Thanks for sharing, all the information and advice here is amazing. I think the furthest I have made it is a fifth generation legacy, but I am trying to improve on that. I also feel that the lack of stuff for teenagers (no prom/driving lessons/graduation/etc.) makes my game-play drag sometimes. But there are some wonderful ideas here that I am definitely going to try. Happy Simming!!!
Create your favorite celebrity(s) or famous person(s), and play their life. Keep the storytelling real, or add a little bit of twist or two.
I've done it a few years back, and it was fun.
Playing famous people is super fun. Just watching Spock firedance is hilarious to me.
Me, too. If I get the simology right, it’s hilarious. Like on Prank Day, the whole cast of Archer had a bad day, but Archer himself had a blast. He made everyone mad!
Yup, I make young adults or teens, start off work my way to top witch currently doing plus I got few mods to keep things interesting as well. like a slice of life or travel mod. plus I got season and island living event and holidays comes up.
I try to make it as hard as possible for my Sims. Like rags to riches and off-grid. With my off grid I only eat what I grow/catch and do the off-grid trait, only shower in the waterfall and use the bushes for the bathroom. Gives me plenty of time for exploring and building new off-grid houses/huts. Sometimes I will have my lots on-grid but still doing the living off the land type of thing. That way it's more of a challenge (when the bills come) to find ways to make money (like selling sea shells, crops and fish...or only doing "odd jobs" when the crops/fish are making me too much money). Challenges keeps me coming back for more gameplay. If it's too easy, I get bored.
Well, if you're doing a legacy challenge, just do a different kind of legacy. I'm doing a Not-So-Berry challenge and I'm so occupied I'm not even close to being bored. I usually quit these things after kids come into the picture, but she had twins so this just adds more to the to-do list. Good thing miss Indie can work from home.
I focus a lot on community aspects, such as laws, inheritance, traditions etc, so there is always something I can look at or look forward to. With seasons my year span got logical and it helps a lot. I have a functioning detailed economy system, and I have a regional council with elections every 5th year. I play on rotation, so I can always switch to whatever house I like, meaning I never get bored with the same house for too long. It also means there are lots of features to test when I get a new pack and say 1/4 of the households should be affected by either game features or simply an upgrade of furniture/CAS stuff. If I need more time to check out new stuff, like sending sims off to explore the Selvadoradian jungle, I'd simply play one extra calendar year without aging the community. I pay a lot of attention building each character, with back story, interests and perhaps a conflicting personality. Make sure to give them goals, what do they want from life? What makes them more happy?
When I became bored with TS4 families(all the Sims started feeling like clones from each other, nothing happened in my game even tho I own all the DLC, no syory progression etc) I went back to TS3 and never came back.
Nowadays I only play TS4 when I wanna build something.
I tend to get bored with a single Sim unless they’re doing a variant of a challenge. I tend to start off a save with a roommate situation or extended family right out of the tin. That way they’re not just nebulously floating out there.
I’m also rebuilding the world with my own lots and Sims. It makes me a lot happier to see my own sims than random townies.
I can’t do sims challenges as they all bore me and I can’t follow them. I need chaos in my games. I usually spend most of my sims time doing anything and everything. So there’s no set plan of doing stuff. I just wreak havoc.
This new patch hopefully will help with getting stuck - I love the new CAS feature, can't wait to try it once the update is finished! Will also make creating sims for custom saves way easier
This may seem boring to some, but I also like to create different versions of my life and live them out. For example, I created sims of myself and my boyfriend four years ago (as long as we've been a couple in real life). I still play with them, but they've had many different "lives" (saved files). They've raised a kid, visited the jungle, mastered many skills between them, had multiple careers, been occults (vampire and mermaid), and lived in six different homes (three in Willow Creek, one in San Myshuno, one in Oasis Springs, and one on Sulani Island). I now refer to them as my "exploring household". I use them to explore new packs.
In general, when I am bored with a game, I take a break from it.
In TS4, I am still fairly new, so haven't been bored yet. What I have done is try out various households, and switch among them. Also, with households I get attached to, I find that Aspirations actually help me a lot in having long-term goals to work toward. Best of all, unlike the old TS3 Lifetime Wishes, when I conclude an Aspiration, I am able to select another. For my married Sims, that fell at the perfect time - having achieved career success and cleared their initial Aspirations, they were wanting to start a family together just in time to take family-based Aspirations for their future.
That led me to invest in my second Game Pack, Parenthood, and has kept me busy and engaged since. And speaking of "engaged", the Aspiration goal to see a child marry gave me incentive to let my Heir age up, marry, and move out, creating another household to play, another house to decorate and optimize to their needs, and new career goals and life goals to pursue.
This is a couple I started in TS3 and re-created here. In TS3, they never felt strongly about having a family. Playing in TS4 has actually given them more depth, and given me incentive to let them grow into Adults, after having had them remain Young Adults for the whole time I'd had them. I can't say I am eager to see them as Elders, but once their youngest has kids of his own, I plan to let that happen, too.
TL:DR - I let my Sims live their lives, and I find I get attached to the stories they live out. They entertain me, and things stay novel enough that I have not been bored yet.
I like to do rotational gameplay. I also write Sims stories so I have multiple stories and alternate game play. I switch up and try different challenges. The sky is the limit. I made a list of all the different challenges to try and different ideas for characters or ideas I might have and then I've combined some or rolled at random to try different things. I also try new things - attempt things I've never tried in the Sims when I'm feeling bored. Hope this helps.
What I like about Sims is the creation and the reaching of life goals; jobs and family. I put a lot of work in making the town my own completely, but when it comes to more actual gameplay I usually drift off to the other games on my PC. Sometimes I get a promotion for one of my Sims, sometimes I play a couple of rounds of Overwatch y'know. I do love Sims, but I fell in love with the series through the console versions of the late 00s/early 10s so I'm always looking for actual quests and more gameplay. I really hope we'll see another spinoff with the Sims 4 engine.
My 2 cts: never feel guilty for copying! If you're having fun who cares who came up with the idea, the story, or even the sims. In the end, your game will still be yours and things won't be happening in exactly the same way or order. So you'll eventually end up making it your own, regardless of where exactly you started out
Also, I find playing large households with specific routines & plans & things I want them to more/less fulfill until a certain time or age really helps keeping me engaged. To the point that I always end up with a rotation of 5-6 households and panic whenever aging is on. If anything, I'd be better served with learning how to let go better cause that's usually when I end up getting stuck - you know, the old FoMo
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Playing famous people is super fun. Just watching Spock firedance is hilarious to me.
Me, too. If I get the simology right, it’s hilarious. Like on Prank Day, the whole cast of Archer had a bad day, but Archer himself had a blast. He made everyone mad!
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Nowadays I only play TS4 when I wanna build something.
I’m also rebuilding the world with my own lots and Sims. It makes me a lot happier to see my own sims than random townies.
In TS4, I am still fairly new, so haven't been bored yet. What I have done is try out various households, and switch among them. Also, with households I get attached to, I find that Aspirations actually help me a lot in having long-term goals to work toward. Best of all, unlike the old TS3 Lifetime Wishes, when I conclude an Aspiration, I am able to select another. For my married Sims, that fell at the perfect time - having achieved career success and cleared their initial Aspirations, they were wanting to start a family together just in time to take family-based Aspirations for their future.
That led me to invest in my second Game Pack, Parenthood, and has kept me busy and engaged since. And speaking of "engaged", the Aspiration goal to see a child marry gave me incentive to let my Heir age up, marry, and move out, creating another household to play, another house to decorate and optimize to their needs, and new career goals and life goals to pursue.
This is a couple I started in TS3 and re-created here. In TS3, they never felt strongly about having a family. Playing in TS4 has actually given them more depth, and given me incentive to let them grow into Adults, after having had them remain Young Adults for the whole time I'd had them. I can't say I am eager to see them as Elders, but once their youngest has kids of his own, I plan to let that happen, too.
TL:DR - I let my Sims live their lives, and I find I get attached to the stories they live out. They entertain me, and things stay novel enough that I have not been bored yet.
Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
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Find me elsewhere:
My EA App ID: livinasimminlife
Livin' A Simmin' Life Stories
My Worldbuilding Blog
Simblr
My Sims Pinterest
Also, I find playing large households with specific routines & plans & things I want them to more/less fulfill until a certain time or age really helps keeping me engaged. To the point that I always end up with a rotation of 5-6 households and panic whenever aging is on. If anything, I'd be better served with learning how to let go better cause that's usually when I end up getting stuck - you know, the old FoMo