I have a few favourites, but I usually randomly pick whichever family I feel like playing based on which pack I want to play. If I want to play Vampires I will pick Caleb. If I want to play Magic I will pick someone in Glimmerbrook. I have some Jungle Explorers and Campers. Scientists and Doctors and Police Officers for when I want to play the careers. Or if I want to play the mermaids or hang around the beach I'll pick someone in Sulani. I have Sims in every career and learning different skills when I feel like working on career tasks or building up skills. I will switch a few times an evening or I may stick with a family for a few days. It's mostly about what feature of the game I feel like playing and which Sim has that already, kids, pets, career etc..
That sounds like an interesting way to do it. I assume you keep a list somewhere of where each sim is located and which job they have?
So, the thing is, lol, it takes days of work before I actually start playing and because of this I actually know all my 200 Sims extremely well, including some extras I have in the library (because I ran out of room with the 200 limit).
I realize this sounds totally crazy, but I really like customizing the premades, so every time I start a new game, the first thing I do is save all the premades to my households. Then, I add my favourites from my library to reach the 200 limit. Next, I make sure all of them are moved into a house or apartment. And for some reason, I always give the black cat to the Goth family and the ghost dog to the Vampire, Vlad. Then, I start in Willow Creek and go into every single lot one by one until I reach my last world and lot. I read their biography if there is one. I customize all their clothes in CAS. I make sure they have socks or slippers with their PJ's and winter hats on. Then, I fix their postures to the ones I like. After I reclothe them all, change their hair and makeup, and I'm happy with how they look, I examine their traits, biography, skills if they have any, family relationships, and decide what career and hobby/skills they should have. I then go into build mode and decorate their homes and add items for the skills/hobby or career I chose. I usually play them for a few minutes to add some skill points for their hobbies or a little longer to level up their career a bit, depending on if I feel like playing. So after doing this, which takes a few days lol, I then feel my world is complete and I can actually start playing and then I just choose what I feel like playing after that.
So I'm on game save 14 now and by now I know them all like the back of my hand. The only thing I can't remember about them is their aspiration, because I don't usually pick those until my main gameplay. And I like to switch those a lot to level up multiple aspirations at once. If there's a date, I pick the romance aspiration, if they go to the gym, I switch to the bodybuilder etc.. Even though I don't really play all the Sims in one game and have some favourites for sure, I've played all of them at least 14 times each. When I see them on community lots I recognize them and remember all about them lol.
I haven't seen anyone else say they do this, because it probably sounds totally crazy, but honestly, I find it a lot of fun.
@Elliandre you have totally inspired me to give it a go.
I have done an excel chart and figured out which careers are going to be assigned to which couples and which world they will live in. I'm now building little starter homes with objects for their career skills and creating the sims to go with each.
So far I have done my scientist and education sim couple, and my culinary and food critic couple. Lots more to do!
Its surprising just how many careers there are with the different branches too, part time, freelance, odd jobs and self employed. I'm going to also have a vet, someone eventually with a retail store, a bakery etc.
So far, there is no rhyme or reason to my rotations. I play a long custom game with the longest seasons so it depends on what is happening and how I feel on the day.
I always struggle to get into households so I usually just play with one sim until I get bored with them (usually very quickly) and then I make another one
@elanorbreton I will have to give that one a try. I just have the retail bakery. I didn’t realize the other lot lets you play as the vet, I was thinking you would just sell dog treats and food and toys like the bakery. I can’t get the hang of the retail. I never seem to cash their purchases fast enough
I like how you made the food critics a couple, so they can go out to dinner together and criticize/review the food. That career I find a lot of fun.
Playing as a vet is one of my Fav careers. It is really well done.
I use mods in one save file to play as a daycare owner and foster care provider too wity one family who fosters kids and finds adoptive parents for them
I hve 55-60 households, and I play 14 days seasons. Every year I play about half my worlds, this allows for 1-2 simdays per household. I prefer having the posibility to stop moe than just 1 day. Also, I might play a single sim household even less than 1 day, and spend a bit more time with households with more interesting events. So, my rotation is quite flexible, in between I also play a term at University.
Lately I have been giving priority to families who makea living from farming/gardening, ie arriving their house before 5 AM to assure they get at least 1 day's harvest income. Also try to play houses on minimum 1 day with work, because otherwise they would get short on income.
@Elliandre I'm totally curious to try your play style idea but not gonna lie I have no idea what is gonna happen. Can we make this the Elliandre Challenge? Cause I am so curious to compare how other people do this. Hahah
I started a rotation save a while back and fell in love with my founding families. I didn't have a schedule until I started playing on the next generation kids and then I try to make time for each of them in order. I have it on long life span and aging on for active household only. I put aging on for the town every once in a while so everyone ages up together. There are some families I like more than other and I will play longer on them or if there is a hoilday or birthday I just stay longer. My only thing is they all have to be played in order, but doesn't matter for how long. I have a Vet Clinic on my founding family and it's one on my favorite things to do so far. I run a couple restaurants on this other family and that keeps you busy too, so I lose track of time that way to.
I use mods in one save file to play as a daycare owner and foster care provider too wity one family who fosters kids and finds adoptive parents for them
What mod is that? I was thinking of making an orphanage. Similar concept.
I use mods in one save file to play as a daycare owner and foster care provider too wity one family who fosters kids and finds adoptive parents for them
What mod is that? I was thinking of making an orphanage. Similar concept.
It's 2 mods, but both by LittleMsSam. She has a lot of good ones. The daycare one is called" live in business" if I remember correctly. I will double check later when I get home. It has other business lots as well you can install just the ones you want (cafe, yoga instructor, etc) I just did the daycare one and it let's you use a lot trait to become a daycare in your home and then when you open random toddlers from your world aarrive, stay for so many hours while you look after them and when you close you get paid.
The foster care one allows you to register as a foster parent and then you get calls asking if you can take a placement. (can be tots-teens) and if you accept you'll go and return with the kid. You need to provide them a bed. They aren't part of your household so you can do it even if you have 8 sims. They come and go to school and stuff but they can disappear (runaways) and then you can call the foster agency and they will bring them back home. At any time you can actively search for adoptive parents or if you don't the agency will start calling after some time. If you agree, a potential parent shows up and you interview them and choose if you want them to adopt the child or not. If you say yes you introduce them and the child leaves with them. If your household has less than 8 members I think you can adopt them yourself too but I always play with 8 so havent tried that yet lol.
Lots of good advice in this thread. I think I'm going to play it like others in here and just go where I feel and play it out as I feel. I guess it will depend on the content and what that particular household is trying to achieve.
I have a sim that has to complete the actress career, another who has to explore all of Selvadorada. Another who has to finish the fashion designer career. Etc. I'll just go in to the house I feel like playing and play it out as I want to. If I get tired of it, I'll just drop in on another.
I will, however, keep a running list of my sims so I know their direction and my goals for them.
I have to get back to my gardener sim and have them get all the new plants and perfect them and then go add them to the community garden.
Lots of good advice in this thread. I think I'm going to play it like others in here and just go where I feel and play it out as I feel. I guess it will depend on the content and what that particular household is trying to achieve.
I have a sim that has to complete the actress career, another who has to explore all of Selvadorada. Another who has to finish the fashion designer career. Etc. I'll just go in to the house I feel like playing and play it out as I want to. If I get tired of it, I'll just drop in on another.
I will, however, keep a running list of my sims so I know their direction and my goals for them.
I have to get back to my gardener sim and have them get all the new plants and perfect them and then go add them to the community garden.
Thanks all! I've loved reading how you rotate!
Salvadorada is one of my favs. I have an archaeology loving sim who gave up her dreams when her kids were born but her older loves it as much as she does so when she became a teen they went on mother /daughter trip there there to explore the temple and find the treasure
I play rotational always to keep me entertained. I noticed that I don't like playing families much in rotation and I create a story where the households might be related in some way. For example I recently did a Strangerville play with a few households where Ted Roswell created a Civic Club to "improve" the town. He basically created a cult worshiping the you know what.. I rotate the households of the members of the cult as well as the "hero" household and the buddies helping them. Let's just say things did not go Ted's way at the end.
I'm going to try the vet career tonight, I'm looking forward to it, I had no idea it was like that.
The adoption/foster care mod sounds great. I don't play with mods, but I will look that one up. I really wanted an orphanage or something to interact with kids before adopting and suggested that for the survey. So cool that there's already a mod for something like that.
@CaptainElsa I was debating if I should try to create a challenge, it sounds like fun to try to come up with a challenge game, and also try some other ones that people have created. I mentioned it in my original post, but then deleted it because I wasn't sure what the rules are to make a challenge. I'll go check out the other board for more info. I've been thinking of trying one lately, just not the one with a hundred babies omg. Do you play challenges? Can you recommend a good one for someone who has never tried a challenge before?
I'm going to try the vet career tonight, I'm looking forward to it, I had no idea it was like that.
The adoption/foster care mod sounds great. I don't play with mods, but I will look that one up. I really wanted an orphanage or something to interact with kids before adopting and suggested that for the survey. So cool that there's already a mod for something like that.
@CaptainElsa I was debating if I should try to create a challenge, it sounds like fun to try to come up with a challenge game, and also try some other ones that people have created. I mentioned it in my original post, but then deleted it because I wasn't sure what the rules are to make a challenge. I'll go check out the other board for more info. I've been thinking of trying one lately, just not the one with a hundred babies omg. Do you play challenges? Can you recommend a good one for someone who has never tried a challenge before?
I rarely use mods, only in some saves, but LittleMsSam's ones are REALLY well done, and I've used them for about a year with no issues
As far as the vet career goes, yeah you buy the vet office and then you run it, you can hire employees etc, the customers review your vet etc. Ppl bring pets in, you get them up on the table and exam then and then diagnose them and treat them type thing. I never play with pets in my house holds but Cats & Dogs is one of my fav packs because the career is so fun haha. (That and I use the CAS and build mode stuff so often and love the world)
I had a vet in my last rotation and it was good fun. I also had an orphanage in that rotation too - the head of the orphanage had the mean and hates children traits and secretly went out to work as a criminal while leaving the teen to take care of kids and toddlers, cook and clean.
I dont use mods so any time I wanted an adoption to take place I would have one of my other families visit the orphanage to meet the children and then just move a child into the family home via the manage household thingy.
I have two main save game where I rotate. The first is my BACC where I rotate on a weekly schedule, from Sunday to Sunday. I do only have about 8 households in that one, which makes that fairly easy
My other game is a lot more relaxed than that. I've got 7 main households right now, with that set to rise soon. So I move over to whoever I feel like playing. For example, I had a two-day Music Festival coming up at the end of a sim week, so I made sure I switched to my musician so he could participate. I later had my actress nominated for an award, so I made sure to switch to her on Sunday for the award ceremony. So I'm pretty flexible and that seems to work for me.
> @Elliandre said: > (Quote) > > So, the thing is, lol, it takes days of work before I actually start playing and because of this I actually know all my 200 Sims extremely well, including some extras I have in the library (because I ran out of room with the 200 limit). :D > > I realize this sounds totally crazy, but I really like customizing the premades, so every time I start a new game, the first thing I do is save all the premades to my households. Then, I add my favourites from my library to reach the 200 limit. Next, I make sure all of them are moved into a house or apartment. And for some reason, I always give the black cat to the Goth family and the ghost dog to the Vampire, Vlad. Then, I start in Willow Creek and go into every single lot one by one until I reach my last world and lot. I read their biography if there is one. I customize all their clothes in CAS. I make sure they have socks or slippers with their PJ's and winter hats on. Then, I fix their postures to the ones I like. After I reclothe them all, change their hair and makeup, and I'm happy with how they look, I examine their traits, biography, skills if they have any, family relationships, and decide what career and hobby/skills they should have. I then go into build mode and decorate their homes and add items for the skills/hobby or career I chose. I usually play them for a few minutes to add some skill points for their hobbies or a little longer to level up their career a bit, depending on if I feel like playing. So after doing this, which takes a few days lol, I then feel my world is complete and I can actually start playing and then I just choose what I feel like playing after that. > > So I'm on game save 14 now and by now I know them all like the back of my hand. :D The only thing I can't remember about them is their aspiration, because I don't usually pick those until my main gameplay. And I like to switch those a lot to level up multiple aspirations at once. If there's a date, I pick the romance aspiration, if they go to the gym, I switch to the bodybuilder etc.. Even though I don't really play all the Sims in one game and have some favourites for sure, I've played all of them at least 14 times each. When I see them on community lots I recognize them and remember all about them lol. > > I haven't seen anyone else say they do this, because it probably sounds totally crazy, but honestly, I find it a lot of fun.
I play this way as well. It is crazy, tedious work but i also have learned all the premade storylines and I remember them very well. I usually start 2 am on Monday and play each household 7 days a week. I go house to house top to bottom with aging turned off except for the current household. In the last household in the rotation i turn aging on for everyone except nonactive played households that way townies can age up at a gradual rate. DU has thrown a wrench in this play-style which is very disappointing so i was thinking of extending each household playthrough to 4 or 5 weeks, But I would play fewer households if i did that because it already takes a long time to get through each one.
I haven't counted my households recently but I think I play around 20. I play whoever interests me at the moment or whose story I think should be advanced. I try to keep friends and relatives aging at the same pace. This gives me a very loose schedule of who I should be playing.
I rotate whenever I feel like it. I have over 80 sims in my main rotational save, and a schedule makes everything less fun for me.
Wow, 80 sounds like a lot. Do you remember each of your sims individually and play them with different story background or do you play in terms of just fulfilling their needs?
I'm asking because my problem with my game now is I keep losing interest with my sims. I usually only play one household at a time but they just end up becoming the same as I try to max out their skills and reach the highest in their careers, which isn't challenging at all.
They all have different stories that connect with one another! So I could rotate households from a musician to his artist ex to her spellcaster brother (all households that exist in the save)
I have tried many times to follow a proper schedule but I always end up just going with the flow. I sometimes spend sim weeks with the same family, sometimes just a day or two. Sometimes real life months go by without having played a specific household.
I love having a cohesive world where all my Sims have their place in their society and interact with each other. So the community overall is usually my main focus. I jump around the househoulds however I feel fits the bigger picture.
I agree! That's how I play too. I guess I really shouldn't feel too bad if I "neglect" households from time to time. Like I said, some a just waiting for content, or have gotten as far as the content we have allows. Some of them, it feels like they became background sims simply because their story is over.
Love these! I do like the idea of a connected community. I have about 5 main families. I usually spend about 5 days with each and then 2 days with small background families, mostly to build or advance relationships, try for baby, age ups etc. I play with aging off.
Comments
So, the thing is, lol, it takes days of work before I actually start playing and because of this I actually know all my 200 Sims extremely well, including some extras I have in the library (because I ran out of room with the 200 limit).
I realize this sounds totally crazy, but I really like customizing the premades, so every time I start a new game, the first thing I do is save all the premades to my households. Then, I add my favourites from my library to reach the 200 limit. Next, I make sure all of them are moved into a house or apartment. And for some reason, I always give the black cat to the Goth family and the ghost dog to the Vampire, Vlad. Then, I start in Willow Creek and go into every single lot one by one until I reach my last world and lot. I read their biography if there is one. I customize all their clothes in CAS. I make sure they have socks or slippers with their PJ's and winter hats on. Then, I fix their postures to the ones I like. After I reclothe them all, change their hair and makeup, and I'm happy with how they look, I examine their traits, biography, skills if they have any, family relationships, and decide what career and hobby/skills they should have. I then go into build mode and decorate their homes and add items for the skills/hobby or career I chose. I usually play them for a few minutes to add some skill points for their hobbies or a little longer to level up their career a bit, depending on if I feel like playing. So after doing this, which takes a few days lol, I then feel my world is complete and I can actually start playing and then I just choose what I feel like playing after that.
So I'm on game save 14 now and by now I know them all like the back of my hand.
I haven't seen anyone else say they do this, because it probably sounds totally crazy, but honestly, I find it a lot of fun.
My 5 founding families now have aged and passed but I am playing their children and now those are grown up with children almost teens.
For me each time I switch the household just feels fresh again and it's like oh yeah! I remember this house or the design choices I picked. Etc.
I number their rotation in the lot info
Last Name - Generation - Rotation Number.
I have done an excel chart and figured out which careers are going to be assigned to which couples and which world they will live in. I'm now building little starter homes with objects for their career skills and creating the sims to go with each.
So far I have done my scientist and education sim couple, and my culinary and food critic couple. Lots more to do!
Its surprising just how many careers there are with the different branches too, part time, freelance, odd jobs and self employed. I'm going to also have a vet, someone eventually with a retail store, a bakery etc.
This idea is gonna be so much fun, thank you!
I like how you made the food critics a couple, so they can go out to dinner together and criticize/review the food. That career I find a lot of fun.
I use mods in one save file to play as a daycare owner and foster care provider too wity one family who fosters kids and finds adoptive parents for them
Lately I have been giving priority to families who makea living from farming/gardening, ie arriving their house before 5 AM to assure they get at least 1 day's harvest income. Also try to play houses on minimum 1 day with work, because otherwise they would get short on income.
What mod is that? I was thinking of making an orphanage. Similar concept.
It's 2 mods, but both by LittleMsSam. She has a lot of good ones. The daycare one is called" live in business" if I remember correctly. I will double check later when I get home. It has other business lots as well you can install just the ones you want (cafe, yoga instructor, etc) I just did the daycare one and it let's you use a lot trait to become a daycare in your home and then when you open random toddlers from your world aarrive, stay for so many hours while you look after them and when you close you get paid.
The foster care one allows you to register as a foster parent and then you get calls asking if you can take a placement. (can be tots-teens) and if you accept you'll go and return with the kid. You need to provide them a bed. They aren't part of your household so you can do it even if you have 8 sims. They come and go to school and stuff but they can disappear (runaways) and then you can call the foster agency and they will bring them back home. At any time you can actively search for adoptive parents or if you don't the agency will start calling after some time. If you agree, a potential parent shows up and you interview them and choose if you want them to adopt the child or not. If you say yes you introduce them and the child leaves with them. If your household has less than 8 members I think you can adopt them yourself too but I always play with 8 so havent tried that yet lol.
I have a sim that has to complete the actress career, another who has to explore all of Selvadorada. Another who has to finish the fashion designer career. Etc. I'll just go in to the house I feel like playing and play it out as I want to. If I get tired of it, I'll just drop in on another.
I will, however, keep a running list of my sims so I know their direction and my goals for them.
I have to get back to my gardener sim and have them get all the new plants and perfect them and then go add them to the community garden.
Thanks all! I've loved reading how you rotate!
Salvadorada is one of my favs. I have an archaeology loving sim who gave up her dreams when her kids were born but her older loves it as much as she does so when she became a teen they went on mother /daughter trip there there to explore the temple and find the treasure
The adoption/foster care mod sounds great. I don't play with mods, but I will look that one up. I really wanted an orphanage or something to interact with kids before adopting and suggested that for the survey. So cool that there's already a mod for something like that.
@CaptainElsa I was debating if I should try to create a challenge, it sounds like fun to try to come up with a challenge game, and also try some other ones that people have created. I mentioned it in my original post, but then deleted it because I wasn't sure what the rules are to make a challenge. I'll go check out the other board for more info. I've been thinking of trying one lately, just not the one with a hundred babies omg. Do you play challenges? Can you recommend a good one for someone who has never tried a challenge before?
I rarely use mods, only in some saves, but LittleMsSam's ones are REALLY well done, and I've used them for about a year with no issues
As far as the vet career goes, yeah you buy the vet office and then you run it, you can hire employees etc, the customers review your vet etc. Ppl bring pets in, you get them up on the table and exam then and then diagnose them and treat them type thing. I never play with pets in my house holds but Cats & Dogs is one of my fav packs because the career is so fun haha. (That and I use the CAS and build mode stuff so often and love the world)
I dont use mods so any time I wanted an adoption to take place I would have one of my other families visit the orphanage to meet the children and then just move a child into the family home via the manage household thingy.
My other game is a lot more relaxed than that. I've got 7 main households right now, with that set to rise soon. So I move over to whoever I feel like playing. For example, I had a two-day Music Festival coming up at the end of a sim week, so I made sure I switched to my musician so he could participate. I later had my actress nominated for an award, so I made sure to switch to her on Sunday for the award ceremony. So I'm pretty flexible and that seems to work for me.
> (Quote)
>
> So, the thing is, lol, it takes days of work before I actually start playing and because of this I actually know all my 200 Sims extremely well, including some extras I have in the library (because I ran out of room with the 200 limit). :D
>
> I realize this sounds totally crazy, but I really like customizing the premades, so every time I start a new game, the first thing I do is save all the premades to my households. Then, I add my favourites from my library to reach the 200 limit. Next, I make sure all of them are moved into a house or apartment. And for some reason, I always give the black cat to the Goth family and the ghost dog to the Vampire, Vlad. Then, I start in Willow Creek and go into every single lot one by one until I reach my last world and lot. I read their biography if there is one. I customize all their clothes in CAS. I make sure they have socks or slippers with their PJ's and winter hats on. Then, I fix their postures to the ones I like. After I reclothe them all, change their hair and makeup, and I'm happy with how they look, I examine their traits, biography, skills if they have any, family relationships, and decide what career and hobby/skills they should have. I then go into build mode and decorate their homes and add items for the skills/hobby or career I chose. I usually play them for a few minutes to add some skill points for their hobbies or a little longer to level up their career a bit, depending on if I feel like playing. So after doing this, which takes a few days lol, I then feel my world is complete and I can actually start playing and then I just choose what I feel like playing after that.
>
> So I'm on game save 14 now and by now I know them all like the back of my hand. :D The only thing I can't remember about them is their aspiration, because I don't usually pick those until my main gameplay. And I like to switch those a lot to level up multiple aspirations at once. If there's a date, I pick the romance aspiration, if they go to the gym, I switch to the bodybuilder etc.. Even though I don't really play all the Sims in one game and have some favourites for sure, I've played all of them at least 14 times each. When I see them on community lots I recognize them and remember all about them lol.
>
> I haven't seen anyone else say they do this, because it probably sounds totally crazy, but honestly, I find it a lot of fun.
I play this way as well. It is crazy, tedious work but i also have learned all the premade storylines and I remember them very well. I usually start 2 am on Monday and play each household 7 days a week. I go house to house top to bottom with aging turned off except for the current household. In the last household in the rotation i turn aging on for everyone except nonactive played households that way townies can age up at a gradual rate. DU has thrown a wrench in this play-style which is very disappointing so i was thinking of extending each household playthrough to 4 or 5 weeks, But I would play fewer households if i did that because it already takes a long time to get through each one.
Updated with Werewolf Diaries (1)
They all have different stories that connect with one another! So I could rotate households from a musician to his artist ex to her spellcaster brother (all households that exist in the save)
Love these! I do like the idea of a connected community. I have about 5 main families. I usually spend about 5 days with each and then 2 days with small background families, mostly to build or advance relationships, try for baby, age ups etc. I play with aging off.