Do you play one-sim households?

GrumpyGlowfish · August 2021

Just what it says in the title: Do you have households with only one playable sim, and if yes, how do you keep things interesting?

I have a handful of these at the moment, some of which were created that way, some used to live with others, but then moved out. But I tend to get bored of those households rather quickly.

somewhsome · August 2021

Yes. I usually start with one sim household, often as a challenge (with no money and restrictions on selling, traveling, etc). Challenges help me keep things interesting, because I don't get bored with one sim, I get bored when they are rich. Struggle is fun. 😅
If I start as a normal gameplay (20000§, starter home, etc) I tend to concentrate on sim's achievements — careers, aspirations, new skills, maybe owning a business.

musteni · August 2021

I have some. They're the best for having pets because they have time for them and the pets also help to keep the social needs up. You could also give them roommates to spice things up if the house is big enough. Finding romance can be interesting since you're only focusing on that one sim.

Alexander Harmaja is a famous self-emplyed pianist who lives on Windenburg island with his dog. A lot of time has went into working on his musical aspiration and increasing his fame. He likes to go jogging around the island with his dog. Now recently he also started a romantic relationship with a style influencer who also lives on the island.
His brother Harry Harmaja lives in Brindleton Bay in a haunted house that also has the trait that stray cats come visiting. Harry is a painter who also enjoys yoga and aspires to be a good vampire. I have been bored with Harry so he has moved from Newcrest to this new house but I'm not sure if I still got it right. Vampires are hard for me to play because they're eternal and it's hard to keep that interesting.
Billie Jang lives in an apartment in Spice District with her cat and two roommates. The apartment needs some TLC, so that also gives her something to do. She works in charity organizions, but is dreaming of becoming an actress. She also does gaming tournaments for My Sims when she has time. My story from earlier this year tell about Billie's love adventures.
Urpo Luotto lives in Willow Creek in his uncles old house. He had a girlfriend who had just moved in, but died in a glitchy dryer fire. Urpo got a dog just to get through things. He works in the active police career, but prefers to take his guitar to work and singing while patrolling the streets. I haven't played Urpo much lately, it got kind of heavy after his girlfriend died, but I still plan to play him and hopefully bring some light to his life.

These one-sim households first popped into my head and thinking they're probably the most interesting ones. I hope the examples helped in somehow. Do you count it a one-sim household if they have a pet cat/dog?

Edit: I also should add that these sims are part of my irregular rotation, so I play them when I like and then just don't play when I'm not feeling it.

Olalla1986 · August 2021

I mostly play with one sim. After a while they may have a partner or a pet. I’m not into family gameplay and having kids. Usually when I start the new game I will have already basics of the story in my mind. Sometimes I will make their lives based on famous people turbulences or things I experienced myself at some point like breaking up, throwing all away and starting new life on the beach lol. To keep things interesting I constantly turn their lives 180 degrees. I embrace autonomous flirt by their partner with other sims, because it gives me reason to move onto something or someone new after a huge fight. Also I have preferred set of traits I use and I see sims with them acting more unpredictable. My favorite of all times is erratic. The Yell at and insult interaction which they use by themselves from time to time gives me a lot of ideas, like maybe they have enough of this person or goes through psychological break down and need to holed up alone for a period of time. Another one I enjoy is gloomy, also many creative ideas can come from this trait. It can also nicely work together with erratic and I used them recently on one sim and results were interesting. My sims also had Emotional Bomb quirk from GF and it got to the point were he acted almost bipolar from time to time. Sure, the positive usually water down negative and interesting traits, but if traits are chosen wisely they may still have effect on sims behavior. To sum up, I play single sims as people who strive to find happiness and success but there is always something in the way like their mental health or troubled personality or other sims treating them badly. But still I always try to think of good ending for them as I don’t like my sims to suffer for no purpose. This kind of gameplay appeals to me the most.

FatTribble23 · August 2021

I almost always start out with one sim, usually a female. Sometimes my simself who I have lead a nice decent life working, meeting and falling in love with her one true love and having kids, etc.

While I'm waiting for srsly's cooking overhaul to be updated, I've put aside my legacy save and have moved on to other one sim saves. I created a male sim to clean up the island in Sulani and work the conservationist career. He fell in love with one of the premade homeless mermaids, don't remember which one. I got bored and put that one aside too.

Right now I'm playing a female sim living in San Myshuno in 19 Culpepper House, which is a needs TLC apt. I keep things interesting by having her fight the bugs, weird smells, mice etc in the apartment as well as romancing LOTS of different sims, partying every night, working as a free lance photographer and traveling all over for work, and using mods I can't talk about here to spice things up. She has a cat, too. I rarely play in San Myshuno or with cats, so that's been interesting.

A willingness to use mods is how I keep my game interesting, period.

Isharell · August 2021

I have mostly singles or pairs; several of my pairs are siblings. So far I've only had one successful romantic relationship but those sims were lost while switching computers, everything got overwritten when I switched and nothing could be salvaged. Ah well, I'd only played that game for a couple of months. For some reason the sims I want to fall in love never seem to be on the same page; one of them will be all flirty while the other totally ignores them.

I generally have trouble keeping my single sims social need up, but with CoL it's doing ok, because my sim is constantly going to HOB to sell her harvestables and talking to her plants, chickens and llama, or doing errands which often means talking to other sims.

How do I keep my game interesting? I don't really know how to answer that. I jump around from sim to sim, and sometimes from save game to save game so that helps to keep things interesting. I guess I play rotationally, but without any strict rules regarding when I switch households or game saves. I usually do whatever I feel like doing for that particular session. Sometimes I'll do a bit of finessing on a build while I'm deciding which sim to play, or I'll just decide to build all day. There've been times I just built for a couple of weeks, followed by strictly playing for a month or so.

Whenever I start a new sim or family I usually will spend quite a bit of time with them for several weeks or longer, skilling them up and getting an idea of the way they are going to develop. I like that sometimes they don't turn out how I thought they'd be, quite often I go with whatever they want and see where it takes them.

Atreya33 · August 2021

I usually start out with a single sim but most of them will start a family after a few weeks.

DoloresGrey · August 2021

Yes, I play rotationally so this happens. They are usually travellers-adventurers. They work as freelancers, mostly painting or writing so they can work on the laptop anywhere, even on a vacation. They have dogs that they train.

simgirl1010 · August 2021

My gameplay is usually about 40% single gameplay and 60% family gameplay. I only have one household of 5 though in one save, When a new pack releases I move the sim mom out and play her as a single sim while getting to experience the new pack without any other distractions. She is currently living in Windenberg in the Cordelia's Cottage lot. She has a rooster and a hen, a cow, and a llama. Once she completes the Country Caretaker aspiration I'll move her back into the family home, give them a few more animals to take care of and introduce the rest of the family to the joys of country living. I usually play the single household for 2-3 months so as not to rush through the new pack features. During this time the sim mom is still participating in family activities, visiting the family household, etc.

Simmingal · August 2021

I love playing single sim cause its so nice not having to worry over many sims and you got time to do all kinds of fun stuff

but for sake of bigger gene pool and mix of family trees i do often end up giving them families after a while

some things that i tend to do with single sims?

active careers, skills, playing as occult sim, collecting, travelling, exploring venues, homeless sims, farming is pretty neat on your own too..random stuff like making babies with all sims in world minus actually taking care of them...

basically anything thats easier to do with just one sim around

if you really don't want family but also want to play more than one sim you could also build 2 houses on same lot and have "neighbors" or make roomies, sim love island or anything like that just gathering random singles

ACruelButLovingGod · August 2021

I play plenty of one-sim households, usually because the sim in question is exploring some element of the game or being used for a storytelling purpose for which other sims would just get in the way. Or it's an NPC household I'm taking over for a bit to get the sim inside to the top of their career as a short diversion. Or they're destined for family life but they haven't met the ideal partner yet. Or because it's Tuesday.

But for the most part, it's because my single sims are doing "character in a video game" things rather than "member of a family and broader community" things.

MZsimmer · August 2021

I usually start a one-sim household and then meet other Sims or create them myself. I prefer to play with families, it’s a lot funnier for me, but sometimes I run out of ideas of what to do with my family. So I start a new sim with just one sim and try to make a family, so I have double of fun xD

MZsimmer · August 2021

@ACruelButLovingGod Oh! I also do that too! I create a lonely sim to test gameplay features, specially when I buy a new pack

mikamakimon · August 2021

I almost always start with single sims, and majority of my main, played households only have one or two sims at most. These are actually more fun for me than playing families. I like to actively play with my sims so I tend to avoid rabbit hole careers. They're not tied down to a schedule or responsibilities so they can explore and travel more freely.

MasonGamer · August 2021

Those sims are my artistic sims
Painter
Musician
Writer
Actor
Singer
Comedian

They focus on that primarily.

LiELF · August 2021

I have several in my colonizing/rotational main save. When I first start a Sims game, I make one male in a household and one female in a separate household. Sort of like an experimental "Adam and Eve". I play to see if they ever connect on their own or hook up or end up going separate ways. From there, I slowly add more Sims in my game to befriend them or just be in the neighborhood. I switch around playing different households so I don't get bored, and I like seeing which Sims end up hooking up with which other Sims. Of course, without a proper romance system, it's not quite as interesting in Sims 4, but at least they can build some friendships and see where that goes.

But I don't really play a single household Sim for too long unless they are an Occult, and even then it gets kind of dull. I'll use those households to mix things up in my game or try out something new sometimes like a career or activity that didn't interest me before to see if I end up liking it. That way, I'm not forever inflicting it on a more chaotic household or one that I'm really invested in.

GalacticGal · August 2021

I have only ever played with a single household when I play Pinstar's Legacy Challenge, and that is part of the set-up rules. I get way too bored, too quickly unless I have what amounts to be chaos in my games. LOL I love full households. I play with Autonomy on Full blast. I generally will follow one particular Sim, but I also will employ the Pause button in order to set up interactions in the queues of the other members of the household. This works for me. I think it's a way of combatting the Empty Nest Syndrome since all three of my kids are grown and married.

JustMeAlb · August 2021

Nearly all my households have been single sim. When my sim is required to mentor another I grab one from the gallery, get the mentoring done, then delete them. A notable exception is one that was just too good of a match for my sim to give her up, she needed a long term housemate for the daily mentoring requirement for her Athletic career and I was finding unusually good sims on the gallery then and during their time together they really grew on each other.

A couple of times I intended to start a family but just couldn't motivate myself to stick with it for very long.

PlayerSinger2010 · August 2021

Nope. I get too bored with just one sim.

Kimmer · August 2021

I often start with one Sim, but I usually always end up with families. I don't like to play with aging off permanently and I don't want the game to end when my Sim dies, so I need to have a new generation.
Many times I play with one Sim quite a long time, though, but they will all start a family at some point. I have few saves with just one Sim right now. It's great when I explore a new pack, for example, because I can concentrate on just that one Sim and it doesn't make things too complicated.

angelbear · August 2021

I start of as single and play them focusing on careers or hobbies why they build relationships. Eventually one of the friends becomes something more and they start a family. The kids grow up move out and becoming part of the rotation.

Calico45 · August 2021

I nearly exclusively play full households in 4, but in the past games I would sometimes play single Sim households. Usually with pets, though. It just cannot hold my attention as well in 4.

In 3 I always get caught up in the skill and skill challenge grinding of one Sim in particular, so single Sim or full household ends up very similar gameplay loop wise.

In 4 I do not get caught up in a single Sim's grind, so I need more going on to keep me interested. Even during a University run, I'd want at least two or three to look after in 4. I have pulled off seven there, thus far, but haven't tried eight.

The only way I could imagine doing it is if I am so absorbed into a single Sim's actions that it somehow didn't matter. I wouldn't really want them to work because then I would have to wait. Or I'd want them to have an active/stay-at-home career, but that could end up feeling like a chore, too. So I would recommend something like that.

Really, it depends on the most interesting part for you. I tend to find complex relationship dynamics very interesting, so anything I come up with usually involves a number of Sims (plus even the best characters reveal their characteristics through interactions with other characters). If 4's skill grind is enough for you, pick it. Same with the career ladder, finding romance, aspirations, etc. Pick a part you find interesting and exploit it.

logion · August 2021

Yes, I have several households with just one sim, it's very relaxing to play them and they are also useful if you just want to advance time because you want another season or something.

My Dream Home Decorator, Patina Wainscot is living alone and it's working pretty well because the career is an active career so I would rarely be able to play any other sim that lives with her anyway.

When I want to play households with more sims I prefer households with three sims, sometimes four but more than that and I find it frustrating, especially now with the teleporting/stairs bugs.

Sindocat · August 2021

Often to explore new game content, and occasionally otherwise. I have a handful of singleton sims, more or less skilled, that I add to saves, and sometimes even play as.

SheriSim57 · August 2021

I play rotational, so I have all kinds of households. Large families, small families, grand parents with grand children, single mothers and fathers with children. Brothers and sisters living together, Generational families, sims that live with friends, and single households.

When I first started playing in 2014, I had 1 household with 8 male sims with one bathroom, and not even enough beds for them all, and all having a job. I think they started off with $20,000 ( together ) to begin with. That was quite a chaotic household in the beginning. I also had one female sim that was my collector. Now,I have tons of household of different sizes, I usually think of the larger households as more challenging. But those 8 sims have broken into 2 houses with 4 each and then broken again, one is a hot headed painter that lives with his baby and ex girlfriend in an apartment in San Myshuno. One is a musician who now has a small but nice apartment in San Myshuno by himself and dates Candy Bher. I have decided I will move 2 of the 8 ( astronaut and secret agent ) into a larger apartment in San Myshuno, I just made 1 of the 8 a new apartment, ( my computer techie ) in evergreen harbor, 1 of the 8 ( a mixologist ), lives in Newcrest in a duplex with his level 10 scientist girlfriend, soon to be married. Another of my 8 ( a baseball MVP ) has been living awhile now with his girlfriend in Willow Creek, they are both working on fame.. And, I have one more that is a CEO, I’m not sure what I am going to do with him yet, but probably a nice luxurious place, most of these 8 know each other pretty well and socialize together…… they have been in my game a long time, and have gone through many changes. I have another single sim ( not from that group ), I made when Strangerville came out, he is in the military, and my hero of strangerville. So, I guess that’s 5 single sims I will be playing in places by themselves now. Though I have other singles living with friends or family as well.

HavenRose · August 2021

I usually start with a single sim, but they tend to find spouses and have families. Then the kids move out, start a family, and so it continues as I rotate through my households. Most of the sims that stay single are the ones I created to play an active career, like my paranormal investigator and my interior designer. Since the rest of the family can’t tag along, it’s easier for me to not give those sims a family. For those ones it’s also easier to keep up with their needs so I can spend most of my time with them doing the career stuff rather than balancing home stuff, which is nice. Test saves tend to have a single sim, but I try not to play with those saves too long; if I like the sim, I’ll move them into my main save.

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Do you play one-sim households?

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