Time management is a nightmare in this game, even moreso now with pets. I think it’s rather interesting that they made pets incompatible with multitasking - Sims will have to finish whatever action they are doing before they do any action with a dog/cat.
Not really, I can interact (teach , talk) with them while my sim is eating, watching a movie, talking to another sim etc. .
Here is my sim teaching his pet and watching a movie at the same time:
It also doesn’t help that pets have the same AI pause as toddlers. Since we can’t control pets in any way, selecting an action should automatically cancel whatever the pet was doing so the selected Sim isn’t standing around forever waiting for the dog/cat to finish what they’re doing so the selected action can begin.
It seems this Problem goes even deeper and might be even the root of Simulation lag in General.
In my game I have many of These situations occuring where a certain sim tries to Queue a social interactions up and Fails --> leading to a chain reaction of sims Standing around doing literally nothing until said interaction Fails (times out) eventually. This has been the case Long before they released pets. Not sure if it came with toddlers, though.
"[...] and everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, then it's not the end."
Yes, I tried previous iterations and I prefer their setup better than the sims 4. The problem with the sims 4 (IMO) which wasn't an issue in the previous iterations is the multitasking slowing down the queve... which in retrospect makes the day seem shorter... or have less time in it to complete stuff.
I can't see EA deleting their amazing multitasking system, so the best I can hope for (and I won't even get that lol) is for EA to reconfigure the game clock to account for their (how did I label it) amazing multitasking system.
Not a fan of multitasking myself. Makes me feel like my sim has an attention deficit disorder as they can't focus on any one thing. They MUST do 3 times at once.
Yes, I tried previous iterations and I prefer their setup better than the sims 4. The problem with the sims 4 (IMO) which wasn't an issue in the previous iterations is the multitasking slowing down the queve... which in retrospect makes the day seem shorter... or have less time in it to complete stuff.
I can't see EA deleting their amazing multitasking system, so the best I can hope for (and I won't even get that lol) is for EA to reconfigure the game clock to account for their (how did I label it) amazing multitasking system.
Not a fan of multitasking myself. Makes me feel like my sim has an attention deficit disorder as they can't focus on any one thing. They MUST do 3 times at once.
Yeah I am sort of following a Sims 3 animal shelter challenge on this expansion pack, and it is UNBELIEVABLY hard to care for 3ish dogs and 2-3 cats while also keeping up with cleaning, and self care. Also, the challenge requires them to be potty trained, and sit and lie down trained before they can be adopted out and you can claim the reward, so it take forever to do that, and you aren't allowed a job, just "extra" money (painting, writing, etc), so you have to either train them fast enough that your lights don't go out, or squeeze some painting into the day as well.
We could definitely use a better time management system. 1+hr for cereal, 2 hours for a bath, etc. adds up fast...
We could definitely use a better time management system. 1+hr for cereal, 2 hours for a bath, etc. adds up fast...
Exactly. And you can't even fix this issue with mods unless you want to break your game. In TS3 it was possible to rely on mods (relativity mod) but it seems we are out of luck now. Oh well.
On Topic: It didn't take me a week to make my cat and dog 100% Independent with a full time vet Job.
"[...] and everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, then it's not the end."
Yes - time management is an issue - but I love that aspect, it adds to the "game" aspect which is more of my focus. And here's one reason why: It finally gives a reason to pay attention to and use the whim system/reward potions/traits.
But also, the pets can fill up certain needs really quickly as well. I had one sim who had one dog. He had the Responsible trait and by default he would "work hard" and come home with his Fun needs absolutely depleted and very Tense. He pets the dog and his Fun shoots way up into the green more quickly than anything else.
Basically, now our Sims can't do everything. They have to pick and choose. They have to prioritize. Things will get left undone. And for me, the game is picking those most important things and doing them.
My current family has a dog, a cat, and two toddlers on top of two parents with full-time jobs. I think the trick to managing everyone is in their routine. I would have the parents wake up at least three hours before they had to leave for work because as we all know it takes forever for sims to get ready. The toddlers were mostly on their own in the mornings. I potty trained them to level two, so they no longer needed assistance with that, and I would have the parents leave plates of food out for them to eat when they were ready. Before going to work, I'd have one parent check the food level of the food bowls and the cleanliness of the litterbox, while the other took the dog outside to do her business (they live in an apartment and the dog can't seem to go outside by herself). Then everyone goes to work and the babysitter comes by so the twins can work on their skills during the day. When the parents get home, one lets the dog out again and I have them interact with their kids a bit and work on their skills and needs until it's time for the twins to go to bed. Then they get some time to themselves where I try to have them interact more with each other. Or I continue their skill building, depending on whichever I feel is more important on any given day.
That's really great. Now add to that the idea that maybe you want to start your own retail business, and on occasion go camping. Plus, you like the idea of checking out the festivals. Amongst that, you also like to go fishing to build more of your collection, and, of course, there's the other stuff to collect. That's nice to have too.
Sure, its all in the routine... if you only wish to play 10% of the game.
Those are the types of activities I leave for the weekends when everything's not so chaotic. I have one retail shop that I only open on Saturday. Occasionally I'll send my sim to the spa and lunch with a girlfriend. Some weekends are devoted to camping. Sunday is for family brunch at one of the restaurants. Date night is Saturday night.
My current family has a dog, a cat, and two toddlers on top of two parents with full-time jobs. I think the trick to managing everyone is in their routine. I would have the parents wake up at least three hours before they had to leave for work because as we all know it takes forever for sims to get ready. The toddlers were mostly on their own in the mornings. I potty trained them to level two, so they no longer needed assistance with that, and I would have the parents leave plates of food out for them to eat when they were ready. Before going to work, I'd have one parent check the food level of the food bowls and the cleanliness of the litterbox, while the other took the dog outside to do her business (they live in an apartment and the dog can't seem to go outside by herself). Then everyone goes to work and the babysitter comes by so the twins can work on their skills during the day. When the parents get home, one lets the dog out again and I have them interact with their kids a bit and work on their skills and needs until it's time for the twins to go to bed. Then they get some time to themselves where I try to have them interact more with each other. Or I continue their skill building, depending on whichever I feel is more important on any given day.
That's really great. Now add to that the idea that maybe you want to start your own retail business, and on occasion go camping. Plus, you like the idea of checking out the festivals. Amongst that, you also like to go fishing to build more of your collection, and, of course, there's the other stuff to collect. That's nice to have too.
Sure, its all in the routine... if you only wish to play 10% of the game.
Those are the types of activities I leave for the weekends when everything's not so chaotic. I have one retail shop that I only open on Saturday. Occasionally I'll send my sim to the spa and lunch with a girlfriend. Some weekends are devoted to camping. Sunday is for family brunch at one of the restaurants. Date night is Saturday night.
I managed to get a camping trip in ... I used the vacation days I had saved up. So that wasn't really too bad. I'm gonna try to start a club up for the teen for Saturday activities and see how that works out.
I'm giving it all a fair try lol. I'm not just complaining without effort here.
My current family has a dog, a cat, and two toddlers on top of two parents with full-time jobs. I think the trick to managing everyone is in their routine. I would have the parents wake up at least three hours before they had to leave for work because as we all know it takes forever for sims to get ready. The toddlers were mostly on their own in the mornings. I potty trained them to level two, so they no longer needed assistance with that, and I would have the parents leave plates of food out for them to eat when they were ready. Before going to work, I'd have one parent check the food level of the food bowls and the cleanliness of the litterbox, while the other took the dog outside to do her business (they live in an apartment and the dog can't seem to go outside by herself). Then everyone goes to work and the babysitter comes by so the twins can work on their skills during the day. When the parents get home, one lets the dog out again and I have them interact with their kids a bit and work on their skills and needs until it's time for the twins to go to bed. Then they get some time to themselves where I try to have them interact more with each other. Or I continue their skill building, depending on whichever I feel is more important on any given day.
That's really great. Now add to that the idea that maybe you want to start your own retail business, and on occasion go camping. Plus, you like the idea of checking out the festivals. Amongst that, you also like to go fishing to build more of your collection, and, of course, there's the other stuff to collect. That's nice to have too.
Sure, its all in the routine... if you only wish to play 10% of the game.
Those are the types of activities I leave for the weekends when everything's not so chaotic. I have one retail shop that I only open on Saturday. Occasionally I'll send my sim to the spa and lunch with a girlfriend. Some weekends are devoted to camping. Sunday is for family brunch at one of the restaurants. Date night is Saturday night.
I managed to get a camping trip in ... I used the vacation days I had saved up. So that wasn't really too bad. I'm gonna try to start a club up for the teen for Saturday activities and see how that works out.
I'm giving it all a fair try lol. I'm not just complaining without effort here.
I agree with whoever said that the dogs take more of an adjustment than the cats. Dogs need a lot of attention partly because they need to be directed to potty frequently, or at least they seem to so far. Maybe I'm just conscientious so I sometimes end up taking the dog out 5 times a day. That said, that's pretty much life with an actual dog. (Yes, depends on the breed, I know).
Cats are a lot easier and lower maintenance as others have pointed out. The dogs absorb a lot of time and effort ... but I'm not complaining because that's what I would expect from a dog. I've had a couple of sims get hyper dogs, one in particular is always fidgeting if she's awake. Her breed is well-known for being very high energy in real life though, so I think it is great. I like being able to watch the gorgeous dog and then to turn off the game and go about my regular life because that kind of dog would probably not be the right fit for me, but she's great in the game.
As for tasks like eating? I just get annoyed by things like musical chairs which I have been seeing again in my game in the last week. When a meal is dragging on because the sim keeps getting up and sitting down in different places or keeps walking from one room to another, that is a bit irritating, but then I just cancel the action and send the sim to somewhere. If it gets really bad, I'll turn off autonomy but I prefer not to.
I don't think pets are right for all of my households. Some of them are way too busy or interested in other things to be the right fit for a pet. That's true of real life as well. As for sims dropping an action that I've directed in the queue after delaying? Yeah, that's an annoying factor in time management; I will agree with that one. Generally though, this expansion has really livened up the game and is definitely something that I was waiting for.
I deeply enjoy the challenge. It makes me pick what's important to my sims. And if I get bored of one household doing one thing, I rotate to another household that's doing a completely other thing. Some of my families have kids, some of my households don't and go out and party all the time, some own businesses. So just run around collecting stuff.
My EA ID is TranquilloSims - where I upload starter homes, family homes and some more ambitious creations.
I never did understand the need to have the time clock tick by a 1min/sec. With all the different activites in the game for our sims to adopt and experience, having the time clock tick by at that speed makes it difficult to actually enjoy the opportunities the game offers. Just getting your sims ready to start an opportunity (such as a family camping trip) can take the fun right out of the entire outing. (just saying).
I understand some simmers like the time clock the way it is, and fair enough. But it would be nice if EA took into account the time it takes just for queve activities to even begin, let alone complete.
It’s not an issue with the time clock. The clock in Sims 4 moves slower than Sims 3, which moves slower than Sims 2. The issue is due to the length of time each interaction takes to complete, and it’s made worse by multitasking which essentially pauses one action while another one is taking place.
To address the issue they would have to modify the length of different actions, especially when multitasking is taking place.
I think an argument can be made for both sides of the coin.
If instead of having the time clock tick by at 1min/sec... have it be 1min/2 sec.... that would give us double the time for the animatins to play through. So animations that take (currently) 1 hour to complete (such as eating a bowl of cereal) would take instead just 30 minutes.
The animations could stay the same.... and still take the same length of time to complete. But be measured differently by the time clock running in the background of those animations.
Changing the animations so they don't take up as much time, will be helpful (as you suggest), but will cost us some animations for our gameplay. Some play the game for the animations (I do too to some degree).
I'm just not sure if the time clock is independant of those animations. Is it running in the background (as I assume)? Or is it coded into each of the animations themselves?
That's exactly how I have my game time set via MCC. 1 min per 2 secs, and it's AWESOME. My sims finally don't even need a full hour to get ready for work/school, which leaves them time to do things like play chess (get focused) and brush their teeth (get confident) etc.
I never did understand the need to have the time clock tick by a 1min/sec. With all the different activites in the game for our sims to adopt and experience, having the time clock tick by at that speed makes it difficult to actually enjoy the opportunities the game offers. Just getting your sims ready to start an opportunity (such as a family camping trip) can take the fun right out of the entire outing. (just saying).
I understand some simmers like the time clock the way it is, and fair enough. But it would be nice if EA took into account the time it takes just for queve activities to even begin, let alone complete.
It’s not an issue with the time clock. The clock in Sims 4 moves slower than Sims 3, which moves slower than Sims 2. The issue is due to the length of time each interaction takes to complete, and it’s made worse by multitasking which essentially pauses one action while another one is taking place.
To address the issue they would have to modify the length of different actions, especially when multitasking is taking place.
I think an argument can be made for both sides of the coin.
If instead of having the time clock tick by at 1min/sec... have it be 1min/2 sec.... that would give us double the time for the animatins to play through. So animations that take (currently) 1 hour to complete (such as eating a bowl of cereal) would take instead just 30 minutes.
The animations could stay the same.... and still take the same length of time to complete. But be measured differently by the time clock running in the background of those animations.
Changing the animations so they don't take up as much time, will be helpful (as you suggest), but will cost us some animations for our gameplay. Some play the game for the animations (I do too to some degree).
I'm just not sure if the time clock is independant of those animations. Is it running in the background (as I assume)? Or is it coded into each of the animations themselves?
That's exactly how I have my game time set via MCC. 1 min per 2 secs, and it's AWESOME. My sims finally don't even need a full hour to get ready for work/school, which leaves them time to do things like play chess (get focused) and brush their teeth (get confident) etc.
I heard of this MCC mod (from this thread) but I don't know anything about it. Could you explain it maybe. Do you have a link to the mod?
I never did understand the need to have the time clock tick by a 1min/sec. With all the different activites in the game for our sims to adopt and experience, having the time clock tick by at that speed makes it difficult to actually enjoy the opportunities the game offers. Just getting your sims ready to start an opportunity (such as a family camping trip) can take the fun right out of the entire outing. (just saying).
I understand some simmers like the time clock the way it is, and fair enough. But it would be nice if EA took into account the time it takes just for queve activities to even begin, let alone complete.
It’s not an issue with the time clock. The clock in Sims 4 moves slower than Sims 3, which moves slower than Sims 2. The issue is due to the length of time each interaction takes to complete, and it’s made worse by multitasking which essentially pauses one action while another one is taking place.
To address the issue they would have to modify the length of different actions, especially when multitasking is taking place.
I think an argument can be made for both sides of the coin.
If instead of having the time clock tick by at 1min/sec... have it be 1min/2 sec.... that would give us double the time for the animatins to play through. So animations that take (currently) 1 hour to complete (such as eating a bowl of cereal) would take instead just 30 minutes.
The animations could stay the same.... and still take the same length of time to complete. But be measured differently by the time clock running in the background of those animations.
Changing the animations so they don't take up as much time, will be helpful (as you suggest), but will cost us some animations for our gameplay. Some play the game for the animations (I do too to some degree).
I'm just not sure if the time clock is independant of those animations. Is it running in the background (as I assume)? Or is it coded into each of the animations themselves?
That's exactly how I have my game time set via MCC. 1 min per 2 secs, and it's AWESOME. My sims finally don't even need a full hour to get ready for work/school, which leaves them time to do things like play chess (get focused) and brush their teeth (get confident) etc.
I heard of this MCC mod (from this thread) but I don't know anything about it. Could you explain it maybe. Do you have a link to the mod?
I never did understand the need to have the time clock tick by a 1min/sec. With all the different activites in the game for our sims to adopt and experience, having the time clock tick by at that speed makes it difficult to actually enjoy the opportunities the game offers. Just getting your sims ready to start an opportunity (such as a family camping trip) can take the fun right out of the entire outing. (just saying).
I understand some simmers like the time clock the way it is, and fair enough. But it would be nice if EA took into account the time it takes just for queve activities to even begin, let alone complete.
It’s not an issue with the time clock. The clock in Sims 4 moves slower than Sims 3, which moves slower than Sims 2. The issue is due to the length of time each interaction takes to complete, and it’s made worse by multitasking which essentially pauses one action while another one is taking place.
To address the issue they would have to modify the length of different actions, especially when multitasking is taking place.
I think an argument can be made for both sides of the coin.
If instead of having the time clock tick by at 1min/sec... have it be 1min/2 sec.... that would give us double the time for the animatins to play through. So animations that take (currently) 1 hour to complete (such as eating a bowl of cereal) would take instead just 30 minutes.
The animations could stay the same.... and still take the same length of time to complete. But be measured differently by the time clock running in the background of those animations.
Changing the animations so they don't take up as much time, will be helpful (as you suggest), but will cost us some animations for our gameplay. Some play the game for the animations (I do too to some degree).
I'm just not sure if the time clock is independant of those animations. Is it running in the background (as I assume)? Or is it coded into each of the animations themselves?
That's exactly how I have my game time set via MCC. 1 min per 2 secs, and it's AWESOME. My sims finally don't even need a full hour to get ready for work/school, which leaves them time to do things like play chess (get focused) and brush their teeth (get confident) etc.
I heard of this MCC mod (from this thread) but I don't know anything about it. Could you explain it maybe. Do you have a link to the mod?
I never did understand the need to have the time clock tick by a 1min/sec. With all the different activites in the game for our sims to adopt and experience, having the time clock tick by at that speed makes it difficult to actually enjoy the opportunities the game offers. Just getting your sims ready to start an opportunity (such as a family camping trip) can take the fun right out of the entire outing. (just saying).
I understand some simmers like the time clock the way it is, and fair enough. But it would be nice if EA took into account the time it takes just for queve activities to even begin, let alone complete.
It’s not an issue with the time clock. The clock in Sims 4 moves slower than Sims 3, which moves slower than Sims 2. The issue is due to the length of time each interaction takes to complete, and it’s made worse by multitasking which essentially pauses one action while another one is taking place.
To address the issue they would have to modify the length of different actions, especially when multitasking is taking place.
I think an argument can be made for both sides of the coin.
If instead of having the time clock tick by at 1min/sec... have it be 1min/2 sec.... that would give us double the time for the animatins to play through. So animations that take (currently) 1 hour to complete (such as eating a bowl of cereal) would take instead just 30 minutes.
The animations could stay the same.... and still take the same length of time to complete. But be measured differently by the time clock running in the background of those animations.
Changing the animations so they don't take up as much time, will be helpful (as you suggest), but will cost us some animations for our gameplay. Some play the game for the animations (I do too to some degree).
I'm just not sure if the time clock is independant of those animations. Is it running in the background (as I assume)? Or is it coded into each of the animations themselves?
That's exactly how I have my game time set via MCC. 1 min per 2 secs, and it's AWESOME. My sims finally don't even need a full hour to get ready for work/school, which leaves them time to do things like play chess (get focused) and brush their teeth (get confident) etc.
I heard of this MCC mod (from this thread) but I don't know anything about it. Could you explain it maybe. Do you have a link to the mod?
I never did understand the need to have the time clock tick by a 1min/sec. With all the different activites in the game for our sims to adopt and experience, having the time clock tick by at that speed makes it difficult to actually enjoy the opportunities the game offers. Just getting your sims ready to start an opportunity (such as a family camping trip) can take the fun right out of the entire outing. (just saying).
I understand some simmers like the time clock the way it is, and fair enough. But it would be nice if EA took into account the time it takes just for queve activities to even begin, let alone complete.
It’s not an issue with the time clock. The clock in Sims 4 moves slower than Sims 3, which moves slower than Sims 2. The issue is due to the length of time each interaction takes to complete, and it’s made worse by multitasking which essentially pauses one action while another one is taking place.
To address the issue they would have to modify the length of different actions, especially when multitasking is taking place.
I think an argument can be made for both sides of the coin.
If instead of having the time clock tick by at 1min/sec... have it be 1min/2 sec.... that would give us double the time for the animatins to play through. So animations that take (currently) 1 hour to complete (such as eating a bowl of cereal) would take instead just 30 minutes.
The animations could stay the same.... and still take the same length of time to complete. But be measured differently by the time clock running in the background of those animations.
Changing the animations so they don't take up as much time, will be helpful (as you suggest), but will cost us some animations for our gameplay. Some play the game for the animations (I do too to some degree).
I'm just not sure if the time clock is independant of those animations. Is it running in the background (as I assume)? Or is it coded into each of the animations themselves?
That's exactly how I have my game time set via MCC. 1 min per 2 secs, and it's AWESOME. My sims finally don't even need a full hour to get ready for work/school, which leaves them time to do things like play chess (get focused) and brush their teeth (get confident) etc.
I heard of this MCC mod (from this thread) but I don't know anything about it. Could you explain it maybe. Do you have a link to the mod?
Time management is a nightmare in this game, even moreso now with pets. I think it’s rather interesting that they made pets incompatible with multitasking - Sims will have to finish whatever action they are doing before they do any action with a dog/cat. No big deal on the surface, but some of the actions Sims do take entirely too much time to accomplish which leads to cancellations and overall interaction failures because it took them 4-5 sim hours to finish what they were doing and to do what I told them to.
It also doesn’t help that pets have the same AI pause as toddlers. Since we can’t control pets in any way, selecting an action should automatically cancel whatever the pet was doing so the selected Sim isn’t standing around forever waiting for the dog/cat to finish what they’re doing so the selected action can begin.
I remember in Sims 2 University time management was an nightmare until I discovered coffee but it had an downside to it.
Omen by HP Intel®️ Core™️ i9- 12900K W/ RGB Liquid Cooler 32GB Nvidia RTX 3080 10Gb ASUS Ultra-Wide 34" Curved Monitor. Omen By HP Intel® Core™ i7-12800HX 32 GB Nvidia 3070 Ti 8 GB 17.3 Screen
I never did understand the need to have the time clock tick by a 1min/sec. With all the different activites in the game for our sims to adopt and experience, having the time clock tick by at that speed makes it difficult to actually enjoy the opportunities the game offers. Just getting your sims ready to start an opportunity (such as a family camping trip) can take the fun right out of the entire outing. (just saying).
I understand some simmers like the time clock the way it is, and fair enough. But it would be nice if EA took into account the time it takes just for queve activities to even begin, let alone complete.
It’s not an issue with the time clock. The clock in Sims 4 moves slower than Sims 3, which moves slower than Sims 2. The issue is due to the length of time each interaction takes to complete, and it’s made worse by multitasking which essentially pauses one action while another one is taking place.
To address the issue they would have to modify the length of different actions, especially when multitasking is taking place.
I think an argument can be made for both sides of the coin.
If instead of having the time clock tick by at 1min/sec... have it be 1min/2 sec.... that would give us double the time for the animatins to play through. So animations that take (currently) 1 hour to complete (such as eating a bowl of cereal) would take instead just 30 minutes.
The animations could stay the same.... and still take the same length of time to complete. But be measured differently by the time clock running in the background of those animations.
Changing the animations so they don't take up as much time, will be helpful (as you suggest), but will cost us some animations for our gameplay. Some play the game for the animations (I do too to some degree).
I'm just not sure if the time clock is independant of those animations. Is it running in the background (as I assume)? Or is it coded into each of the animations themselves?
That's exactly how I have my game time set via MCC. 1 min per 2 secs, and it's AWESOME. My sims finally don't even need a full hour to get ready for work/school, which leaves them time to do things like play chess (get focused) and brush their teeth (get confident) etc.
I am doing this as well but it does not work out too well for me, though. Unfortunately the timer for all the interactions which happen in the game directly (or hidden) scale with the length of the day. You eat longer, you shower longer etc. (REAL TIME). First I thought it was great, exactly what I was looking for. But it also means: You only gain netto "free-time" when you move your sims around the lot.
Also a negative side effect: Sims idle when they perform Actions (during an Animation-cycle, for example) in order to become accessable for multi-tasking or Player Input, however, the time Frame of said idle-window needs to be reduced by at least 50%) .
Bowling becomes literally unplayable due to the huge break sims take every turn they make.
---
In TS3 Actions did not scale with day length.
"[...] and everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, then it's not the end."
Not having too much difficulty with it. Just making sure when my sims leave the house, the pets did their business and are fed and happy. Mostly they sleep while my sim is away.
So long as you can shut-down your family members when they try to speak with you, or worse, when they try to hug you while you're eating, time management becomes a real breeze.
I never did understand the need to have the time clock tick by a 1min/sec. With all the different activites in the game for our sims to adopt and experience, having the time clock tick by at that speed makes it difficult to actually enjoy the opportunities the game offers. Just getting your sims ready to start an opportunity (such as a family camping trip) can take the fun right out of the entire outing. (just saying).
I understand some simmers like the time clock the way it is, and fair enough. But it would be nice if EA took into account the time it takes just for queve activities to even begin, let alone complete.
It’s not an issue with the time clock. The clock in Sims 4 moves slower than Sims 3, which moves slower than Sims 2. The issue is due to the length of time each interaction takes to complete, and it’s made worse by multitasking which essentially pauses one action while another one is taking place.
To address the issue they would have to modify the length of different actions, especially when multitasking is taking place.
I think an argument can be made for both sides of the coin.
If instead of having the time clock tick by at 1min/sec... have it be 1min/2 sec.... that would give us double the time for the animatins to play through. So animations that take (currently) 1 hour to complete (such as eating a bowl of cereal) would take instead just 30 minutes.
The animations could stay the same.... and still take the same length of time to complete. But be measured differently by the time clock running in the background of those animations.
Changing the animations so they don't take up as much time, will be helpful (as you suggest), but will cost us some animations for our gameplay. Some play the game for the animations (I do too to some degree).
I'm just not sure if the time clock is independant of those animations. Is it running in the background (as I assume)? Or is it coded into each of the animations themselves?
That's exactly how I have my game time set via MCC. 1 min per 2 secs, and it's AWESOME. My sims finally don't even need a full hour to get ready for work/school, which leaves them time to do things like play chess (get focused) and brush their teeth (get confident) etc.
I am doing this as well but it does not work out too well for me, though. Unfortunately the timer for all the interactions which happen in the game directly (or hidden) scale with the length of the day. You eat longer, you shower longer etc. (REAL TIME). First I thought it was great, exactly what I was looking for. But it also means: You only gain netto "free-time" when you move your some around.
Also a negative side effect: Sims idle when they perform Actions (during an Animation-cycle, for example) in order to become accessable for multi-tasking or Player Input, however, the time Frame of said idle-window needs to be reduced by at least 50%) .
Bowling becomes literally unplayable due to the huge break sims take every turn they make.
---
In TS3 Actions did not scale with day length.
See now, the voices in my head are arguing again. lol. Is this mod a time management fix? Does it cause problems?
I think i'm starting to feel like a lost and confused puppy lol. I need adopted. This time management thing is driving me crazy.
I never did understand the need to have the time clock tick by a 1min/sec. With all the different activites in the game for our sims to adopt and experience, having the time clock tick by at that speed makes it difficult to actually enjoy the opportunities the game offers. Just getting your sims ready to start an opportunity (such as a family camping trip) can take the fun right out of the entire outing. (just saying).
I understand some simmers like the time clock the way it is, and fair enough. But it would be nice if EA took into account the time it takes just for queve activities to even begin, let alone complete.
It’s not an issue with the time clock. The clock in Sims 4 moves slower than Sims 3, which moves slower than Sims 2. The issue is due to the length of time each interaction takes to complete, and it’s made worse by multitasking which essentially pauses one action while another one is taking place.
To address the issue they would have to modify the length of different actions, especially when multitasking is taking place.
I think an argument can be made for both sides of the coin.
If instead of having the time clock tick by at 1min/sec... have it be 1min/2 sec.... that would give us double the time for the animatins to play through. So animations that take (currently) 1 hour to complete (such as eating a bowl of cereal) would take instead just 30 minutes.
The animations could stay the same.... and still take the same length of time to complete. But be measured differently by the time clock running in the background of those animations.
Changing the animations so they don't take up as much time, will be helpful (as you suggest), but will cost us some animations for our gameplay. Some play the game for the animations (I do too to some degree).
I'm just not sure if the time clock is independant of those animations. Is it running in the background (as I assume)? Or is it coded into each of the animations themselves?
That's exactly how I have my game time set via MCC. 1 min per 2 secs, and it's AWESOME. My sims finally don't even need a full hour to get ready for work/school, which leaves them time to do things like play chess (get focused) and brush their teeth (get confident) etc.
I am doing this as well but it does not work out too well for me, though. Unfortunately the timer for all the interactions which happen in the game directly (or hidden) scale with the length of the day. You eat longer, you shower longer etc. (REAL TIME). First I thought it was great, exactly what I was looking for. But it also means: You only gain netto "free-time" when you move your some around.
Also a negative side effect: Sims idle when they perform Actions (during an Animation-cycle, for example) in order to become accessable for multi-tasking or Player Input, however, the time Frame of said idle-window needs to be reduced by at least 50%) .
Bowling becomes literally unplayable due to the huge break sims take every turn they make.
---
In TS3 Actions did not scale with day length.
See now, the voices in my head are arguing again. lol. Is this mod a time management fix? Does it cause problems?
I think i'm starting to feel like a lost and confused puppy lol. I need adopted. This time management thing is driving me crazy.
Yeah, I feel you. Whether you save any time at all depends on how you Play the game, to be honest. You should at least give it a try. Overall I am very happy with my time Settings (my days are ~5 times longer than on defeault, but thus everything else takes 5 times longer as well).
"[...] and everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, then it's not the end."
I never did understand the need to have the time clock tick by a 1min/sec. With all the different activites in the game for our sims to adopt and experience, having the time clock tick by at that speed makes it difficult to actually enjoy the opportunities the game offers. Just getting your sims ready to start an opportunity (such as a family camping trip) can take the fun right out of the entire outing. (just saying).
I understand some simmers like the time clock the way it is, and fair enough. But it would be nice if EA took into account the time it takes just for queve activities to even begin, let alone complete.
It’s not an issue with the time clock. The clock in Sims 4 moves slower than Sims 3, which moves slower than Sims 2. The issue is due to the length of time each interaction takes to complete, and it’s made worse by multitasking which essentially pauses one action while another one is taking place.
To address the issue they would have to modify the length of different actions, especially when multitasking is taking place.
I think an argument can be made for both sides of the coin.
If instead of having the time clock tick by at 1min/sec... have it be 1min/2 sec.... that would give us double the time for the animatins to play through. So animations that take (currently) 1 hour to complete (such as eating a bowl of cereal) would take instead just 30 minutes.
The animations could stay the same.... and still take the same length of time to complete. But be measured differently by the time clock running in the background of those animations.
Changing the animations so they don't take up as much time, will be helpful (as you suggest), but will cost us some animations for our gameplay. Some play the game for the animations (I do too to some degree).
I'm just not sure if the time clock is independant of those animations. Is it running in the background (as I assume)? Or is it coded into each of the animations themselves?
That's exactly how I have my game time set via MCC. 1 min per 2 secs, and it's AWESOME. My sims finally don't even need a full hour to get ready for work/school, which leaves them time to do things like play chess (get focused) and brush their teeth (get confident) etc.
I am doing this as well but it does not work out too well for me, though. Unfortunately the timer for all the interactions which happen in the game directly (or hidden) scale with the length of the day. You eat longer, you shower longer etc. (REAL TIME). First I thought it was great, exactly what I was looking for. But it also means: You only gain netto "free-time" when you move your sims around the lot.
Also a negative side effect: Sims idle when they perform Actions (during an Animation-cycle, for example) in order to become accessable for multi-tasking or Player Input, however, the time Frame of said idle-window needs to be reduced by at least 50%) .
Bowling becomes literally unplayable due to the huge break sims take every turn they make.
---
In TS3 Actions did not scale with day length.
You must be doing something different than I. My sims don't do things longer, they have tons more free time. I used to be lucky if I got them to use the bathroom and eat before they had to leave. Now they can use the bathroom, shower, eat, brush their teeth/play chess/feed the dog whatever before they have to go.
I never did understand the need to have the time clock tick by a 1min/sec. With all the different activites in the game for our sims to adopt and experience, having the time clock tick by at that speed makes it difficult to actually enjoy the opportunities the game offers. Just getting your sims ready to start an opportunity (such as a family camping trip) can take the fun right out of the entire outing. (just saying).
I understand some simmers like the time clock the way it is, and fair enough. But it would be nice if EA took into account the time it takes just for queve activities to even begin, let alone complete.
It’s not an issue with the time clock. The clock in Sims 4 moves slower than Sims 3, which moves slower than Sims 2. The issue is due to the length of time each interaction takes to complete, and it’s made worse by multitasking which essentially pauses one action while another one is taking place.
To address the issue they would have to modify the length of different actions, especially when multitasking is taking place.
I think an argument can be made for both sides of the coin.
If instead of having the time clock tick by at 1min/sec... have it be 1min/2 sec.... that would give us double the time for the animatins to play through. So animations that take (currently) 1 hour to complete (such as eating a bowl of cereal) would take instead just 30 minutes.
The animations could stay the same.... and still take the same length of time to complete. But be measured differently by the time clock running in the background of those animations.
Changing the animations so they don't take up as much time, will be helpful (as you suggest), but will cost us some animations for our gameplay. Some play the game for the animations (I do too to some degree).
I'm just not sure if the time clock is independant of those animations. Is it running in the background (as I assume)? Or is it coded into each of the animations themselves?
That's exactly how I have my game time set via MCC. 1 min per 2 secs, and it's AWESOME. My sims finally don't even need a full hour to get ready for work/school, which leaves them time to do things like play chess (get focused) and brush their teeth (get confident) etc.
I am doing this as well but it does not work out too well for me, though. Unfortunately the timer for all the interactions which happen in the game directly (or hidden) scale with the length of the day. You eat longer, you shower longer etc. (REAL TIME). First I thought it was great, exactly what I was looking for. But it also means: You only gain netto "free-time" when you move your sims around the lot.
Also a negative side effect: Sims idle when they perform Actions (during an Animation-cycle, for example) in order to become accessable for multi-tasking or Player Input, however, the time Frame of said idle-window needs to be reduced by at least 50%) .
Bowling becomes literally unplayable due to the huge break sims take every turn they make.
---
In TS3 Actions did not scale with day length.
You must be doing something different than I. My sims don't do things longer, they have tons more free time. I used to be lucky if I got them to use the bathroom and eat before they had to leave. Now they can use the bathroom, shower, eat, brush their teeth/play chess/feed the dog whatever before they have to go.
I am using MCCC (patreon Edition) and I have manipulated the following value. You click on your Computer --> MCCC Settings --> game Settings --> game Speed --> X (here defeault value is 25, mine is 90 right now because everything above would corrupt my game).
Is there something else you've been doing?
"[...] and everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, then it's not the end."
Comments
Not really, I can interact (teach , talk) with them while my sim is eating, watching a movie, talking to another sim etc. .
Here is my sim teaching his pet and watching a movie at the same time:
It seems this Problem goes even deeper and might be even the root of Simulation lag in General.
In my game I have many of These situations occuring where a certain sim tries to Queue a social interactions up and Fails --> leading to a chain reaction of sims Standing around doing literally nothing until said interaction Fails (times out) eventually. This has been the case Long before they released pets. Not sure if it came with toddlers, though.
Not a fan of multitasking myself. Makes me feel like my sim has an attention deficit disorder as they can't focus on any one thing. They MUST do 3 times at once.
lol agreed.
We could definitely use a better time management system. 1+hr for cereal, 2 hours for a bath, etc. adds up fast...
Exactly. And you can't even fix this issue with mods unless you want to break your game. In TS3 it was possible to rely on mods (relativity mod) but it seems we are out of luck now. Oh well.
On Topic: It didn't take me a week to make my cat and dog 100% Independent with a full time vet Job.
But also, the pets can fill up certain needs really quickly as well. I had one sim who had one dog. He had the Responsible trait and by default he would "work hard" and come home with his Fun needs absolutely depleted and very Tense. He pets the dog and his Fun shoots way up into the green more quickly than anything else.
Basically, now our Sims can't do everything. They have to pick and choose. They have to prioritize. Things will get left undone. And for me, the game is picking those most important things and doing them.
Sim Stuff by Pegasys
Those are the types of activities I leave for the weekends when everything's not so chaotic. I have one retail shop that I only open on Saturday. Occasionally I'll send my sim to the spa and lunch with a girlfriend. Some weekends are devoted to camping. Sunday is for family brunch at one of the restaurants. Date night is Saturday night.
I managed to get a camping trip in ... I used the vacation days I had saved up. So that wasn't really too bad. I'm gonna try to start a club up for the teen for Saturday activities and see how that works out.
I'm giving it all a fair try lol. I'm not just complaining without effort here.
Bookmarked so I can check your results.
Cats are a lot easier and lower maintenance as others have pointed out. The dogs absorb a lot of time and effort ... but I'm not complaining because that's what I would expect from a dog. I've had a couple of sims get hyper dogs, one in particular is always fidgeting if she's awake. Her breed is well-known for being very high energy in real life though, so I think it is great. I like being able to watch the gorgeous dog and then to turn off the game and go about my regular life because that kind of dog would probably not be the right fit for me, but she's great in the game.
As for tasks like eating? I just get annoyed by things like musical chairs which I have been seeing again in my game in the last week. When a meal is dragging on because the sim keeps getting up and sitting down in different places or keeps walking from one room to another, that is a bit irritating, but then I just cancel the action and send the sim to somewhere. If it gets really bad, I'll turn off autonomy but I prefer not to.
I don't think pets are right for all of my households. Some of them are way too busy or interested in other things to be the right fit for a pet. That's true of real life as well. As for sims dropping an action that I've directed in the queue after delaying? Yeah, that's an annoying factor in time management; I will agree with that one. Generally though, this expansion has really livened up the game and is definitely something that I was waiting for.
That's exactly how I have my game time set via MCC. 1 min per 2 secs, and it's AWESOME. My sims finally don't even need a full hour to get ready for work/school, which leaves them time to do things like play chess (get focused) and brush their teeth (get confident) etc.
I heard of this MCC mod (from this thread) but I don't know anything about it. Could you explain it maybe. Do you have a link to the mod?
https://deaderpoolmc.tumblr.com/doc/overview
Thanks for the link. I'll have to filter through it all later in search of a download button lol.
I usually don't use mods for the sims game. ... but... there's a few ideas that I kinda really like soooooo... i'm jumpin in lol.
Download link in under the releases tab
https://deaderpoolmc.tumblr.com/tagged/mcccrelease
Did you use Twaillan's mod for Sims 3?
No, didn't use Twaillan's mod.
I found a download link:
(MC Command Center - All Modules Version 3.9.0)
I remember in Sims 2 University time management was an nightmare until I discovered coffee but it had an downside to it.
I am doing this as well but it does not work out too well for me, though. Unfortunately the timer for all the interactions which happen in the game directly (or hidden) scale with the length of the day. You eat longer, you shower longer etc. (REAL TIME). First I thought it was great, exactly what I was looking for. But it also means: You only gain netto "free-time" when you move your sims around the lot.
Also a negative side effect: Sims idle when they perform Actions (during an Animation-cycle, for example) in order to become accessable for multi-tasking or Player Input, however, the time Frame of said idle-window needs to be reduced by at least 50%) .
Bowling becomes literally unplayable due to the huge break sims take every turn they make.
---
In TS3 Actions did not scale with day length.
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See now, the voices in my head are arguing again. lol. Is this mod a time management fix? Does it cause problems?
I think i'm starting to feel like a lost and confused puppy lol. I need adopted. This time management thing is driving me crazy.
Yeah, I feel you. Whether you save any time at all depends on how you Play the game, to be honest. You should at least give it a try. Overall I am very happy with my time Settings (my days are ~5 times longer than on defeault, but thus everything else takes 5 times longer as well).
You must be doing something different than I. My sims don't do things longer, they have tons more free time. I used to be lucky if I got them to use the bathroom and eat before they had to leave. Now they can use the bathroom, shower, eat, brush their teeth/play chess/feed the dog whatever before they have to go.
I am using MCCC (patreon Edition) and I have manipulated the following value. You click on your Computer --> MCCC Settings --> game Settings --> game Speed --> X (here defeault value is 25, mine is 90 right now because everything above would corrupt my game).
Is there something else you've been doing?