I struggle to play just one household most of the time yet I see threads where people play entire villages. I have no idea how they do that. One can be a struggle for me. So how many do you play and how do you manage more than one?
I'm currently playing two, I made them neighbors and have a whole story planned out for them. I've always kind of stuck with one household before, but end up getting bored and just creating a new one,. Before I know it, I have 15 active households but I am only playing one. Then I start a new save lol This new thing I'm doing switching between 2 households is helpful and not difficult! I also play with the Long lifespan and have auto age for all on, so the neighbors kids can grow up together :)
I struggle to play just one household most of the time yet I see threads where people play entire villages. I have no idea how they do that. One can be a struggle for me. So how many do you play and how do you manage more than one?
14 Households.
How do I manage? Spreadsheets.
I'd love to see a video on how you use spreadsheets to do it!!! I love doing spreadsheets. Yes, I'm a geek. I'm cool that way.
I struggle to play just one household most of the time yet I see threads where people play entire villages. I have no idea how they do that. One can be a struggle for me. So how many do you play and how do you manage more than one?
14 Households.
How do I manage? Spreadsheets.
Haha, I do spreadsheets, too. Honestly, at this point I'd be completely lost without them.
FYI: Just because you can see my signature, don't assume that I can see yours.
Because I can't; I keep all sigs turned off.
I struggle to play just one household most of the time yet I see threads where people play entire villages. I have no idea how they do that. One can be a struggle for me. So how many do you play and how do you manage more than one?
14 Households.
How do I manage? Spreadsheets.
I'd love to see a video on how you use spreadsheets to do it!!! I love doing spreadsheets. Yes, I'm a geek. I'm cool that way.
@CK213 shared a snippet of a spreadsheet for the prep school in another thread. I was impressed.
As a one household/legacy player, I use spreadsheets and documents to keep track of my sims' and their family members too, but it's easier with one family than it is with a bunch of households. Last time I checked, my legacy founder has 175 known descendants (I'm on gen 5/6). Some have passed away, but there are many in-game.
I’m playing one in TS4 atm, my Not so Berry challenge. I might make another household if I need them, then set them as played so they age, but I won’t go in and play with them for a week.
I play about 40 households, because I have one big save game and I replaced all of the sims with my own, all of them have backstories and stories and I switch between all of them. Then I also have some of NPCs that I created which I use for the npc jobs with npcc mod. I just found out that I am enjoying the game much more when I personally know and care for all the sims. I have a spreadsheet with names, basic information (world they live in, traits, aspiration, etc.), I have aging on only for the current household, I turn it on for npcs ocassionally, so they did age a bit with time, and it made sense. I don't have any set days for playing one household, I just switch between them as I want. To keep the game interesting I also try to create different sims and give them all various jobs and try things I wouldn't go for if I only played for one main household. So I have off-grid living family, social media influencer, some families have their own shops, etc. It really feels like a real world and I love it
I love spreadsheets and I'm proficient at using them, but I prefer pencil and paper for this. It makes it easy to compare one random bit with another.
The days are laid out in advance and it's easy to continue in the same pattern once the initial planning has been done. Here I have the 12 households with a little abbreviation of which world they're in, then I fill 10 boxes for each, representing the 10 days I'll be playing them (except for household 10 Milton 1, they have 12 days this time, next time it will be household 9 the Lawsons who have the 12 day play session). I also made sure their summer vacation has 5 consecutive days within the play session.
(There's some weirdness on this round because I had to borrow some days from other households to finish uni correctly, so don't mind those arrows)
As you can see, this is the round where my toddlers age up, which is exciting!!
And here is an example of what one household's notes look like. Peter began with 33 days left as an adult (A-33). I've started recording the sentiments they get so I can look back on them, and other special events (12: Will invited Amanda to a Chalet dance party! I felt like I won the lottery!!) I also mark down their lifestyles and any gifts they receive. I note when and where they go on vacation here too. And when I have them start a club.
@babajayne That is the most beautiful thing I've seen! I am totally lost by it but the management system is breathtaking! Thank you so much for sharing this!!!
Just counted today - 33 in one save. It takes years to rotate between them lol.
Lol.... it does take forever. I have recently unfavorited and marked unplayed some of the premades that I was rarely using...... it’s quite easy to have over 150 played sims if you have been playing the game since the beginning.
I've resurrected an old Save and have about 20 or so of my favourite families to put into my homes from all my other Saves. I've about 170 Sims now in my families bin ready to go. They'll all go into a cheap lot, be given some money and move their family to a better one with lots to do, one family at a time.
Then they will all be given jobs to go to and I'll visit them from time to time to see how they are getting on.
I've got some special favourites who I visit more often though.
I occasionally find a couple of urns inside the front door as I did with one of the elderly couples in the University World.
If you have auto-age on for unplayed Sims, does that mean that they go through their life-cycle by counting the days or do they age up like in TS3 when you age up your family?
Does unplayed Sims refer to Sims in households that are specifically marked as unplayed or does it mean all households besides the one you're actually playing?
These questions may seem to be self-explanatory but I just want to be 100% certain before I choose that option...
@PenguinFoop If you go to Manage Households, there’s My Households and Other Households. If you click on a household, you can click on the plumbob to toggle Played/Unplayed. You can click the heart to toggle the Favorite part, that moves them from My Households to Other Households. Those 2 things tend to confuse people, I know I was confused.
As for aging, they will age at the same rate as you play, so in my case they have been aging very rapidly relative to the 12 households I play, for example, each household of mine has only aged 10 days but the unplayed households would have aged 120 days during that span of time. So I recently turned aging off for those unplayed sims when I realized this. I will turn it on and back off as needed.
@babajayne so it's more like TS3 story mode in that regard. Basically all of the children in my children's club will age up at roughly the same time my children do if I have auto-age turned on for unplayed Sims??? That would be perfect as there are two that I've arranged a marriage into my family with. Yes, arranged marriages is a thing in Sims. Lol
@PenguinFoop If you’re just playing one household, they will age at the same rate. Sometimes I see kids aging up out of the blue in public (and then they’re sad because their birthday was forgotten, lol). Poor Nanami Ito doesn’t look quite as cute as a teen.
I sort of arrange marriages - they have a small pool to “choose” from, lol. The high school sweethearts don’t necessarily last through uni in my game. I like to change them up!
I can't change them up. I have to train them up to be the perfect spouse for my special babies!!! On TS3, I actually made friends with one family just so I could get the move in together option. When they accepted, I stole their toddler instead and raised him with my daughter toddler so that he would be completely compatible with her when they were old enough.
@PenguinFoop I can relate - pretty sure I cheated Meadow Thayer into my TS2 household to lock her down.
In TS4 recently I had a couple (Jazz and Julia) that seemed a bit mismatched to me. I decided Jazz’s parents didn’t like Julia’s parents, they got together with Lacy’s parents and formed a plan to set up Jazz and Lacy instead. Seems to be working out just fine for Julia, she doesn’t fit in with those snobs anyway.
I usually just play my simself and let the rest of the household do their thing until I get bored and then I start again, I would love to be able to play my households as generations and create a full story line but I have letting my simself die
I play one household per save, whether it be just for fun without any guidelines or a challenge. Most though are challenges in current play, on hiatus or completed. I love challenges! Each save has a folder on my hard drive. I just did a count and there are 146 folders. Of these 146 different folders, only four have had more than one played household in the save, but still only one active lot. They are from my on-going Drifter Challenge gameplay.
I admire those that can handle playing multiple families in one save on rotation, it's just not for me. It's too stressful since I prefer to play with no autonomy or aging (unless its not allowed in a challenge) and micromanage my Sims. I play to relax and have fun, not stress out trying to play multiple families on rotation in one save with intricate spreadsheets keeping track of everything. That would personally drive me up the wall!
We all play in whatever manner is the most fun for us, it's one of the best things about the Sims. There's a wide variety of ways to play, with none of them being the 'right' way. It's not linear and I love that!
I play one household per save, whether it be just for fun without any guidelines or a challenge. Most though are challenges in current play, on hiatus or completed. I love challenges! Each save has a folder on my hard drive. I just did a count and there are 146 folders. Of these 146 different folders, only four have had more than one played household in the save, but still only one active lot. They are from my on-going Drifter Challenge gameplay.
I admire those that can handle playing multiple families in one save on rotation, it's just not for me. It's too stressful since I prefer to play with no autonomy or aging (unless its not allowed in a challenge) and micromanage my Sims. I play to relax and have fun, not stress out trying to play multiple families on rotation in one save with intricate spreadsheets keeping track of everything. That would personally drive me up the wall!
We all play in whatever manner is the most fun for us, it's one of the best things about the Sims. There's a wide variety of ways to play, with none of them being the 'right' way. It's not linear and I love that!
Yeah, um, spreadsheets are dumb. Wait, don't look at my laptop! That's not a TS4 spreadsheet that I just started! It's umm for...doing...yoga? Yeah, yoga, that's it!
I struggle to play just one household most of the time yet I see threads where people play entire villages. I have no idea how they do that. One can be a struggle for me. So how many do you play and how do you manage more than one?
14 Households.
How do I manage? Spreadsheets.
I'd love to see a video on how you use spreadsheets to do it!!! I love doing spreadsheets. Yes, I'm a geek. I'm cool that way.
@CK213 shared a snippet of a spreadsheet for the prep school in another thread. I was impressed.
As a one household/legacy player, I use spreadsheets and documents to keep track of my sims' and their family members too, but it's easier with one family than it is with a bunch of households. Last time I checked, my legacy founder has 175 known descendants (I'm on gen 5/6). Some have passed away, but there are many in-game.
Out of curiosity, what are people tracking?
This chart helps me with rotation.
I don't want everyone having birthdays on the same day, so I use this and it also helps me to know when to progress my sims.
For example the gold area. Meadow Thayer is my lead sim. That 5 represents 45 days left before she becomes a teen.
And going down the column lets me know where everyone else needs to be reguarding age. I turn on aging for that household and play the sim until they reach the required age, then I rotate to the next. When everyone is where they should be, I can go back to Meadow and advance her life.
Pink is the toddler stage, blue is the child stage.
I'm not really rigid with it. It's more of a guide and helps keep it from becoming chaos.
In the same file on other pages, each sim has a profile page.
These three happen to be my cat sims.
I use trait rewards as an extension of personality traits, so I like to decide those in advance and use them as goals.
Trying to nail their values is a bit tricky, but you can always cheat them the ones you want them to have when they become young adults.
Comments
14 Households.
How do I manage? Spreadsheets.
This new thing I'm doing switching between 2 households is helpful and not difficult! I also play with the Long lifespan and have auto age for all on, so the neighbors kids can grow up together :)
I'd love to see a video on how you use spreadsheets to do it!!! I love doing spreadsheets. Yes, I'm a geek. I'm cool that way.
Haha, I do spreadsheets, too.
Because I can't; I keep all sigs turned off.
@CK213 shared a snippet of a spreadsheet for the prep school in another thread. I was impressed.
As a one household/legacy player, I use spreadsheets and documents to keep track of my sims' and their family members too, but it's easier with one family than it is with a bunch of households. Last time I checked, my legacy founder has 175 known descendants (I'm on gen 5/6). Some have passed away, but there are many in-game.
Out of curiosity, what are people tracking?
My gameplay blog - kindred sims
The days are laid out in advance and it's easy to continue in the same pattern once the initial planning has been done. Here I have the 12 households with a little abbreviation of which world they're in, then I fill 10 boxes for each, representing the 10 days I'll be playing them (except for household 10 Milton 1, they have 12 days this time, next time it will be household 9 the Lawsons who have the 12 day play session). I also made sure their summer vacation has 5 consecutive days within the play session.
(There's some weirdness on this round because I had to borrow some days from other households to finish uni correctly, so don't mind those arrows)
As you can see, this is the round where my toddlers age up, which is exciting!!
And here is an example of what one household's notes look like. Peter began with 33 days left as an adult (A-33). I've started recording the sentiments they get so I can look back on them, and other special events (12: Will invited Amanda to a Chalet dance party! I felt like I won the lottery!!) I also mark down their lifestyles and any gifts they receive. I note when and where they go on vacation here too. And when I have them start a club.
<= is feeling inspired
They are all organized in plastic sleeves and in a 3-ring binder, btw.
Lol.... it does take forever. I have recently unfavorited and marked unplayed some of the premades that I was rarely using...... it’s quite easy to have over 150 played sims if you have been playing the game since the beginning.
Then they will all be given jobs to go to and I'll visit them from time to time to see how they are getting on.
I've got some special favourites who I visit more often though.
I occasionally find a couple of urns inside the front door as I did with one of the elderly couples in the University World.
These questions may seem to be self-explanatory but I just want to be 100% certain before I choose that option...
As for aging, they will age at the same rate as you play, so in my case they have been aging very rapidly relative to the 12 households I play, for example, each household of mine has only aged 10 days but the unplayed households would have aged 120 days during that span of time. So I recently turned aging off for those unplayed sims when I realized this. I will turn it on and back off as needed.
I sort of arrange marriages - they have a small pool to “choose” from, lol. The high school sweethearts don’t necessarily last through uni in my game. I like to change them up!
In TS4 recently I had a couple (Jazz and Julia) that seemed a bit mismatched to me. I decided Jazz’s parents didn’t like Julia’s parents, they got together with Lacy’s parents and formed a plan to set up Jazz and Lacy instead. Seems to be working out just fine for Julia, she doesn’t fit in with those snobs anyway.
Avery & Riley
Alf, Alexandre & kids
Cassandra & friend
Bhakti and Beejay
Chance and Jace
Faunus
Brodie
So, for my main save, which is all one extended family, over three generations, that's seven households I play.
I admire those that can handle playing multiple families in one save on rotation, it's just not for me. It's too stressful since I prefer to play with no autonomy or aging (unless its not allowed in a challenge) and micromanage my Sims. I play to relax and have fun, not stress out trying to play multiple families on rotation in one save with intricate spreadsheets keeping track of everything. That would personally drive me up the wall!
We all play in whatever manner is the most fun for us, it's one of the best things about the Sims. There's a wide variety of ways to play, with none of them being the 'right' way. It's not linear and I love that!
Yeah, um, spreadsheets are dumb. Wait, don't look at my laptop! That's not a TS4 spreadsheet that I just started! It's umm for...doing...yoga? Yeah, yoga, that's it!
I don't want everyone having birthdays on the same day, so I use this and it also helps me to know when to progress my sims.
For example the gold area. Meadow Thayer is my lead sim. That 5 represents 45 days left before she becomes a teen.
And going down the column lets me know where everyone else needs to be reguarding age. I turn on aging for that household and play the sim until they reach the required age, then I rotate to the next. When everyone is where they should be, I can go back to Meadow and advance her life.
Pink is the toddler stage, blue is the child stage.
I'm not really rigid with it. It's more of a guide and helps keep it from becoming chaos.
In the same file on other pages, each sim has a profile page.
These three happen to be my cat sims.
I use trait rewards as an extension of personality traits, so I like to decide those in advance and use them as goals.
Trying to nail their values is a bit tricky, but you can always cheat them the ones you want them to have when they become young adults.