skills needed- friends needed... Born/Aged/Aspirations/Personality points

I keep a list of what I lifted/If I know a Sim with a Good level job for later use. XD

I also use a notebook because I play rotation in large neighborhoods and I like to keep them together so I do keep family trees and make down who is pregnant and what I might need to do for the next time I play. I don't always play the next day, it could be months before I come back and it's nice to know what I was doing and why.

I also have Job info on Index cards- I made them years ago but I still have them (when the Apocalypse rules where new to me and info wasn't so available).

A page for Juice info/Spells and the lots the families own.

Scribal_Goddess · June 2017

My BACC notes track sims' promotions, what levels their businesses are, and other things i might need to know for updates, like if two sims broke up, went on a date, if there was an outing, and if people qualified for various careers.

Also I jot down baby names, potential matches, business names, and if I have a couple who is prone to arguments. (I do some math to determine that, but couples who want notably different numbers of offspring or who have no interests in common are more prone to arguing if one or the other gets a red memory.)

I also write down goals for each family and keep track of money, but the rest of my notes are filled with "Denise got chased by bees again," and "Download more elder male clothes."

SimsplyRuth · September 2017

cleo00 wrote: »

Hello! This really could apply to ts1, 2, 3, or 4, but since I do it in ts2 I'm posting it here.
I was curious, does anyone else take notes while they play?

Just was curious, if anyone else took notes as they played.

I write down everything! I have to - old age and dyslexia make it necessary to remember.

Oldeseadogge · October 2017

Not organized enough until lately to do notebook, just odd bits of paper and back of envelopes. Which I tend to misplace at crucial moments... Items noted are usually cheat codes, sim ID numbers, family arrangements, codes for custom skin colours, and layouts for houses that are particularly successful.

cleo00 · October 2017

@Oldeseadogge Codes for skins are important! I have one skin that is my FAAAAAAAAVORITE, some Ephemera skin I downloaded off a random sim eons ago. I try to make sure that it carries to every generation so it's important I know the code to change it in simpe if baby is born with the wrong parent's skin.
I also used to write down all the cheats I knew, but never actually used 90% of them in my game so when I did my last desk cleanup years ago (I am a messy human being) I ended up just throwing them away. I don't cheat much these days anyways. I guess years of my dad saying "but have you played without cheating this time?" have finally set in. Yes, yes dad I have!

SimplyJen · October 2017

I mainly play TS3 but I do make notes all the time. My desk is kind of littered with post-it notes. I found a big cork board at a yard sale recently and my first thought was "I can pin my sim notes." so I bought it and hung it up above my desk.

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Taking notes while you play?

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