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Going in Circles?
I've played this game for years and it seems that no matter what I do, I always end up coming back to the single sim, living alone, dating the Y. Adult simettes, releasing her when she ages to full Adult so the game will marry her to a game sim, and finding another simette. Or "Going in Circles". I've tried marriage, shacking (that's for the OG Simmers), building a family, playing the lineage game, and married but living apart in different homes. Did you know that if you don't make a simette your girlfriend or boyfriend that the game will marry them to some one else any way (per MCCC)? But it seems like the second I move a sim in my home, in my head I'm starting another game. I must have that "non-commitable" trait that Don Lothario has in rl. At any rate, what's your best or favorite gameplay style? Hmmm!!!
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As for your question for the rest of us regarding our own playstyles. I have been simming since the original TS1 over 20 years ago and I almost always start a game and follow a family across many generations, focusing on one "heir" from each generation, and their (eventual) spouse and then raising the children, repeat.
I do mix it up though, and sometimes I'll have a generation where a Sim chooses not to wed. But I still have children and raise them with just a single parent, because obviously you can't continue a game based on following a family when you run out of family to follow. TS4 also has opened things up in that it allows genetic offspring for same-gender couples. I'm doing that for the first time (for me) in my current game.
I play this way because I find the "super sim" approach boring. Doing everything with one Sim who never dies leaves nothing left to do. I like to do different things and focus on different skills with each generation in my games, but it can take many, many generations to explore and unlock all of the other options in the game (career paths,destinations, aspirations, unlocks, etc) when you also have to manage finding a mate and raising the children. For me that means I get a lot of long-term play out of the game.
My favorite part though really is just seeing what the resulting offspring down through many generations look like. I don't do any CAS editing of those aspects beyond creating just the one sim with which I began the save.
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
Aging off were the key words for me. With that many types of games in one save, aging off is a prerequisite in order to keep up with everybody. Great comment SheriSim57
I play on rotation so every household is different. Most are families, but some are single Sims. I also don't really commit to generations or a gameplay style like I used to in Sims 2. I start new saves a lot and always play different families, but I like playing this way, keeps it interesting. I like playing single Sims when I am building careers. I usually pick based on the pack I want to play or the game activity. Sometimes I just want to knit socks, sometimes farm, sometimes go to Batuu, sometimes do lots of cooking/baking or gardening, sometimes enjoy the San Myshuno apartments, etc. So usually each time I play it's with a few different families. Right now I am playing with my Vampire Sims and have had fun setting up their new story lines for this new save file.
This all changed when I started my current save back when Cottage Living came out. I am currently on generation 3 because I play with slowed down in-game time and customized, rather long life spans. I have not gotten bored yet.
The trick for me was to find a different focus for each generation/main sim. For example, gen 1 started out as 'farmers', focusing on gardening and animal care. The main focus of my main sim from gen 2 was education and aspiring to be a politician, so I took my time going to university and building skills for her dream career (this was cut short, because 2 days after starting her new career she won the lottery and became a millionaire). Gen 3 is focused on winter sports and lives in Mt. Komorebi. The final goal, after maxing rock climbing, skiing and snowboarding skills, is to send her and her partner on a mountain excursion. After that they will move to a bigger house and start a family. For gen 4 I want to explore Jungle Adventure in its entirety. I want them to be an archeologist, Indiana Jones type that makes it their life mission to explore the whole jungle. Gen 5 will solve the mystery of Strangerville which I only purchased during the recent sale. Well and Gen 6? Lets see what new packs will be out. But even if the next pack is not interesting to me, there are still plenty of careers and lifestyles (eg from Island Living) which I have yet to explore. Each generation has different skills, aspirations and also lifestyles to focus on and lives in a different world than the last. That's how I keep the game interesting for me. By actually exploring everything the game has to offer.
I also customize NPCs and will create households for my main family to be friends with/ grow up together with to keep the world around engaging, besides of course having more and more family living around the world. Another trick for me is to turn off aging until my current main sim's mission is achieved, so that they can focus on raising a family later which will then not compromise the main sim's mission. The final aspect of my gameplay is to raise enough money so that the next generation/main sim can buy a nice house when leaving their parents.
Maybe this helps you stay interested. Maybe you have tried this already and it has not worked for you and you just need to find the playstyle that is right for you and keeps you engaged
An in-depth approach can be counted on from you Stormkeep as always. The challenge for me as the "super sim who never dies" is to (1) Never marry. (2) Never have children. (Practice safe woohoo) (3) Never have a full adult girl friend (My MCCC is set to marry full adult sims). (4) Never move a sim in. (It's tempting but it's better to not have to kick her out after I let her go when she ages up. I've got feelings you know?). And lastly (5) The game is over if any of the above occur. I can alone still go through every job type, go fishing (my favorite past time), visit friends, have parties, cheat with another simmette, and tend garden (my other past time) w/o having to care for the life aspiration of a live in sim. At heart I dislike raising children although that is one of the things that makes The Sims great. But kudo's for those that do.
Great comment Elliandre. Question! Is San Myshuno a slow processer or is it just me. My game seems to drag more when I go there than with any other world. And I really wanted to live there (If I can get by the noisy neighbors, or mice, roaches, leaky pipes, earthquakes, and spooky events, that come with some apartments). I never cheat funds so I start off with the average 20,000 and build from there. I think that the graphics, apartment dwellers (there are 10 apartments with at least 2-4 tenants per apt making a total of 20-30 families x the other household members). No other world has so many sims occupying it to me. And if a sim moves from say Oasis Springs, they're bound to live in San Myshuno. I'm sure all of the above causes simulation lag to some degree. Hmmm!!!
I think you are right. I guess I am also still stuck in my old cycle, except that I expanded on it and made it interesting for me. By the way, your 'apocalypse cycle' made me laugh
I have filled all the apartments and don't notice any lag in my game. I really enjoy renovating and living in the apartments. It is more disruptive for sure, but mostly I just call the landlord and whatever issue is solved pretty quick. Some apartments have bad lot traits, but others have nice ones I think there is a good school and penny pixies one.
I live in the 2nd largest city in America, and I bought City Living for that reason alone. When I go to that world, it takes longer to come up as would a base game world. I stripped my mods/cc folder to the bare essentials to alleviate drag on my drivers and it still drags. Mind you that I've taken some pretty big mods off my game. My graphics are set to medium. To set them any lower the game would look like a arcade game in a sense. However, I'll try a new approach to see if I can get that world to speed up it's processing time. Thx Elliandre
I decided that this year is going to be a bit different so I started my first new save in a long time. There is a lot in The Sims 4 that I haven't done because it doesn't necessarily appeal to me. I decided to shake things up and I am going to meet every achievement listed that I possibly can in a year of simming. I just started and completed the entertainer career (comedy branch) and the mischief achievement. Didn't like it except for the voodoo doll. I also decided to try to do the legacy with ten generations (I've done this before just not in a long time) didn't really like the parents but the 1st gen is better now that they are a child and teen.
It's the first time I've had a household living in San Myshuno in quite a few years but I don't recall having had any performance issues there when one of the penthouses was the main family's residence in the last save game I had played either.
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
TS4 has way, way easier needs than previous Sims games. Untuned, Sims only need to eat once a day plus have 1 smaller snack to stay fully fed. And Bladder decays so slowly you can get by using the bathroom only like 2x a day unless you have your Sims drink all the time. I personally made my own tuning mod that makes Fun, Hunger and Bladder all decay more quickly.
TS4 also makes it stupidly easy for a brand new sim household to get a ton of money very quickly. In my last save game I used a tuning mod that made all collectables less profitable (sell for less) to keep it from being too easy.
I didn't bother to use it in the new game I started over Christmas though, and it definitely made a big difference because the family in the current game was super rich while I was still on generation 1....that sure didn't happen in my last game.
Basically I'm recommending that you consider aspects of the game which you think should provide "some" challenge which you don't also absolutely hate dealing with, and consider modding them to increase your challenge. That can help keep the game interesting longer, in my experience.
I do my own tuning mods for stuff if there isn't one already available. That also has the advantage of meaning I am gauranteed that those mods get updated when I need them to be.
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
StormKeep I've got Carls Difficulty mod. It cuts in half all income from any source if you set it to hard, or leaves it super easy as you call it if that's too hard for some people.
I try everything more than once at some point, in various combinations, with a variety of different sims. A gardener/florist with her own retail store would be different to play than a gardener/botanist who works from home, or a gardener/herbalist who hawks their wares at the marketplace.
Clubs really shine when playing rotationally too. It's nice seeing your played sims out and about at places that suit their interests, doing things they would do, with likeminded sims. It's fun to set up rivalries and territories with who hangs out where, and if they play nice together. Your cops might have a regular bar they hang out in, whereas your local thugs hang out at whatever bar takes their fancy that week. Bob forbid they pick the cop bar by accident!
After I finish this Legacy, I'll start a new one trying out my Spellcaster/Alien hybrid Faeries plan and see how that works for a few generations. Then I'll come up with a new spin to explore - like maybe the criminal career, which I've never done, or revisit an old one that I didn't finish because my old computer died and that save requires a lot of mods that I'll have to hunt down.
Basically, my advice is to take your base line and find new spins for it. Explore aspects of the game you haven't tried yet, because I'll bet there's more out there that you haven't touched than the family parts.
So you wanna be a gangster? well get ready to use those very rarely used interactions and they are the Mischief and Mean interactions. TS4 is such a nice game where everyone is cordial and all. But the criminal path requires that you start out making people dislike you and having enemies. Have fun. Ha ha ha
I also loved occult play since Sims 3 (because the older Sims games were harder for me to figure out the occult gameplay for), especially once the playable vampires, mermaids/merfolk, and fairies came around for Sims 3.
(She/her)
I'm not gonna say that having a family is more a girl thing than a guy thing. Lord knows some guy will post that I'm being biased and say that he likes having a family just a much as the girls on the Sims. But I played the Vampire on TS3 and they lived forever didn't they as long as they drank the blood serum didn't they? I forget. And I'm just saying, but the sim does not end up in a relationship by itself. It needs help from you and I. I only allow a relationship to go to the full adult stage then I cut it off and find a younger girlfriend. Sorry ladies. Ha ha ha
Yeah, of course, lol! What I meant was that I always had the tendency to always put all of my sims in relationships and then making them have families.
(She/her)
Not just you. I am usually OK with lag, but when I do get it - San Myshuno.
Shake dreams from your hair
My pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day
The day's divinity....
The Ghost Song - Jim Morrison
Yeah!!! San Myshuno lives up to the saying "Great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there."
It also requires the Vampires game pack, and a lot of sims saved to your library, but you can grab them from the gallery.
Create a Vampire sim.
Set the world to Short Lifespan. You're a vampire, it doesn't matter. (You can do this on a longer lifespan too, if you really want. I just think Short is the best to simulate how quickly non-vampires will die off.)
Play as normal until you hook up with a Sim you particularly like
Go into CAS with her and save her to your Library.
Take a picture together.
Rather than moving her out when she hits Adult, kill her off. (Use cheats or otherwise force the situation)
Go into MCCC's Tray Import settings and turn it up to however easy you want this to be. The higher the percentage, the easier it will be.
Keep playing as normal until the game generates her again (pulled from your Tray.)
Take a picture again.
Repeat until she's been reincarnated 3, 5, 7, 9 or 13 times (your choice)
Have your vampire turn her into one, and they live Vampirically ever after.
Start a new save.
Small edit because you only need to save her to your library once