Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.
How do you play the Sims? Please share your own personal style of gameplay. :)
TheStarrSimmer
Posts: 206 Member
Speaking specifically about Sims 4...but all versions of the Sims are welcome.
For example:
How many households are in your main story?
How many Households to you play at the same time?
Do you Play with mods?
Do you play without mods?
How do you use the calendar and aging process?
How often do you use cheats?
What makes your play style unique?
Post anything you wish, I'm curious to see the different ways to play the game. o_o
For example:
How many households are in your main story?
How many Households to you play at the same time?
Do you Play with mods?
Do you play without mods?
How do you use the calendar and aging process?
How often do you use cheats?
What makes your play style unique?
Post anything you wish, I'm curious to see the different ways to play the game. o_o
3
Comments
I have no main story but 117 played households and counting.
I play one household at a time, of course, but the household I play at any given time might interact with sims from several other households.
I usually play without mod.
I use calendar for keeping tracks on birthdays and festivals.
I use cheats on daily basis as I don't want money to be an issue and don't want my sims to suffer from my bad planning.
My play style is hardly unique but pretty confusing especially to myself who has a hard time keep tracks on the households and storylines.
Edit: When possible, I tend to give every household a yoga mat, an ice cream maker, a washer, a dryer, skies, snowboards, knitting tools, soccer balls and handheld vacuums.
I play with Aging turned off, this allows me to play at my own pace and age them up as i go. When it comes to the in-game calendar, I play with 4 weeks per season so I can experience them longer and it feels more like a year going by. Not only that...but I added months to my calendar. I even did math to divide the days up lol. A little obsessive I know, but I love it.
I have a few mods, not too many though. When I played Sims 2 I had tons of Mods. but for Sims 4 not so much. I but the mods I do use make the experience a little better.
I have one main save/family that I've played for the last five years. I recently started a couple of new saves for scenarios but am looking forward to trying some with my existing family.
Juliette, Hannah, and Isabel started out as triplets. Once they all mastered toddler-hood I aged them up to child. Juliette was the first to age up to teenager. She's now a young adult. Hannah was aged to child and Isabel remained in the toddler stage for about another year before aging up to child. Hannah will be aging to teen very soon.
Aging is off. I age up when I feel it's time and don't consider one sims' age in relation to another. My parents and eldest daughter Juliette are all young adults.
There is no death in my game. (Except for the one time I killed off a bunch of townies to get headstones for my cemetery.)
Julianna (mom) is sort of my do it all sim. Whenever a new GP or EP with a new world is released I'll move her out to check out the new world, features, aspirations, careers, etc.
There's always plenty to do with several family owned businesses, bakery, vet clinic, wedding boutique, spa retail, two restaurants, farming animals, clubs, lots of friends and extended family.
I've played this way with each version of the sims and never get bored.
I use the calendar to keep track on birthdays and such, but since I only have a few packs, I don't really have any festivals or things like that. My aging is usually set to normal lifespan, but if I sometimes feel like I'd like to play with a sim for a longer time in certain life stage, I'll just set it off :)
I don't think this way of playing is very unique, but it still brings me joy lol, I guess I sort of love to micromanage and I rarely get bored as I always come up with different stories and situations to get my sims into.
@TheStarrSimmer and @BoergeAarg61 , I can just say wow! I would die if I had that many households, so kudos to you - your game styles sound incredible :)
I usually only play one household, typically on Long life, because Normal isn't quite long enough, and while Long is a bit *too* long, I can always age people up early. It also allows me to occasionally switch to another household to set up future tales if my main house is at a good "holding" point where I don't feel I need to work on things to further my story, but I also like to roll with what the game presents a lot of the time too. I like the world to age with my sim, and not micro manage it to have it happen.
I'll set a goal for each generation, usually something collectables related, but not always. Sometimes the goal is purely narrative. If there's an accompanying aspiration, so much the better, but if not I'll go with something complimentary. And then I play to get to that goal, with the next generation coming along whenever it "feels right"
I use the calendar to set holidays, but I'll adjust the traditions based on the current generation (when I remember) I like two week seasons, because then it gives me more time to add in more holidays without having to crowd them all into one week. I'll often make a "summer break" between Summer Geek Con and the summer Humor and Hijinks festival (which I can set up once I get to see what pattern of City Living festivals I got.
Mod use varies. At the moment, I'm playing vanilla, because I heard a rumor that we may be getting another patch soon, but that might have been in reference to the Error code 0 patch. But otherwise I'll have a handful in. I'm constantly trying to reduce my mod use, though. Just because then it's one less thing I have to update.
I have many many saves, at least 30 I think, with anything from 3 to 15-20 households in each. Except one, my first save. I only play one family there. I usually start with a single sim, male or female, and take it from there. They get jobs, meet other sims, and eventually someone they are attracted to. Get married, have kids etc.
I have a lot of mods. A LOT. Some gameplay, others are bugfixes and annoyance tuners. Some I can talk about, some I can't. I don't have much CC, just a skin overlay and body hair. And some walls/floors and paintings I made myself.
I don't do much with the calendar, except a little bit of editing on excisting holidays, and I use 3-4 mods to remove the random "events" like Rebate day, Skill day, Neighbourhood brawl etc. I have some times added like a Summer Fun and Easter holidays, if I remember to do it. I've been meaning to have longer seasons, but I always forget
I will sometimes use money cheats to build my sims house, or freerealestate to move them into an excisting house, and buy things they will need for skills and work. I leave them with very little money, because too much is boring. I will very often use cheats to get higher friendships with other sims, after my sim has done a proper introduction. If they get on the relationship panel before an intro, delete and start again. That's why I hate when other sims push themselves into a convo, especially the same second my sim says hello to another. MCCC is very handy with this, same with UIcheats.
I love playing occults, so every one of my sims will eventually end up as one. Mostly vampires, but also spellcasters and mersims. I'm not too interested in aliens, although I do have at least one hybrid vamp/alien as a result of abduction. I'm sure there are a couple more in my many families, but I just don't find them that interesting.
Gallery: Kathykins
AHQ - Game help and Bugs
How many Households to you play at the same time?
I have a lot of different saves that I play rotationally (I haven't counted recently but I think there's about 60 of them now) and I usually play just one household per save. I have few saves in which I play several households, though.
Do you Play with mods?
Do you play without mods?
I'm 100% vanilla player. I've never had any mods and I never will, at least until Sims 4 is finished and there won't be any more updates, I've never been insterested of any mods and there aren't any that I'd even want in my game right now. I also don't want to use mods to fix the bugs in the game, it's EA's job. I'd rather use my time to play the game than fiddle with mods.
How do you use the calendar and aging process?
I use the calendar to check on the upcoming weather, birthdays and events. I also use it to set up few extra holidays and events.
I normally use either normal or long lifespan, but I start with aging off until my Sim or Sims have gotten their lives and careers going well, I don't like to hurry with them. Sometimes I even turn the aging temporarily off later if I feel like I need more time until my Sims will age up.
How often do you use cheats?
I don't use any money or skill cheats unless I play a challenge that requires one. The only cheats that I use is bb.moveobjects on (very rarely), headlineeffects off (for screenshots) and recently I've needed gardening cheats because of the gardening bug that EA hasn't been able to fix.
What makes your play style unique?
I don't think my playstyle is unique, I just enjoy playing different saves. I play normal family game, challenges and occults, whatever. I never get bored because I have so many different saves that I can change whenever I feel like it.
My play style is very slow and I don't need "big things" to happen all the time, I can enjoy simple things too. I get usually very attached to my Sims, especially the ones that have a strong personality. I also don't like to kill my Sims or any other Sims, it's not my kind of fun in Sims 4.
How many households are in your main story? Tough call on that. I often don't have 'main story', rather go where my personal whim takes me. So when playing that household, it becomes my 'main story'. If I had to give a number, 20? 30?
How many Households to you play at the same time? Again, it depends. At a time in a real playing session, probably not more than four households.
Do you Play with mods? Yes.
How do you use the calendar and aging process? Good question. I generally don't pay much attention to the calendar. For aging, I have it super-long. For aging up, mainly manual. Though, if I forget about a household for a long time, sims will age up eventually. So not aging off.
How often do you use cheats? To be honest, I always type in testingcheat on, cas.fulleditmode right away, and usually bb.moveobjects. The for moveobjects, I switch that on and off.
What makes your play style unique? Everyone has a unique style. This question is so vague a million million million answers could be here. Making everyone unique.
I'm not sure how many households I have but with all the babies from Neighborhood Stories I'm at 333 Sims right now with several pregnant Sims with more babies on the way.
How many households do you play at the same time?
I play randomly on rotation so I don't really have a schedule or set number of households to play in my game.
Do you play with or without mods?
Right now I'm not playing with mods, but I usually like to add food mods that give more recipes like the ones by ONI, littlebowbub and icemunmun and the mod that gives 4 CAS columns.
How do you use the calendar and aging process?
I like to fill the calendar with holidays that give Sims days off work. I usually like to have 14 day long seasons. I play with aging off.
How often do you use cheats?
I often use the money cheat 'kaching' and the cas.fulleditmode cheat to edit Sims personality and physical traits and relationships.
What makes your play style unique?
I don't think I have a unique play style. Maybe just that I like to add all generations to households from elder to toddlers, I'm not sure if that's common or not.
How many Households to you play at the same time?
Played households, right now, are 4, but it's been as high as 7 in this current game. It fluctuates as generations grow up, go off to college, get married and settle down, have kids, and eventually die. Predominately the households I play are the descendants of the 1 sim I started this game with, plus 2 'immortal' children that he adopted (1 is a witch and 1 is a vampire), so my game is basically a hybrid of legacy and rotational play.
My game also has an additional 60 households as supporting, though unplayed households. They have homes, careers, and MCCC is set to protect them so that they are for sure never culled and their family lineage always continues in that home, but I do not play them. All 60 are the 3rd/4th generation descendants of EA/Maxis pre-made households that I picked as ones that I want to have continuing presence in my game. At any point in time I may choose to play one of them for a generation (done that only once so far, before marrying that generation into my family).
Do you Play with mods?
With mods. Lots and lots and lots of mods. Mostly mods to fix/tweak things that either dont' work or which I think should work better/differently.
How do you use the calendar and aging process?
I have aging on for active, played households and turn it on for unplayed households when playing just 1 of the played households in my rotation. I do this so that unplayed townies age at about the same rate as my played sims. I have lifespan set to normal, but have YA and Adult lifestages set to about double the defaults, so that my sims have time to do more than just 'raise a family' before they die of old age.
I also have Cats and Dogs set to have an adult lifespan that is almost equal to the total lifespan of a Sim, because pets dying is a sad, sad thing.
I use the calendar for everything it is designed to be used for. Holiday and event planning, weather forecasts, watching for birthdays and other upcoming events, etc.
How often do you use cheats?
Other than MOO, I generally do not use any 'cheats' unless the game glitches and a cheat is required to fix it.
What makes your play style unique?
Me...I'm pretty certain that there's no such thing as a 'unique playstyle' in the Sims, so many people play it. But every simmer is unique, which puts that tiny bit of uniqueness into each simmer's game.
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
I play immortal sims and age them and add family members (whether through adoption or pregnancy) whenever I want them to. I play a lot of couples that end up getting married and having kids or families with some babies or toddlers and kids.
I love the various family gameplay and occult gameplay.
I love to explore aspects of new packs, but only if it fits the sims’ personalities/character.
I rotate among several families, but there are a handful that I stick with for longer times.
I use the calendar when making holidays or events.
Oh, and I use money cheats a lot when building houses or venues because I get tired of grinding the jobs just to get some basics, and I want to get straight to the childcare aspects or romance aspects, and then tackle the new gameplay of new packs, new skills, and also check out new venues, neighborhoods, etc.
I think all simmers have their own unique way of playing, so I can’t answer that, hehe.
Overall, I play immortal family, build relationships, raise families and add new family members and make changes to families, raise skills, go up career ladders (or work from home) or gain fame, play around with occult skills and abilities, keep meeting new sims, try out new gameplay systems, have sims try to run or manage businesses, and just exploring whatever aspects of a pack I feel like playing with.
I play very relaxed and slow in all of the Sims games, lol. 😄
(She/her)
I only use one mod, which I am not allowed to discuss. All I can say is that it adds much comedic value to my game.
I am also heavily into rotational play---I'd get bored fast playing the same household.
I have 5 saves at the moment--4 have aging off, 1 has aging on. But I rarely play that one
I now have 6 different timeline game saves, they are:
Prehistoric game save
Ancient-Dark Ages game save
Medieval-Renissance game save
Georgian-Ragtime game save
Roaring 20s-Awesome 80s game save
Futuristic 2525-Beyond game save
My favorite themes of my households & their homes are:
Disney Prince/Princess/Villains with a twist
Superheroes/Supervillains with a twist
SciFi of Star Trek/Stargate/Star Wars/Doctor Who so far
Enchanted Forest/Hobbit/Oz/Wonderland
Underworld/Original Charmed
Hybrids
Angels/Demons with a twist
Mythology Immortals
Hercules with Xena
Red Ridinghood
Basically a variety of themes not based on boring present day.
I only play Vanilla with all my Packs & use the Motherlode & Build cheats alot.
I have all my builds & households saved in the Gallery under my username SEREFRAS.
The save I play the most is the rotational save that's up to 22 households right now. I play each for a week at a time and have aging on for the active household only so they age at the same rate. Most are descended from my founding sims but I also have a separate household for each occult that I have access to. The descendants are more goal oriented and family focused, while the occults are either go with the flow or plot driven play.
My oldest save is just one household with aging on, but I use manage households to maintain several other family lines so every generation has people to befriend. I am currently playing this save and letting neighborhood stories do that part instead to see how that goes.
The newest save is kind of on hiatus for right now, as I just created it to test out DU with rotational play. It has two households in rotation for now, with plans to expand in future generations. I probably won't play it much until I get bored with the main save. It's going to have aging on for all sims, but I deleted all the premades except in Britechester. I plan to add them back one neighborhood at a time as I play, so different generations of my sims will have different premades to age with them.
I use MCCC sparingly, and no other mods at the moment. I mostly use it to prevent random relationship and sim culling, enable manual relationship culling, and set custom age spans.
In my oldest save I have always played on normal age settings, using potions of youth to extend the adult stage a little. In my main save I have set custom lengths with MCCC to create a balance that feels more realistic to me. In the newer save I will probably do the latter, though I might change my numbers a little bit.
My main save's calendar has four week seasons and a ton of holidays. I haven't made any changes from the default in the other saves yet.
I use cheats occasionally, usually build mode or CAS related.
The most unique thing about my gameplay is the way I combine premades and occults. I'm guessing no one else had Don Lothario and Diego Lobo captured by vampires to use for food, then made into playable ghosts after they froze to death, now hanging out in a haunted house in Newcrest with the ghost of Gunther Munch and an animated scarecrow, occasionally having lightsaber battles or seances while wearing jack-o-lanterns on their heads. In contrast my family focused households are pretty normal.
I don't really have a "main" story. I have three different ways that I play:
Game driven rambling stories - I currently have 16 saves like this. Most have only one household I play. A few have 2 to 4 households I play.
Plot driven SimLit - I have 2 stories I am writing, where I use Sims 4 more as a creative studio for taking screenshots than a game. Each story has 3 saves dedicated to it, for getting different kinds of screenshots. Each story has 5 main POV households, and various supporting cast households.
Just making stuff - I like building lots and making sims. I have 3 saves just for making random lots and sims for no specific reason.
Mods
Mods. Oh my goodness. I have so many mods. I have so many mods that I use a spreadsheet to keep track of them all.
Calendar and aging
I use the calendar to check for upcoming events and create my own custom holidays. I also make "holidays" that are really just reminders for things I want to do with my sims, such as going on a family vacation.
Aging is turned off in every single one of my saves. Sometimes I say I'm going to age sims up manually at some point, but so far I have never really gotten around to it.
Cheats
Yup. I use them. Pretty much all the time.
Unique?
I don't know that anything I do is truly unique. But I suppose some things that make my games my own are:
-Heavy on the male sims. I counted. I have 65 male sims I regularly play with and only 11 females.
-Very few families. Most of my sims are single, or childless couples. I only have 5 households with offspring (almost all are toddlers).
-Many "occult" sims. I'm a fantasy and sci-fi nerd. So of course, I use these a lot. Also, both of my SimLit stories are fantasy stories.
-Very few careers. I don't use the careers much (except the active ones and the ones with a "work from home" option). A lot of my sims just make money by crafting, collecting, or growing stuff.
I don't have a main story, or even a single main save, for that matter. There are many, many households involved in a number of different kinds of stories in several different saves. I have no idea exactly how many sims in how many households. Possibly in the hundreds all told.
How many Households to you play at the same time?
I have one save in which I play only one sim in one household. There are other household members that I only play if there's an emergency, as the purpose of that save is to play just that one particular sim through his entire life from birth to death. However, all my other saves vary widely in how many households I rotate between.
Do you Play with mods?
Ohhh yeah.
Do you play without mods?
Nope. Well, not unless you count occasional testing. But that's too much like work for me to call play.
How do you use the calendar and aging process?
I don't play with Seasons, so the calendar is mainly used to check on upcoming festivals and the like. Everyone ages in my game except for certain individual sims. That would be vampires (once they've reached young adulthood) or others I've specifically designated as immortal for story purposes.
How often do you use cheats?
As often as I wish.
What makes your play style unique?
No one else is me, so there's that.
For more details, here's a copy of a post I made in another thread a few days ago.
Because I can't; I keep all sigs turned off.
One principle household with as many supporting characters as I need. I play stories and cast them with my own sims and premades. As the story evolves, the number of active characters played changes.
How many households do you play at the same time?
It depends. The main household and closest supporting characters, plus whichever townies can contribute to the immediate story.
Do you play with mods?
Yes, but only the ones I really need.
Do you play without mods?
Sometimes
How do you use the calendar and aging process?
I use the calendar for holidays and to schedule group events. I play with aging off so my story isn’t rushed. Age up is always done manually when appropriate to my story.
How often do you use cheats?
All the time.
What makes your play style unique?
I play my game like I’m writing and directing a play. It’s digital theater to me. But, just like real life theater, the director sometimes gets a creative surprise that sends the story in an unexpected direction. That’s why I play this game. The Sims is the only game that can give me that kind of interactive creative platform.
Tales From The Myst
The Blue Moon Jukebox
I play one household at a time in each story. That's the easiest way for me to keep track of who I am playing.
I used to play with one mod but it recently stopped working (TwoJeffs' College Adjuster for Sims 2). I deleted it.
No calendar and no age adjustment because I can't find how to do that in Sims 2.
I use kaching ($1,000 Simoleons) and maxmotives (fills all motives at the same time) all the time. Especially if I need to get something done like a term paper or studying that will take all night lol
I am a family player. I play my game for my Sims to gain skills, friends, and future spouses. I also fulfill Wants most of the time. If I see my Sim likes a specific dormie or Townie, I will build a relationship with that Sim. I don't have any of this planned in my head before I start playing. I see what their Lifetime Want is and try to get as close to fulfilling that as possible. This is why I start in University. It gives me extra time in a Sim's life to get where they want.
How many Households to you play at the same time? Gilbert mostly, occasionally Hanna, sometimes Foy, the others I'm still getting to know.
Do you Play with mods? Nope. Never have, never will.
Do you play without mods? Yep.
How do you use the calendar and aging process? Aging is off for me. I want to give them a chance to live a bit before aging them up myself. I want to age up the Gilbert kids soon. And I'm still learning how to use the calendar.
How often do you use cheats? As with mods, never have, never will.
What makes your play style unique? I enjoy playing the game? Lol.
I play aging off, but turn it on for ne night per year (New Years Eve).
I use UI Cheat and a handful minor mods. I mostly avoid mods that add new gameplay, because I have only one main save and don't wanna risk it go bunkers because of mods no longer being compatible.
I mostly cheat needs, because there often is so much better stuff to focus on than using the toilet.
I use the calendar more for weather forecast than events.
I have a working Council, and I know who are members of the kingdom's People Chamber, Royal Chamber and head of High Court. Also keep track on core group of 3 political parties, although not playing all the members.
How many Households to you play at the same time?
I only play 1 household currently. I might play rotationally once the family expands a bit.
Do you Play with mods?
Yes, absolutely. I wouldn't enjoy the game without mods.
How do you use the calendar and aging process?
I play with aging on but I use MCCC to customize the lifespans. I hate aging Sims up early and always try to throw birthday parties. I use the calendar to make holidays and to schedule events.
How often do you use cheats?
I try to avoid using cheats for normal day-to-day stuff and only use them for "fixing" things.
It's ironic, I have the same issue, but in reverse lol...My Sims 2 won't work on my laptop, so I play sims 4. That is also what pushed me to sims 4.
When I played sims 2 I had a few households in my custom neighborhood. I deleted all the other neighborhoods and moved their sims. So all the sims from each neighborhood lived in the same place, it was crazy. lol
In sims 2 it's 4 days per season, so when i played a household i would play until the season ended, then i would rotate to the next one. this made them age up somewhat evenly.
I recently started a new rotational game. I think I've played about 20 households so far, I'm guessing the total will be about 50 by the time I've been round once. I try to have as many variables as I can - different traits, aspirations, jobs, hobbies, some occult, some with pets, singles, couples, families etc.
How many households do you play at the same time?
If you mean how many in one save, please see above.
Do you play with or without mods?
I use MCCC solely to stop relationship decay whilst I rotate. I also have a few small DTB mods and one that stops the dreadful shoe removal animation.
How do you use the calendar and aging process?
I have 28 day seasons, ageing on for active household only and then ageing on for unplayed sims for about 5 days per sim year.
How often do you use cheats?
I never use gameplay cheats. I will sometimes use build cheats, eg. Enablefreebuild so that I can replace the hospital, police station and science lab. Occasionally MOO for decor like putting garden flowers next to rocks or in big bunches etc.
What makes your play style unique?
I doubt very much it is unique in any way. I do like to keep a PowerPoint photo album for every household I play, then when I rotate back to them I can look at their screenies to remind myself what happened last time.
I play rotational with about 2-3 of those 23 saves. When I have a goal for a sim or family, I will play them until the goal is achieved. There is no set time I play with each sim.
I play with a lot of mods, most of which corrects bugs EA forgot and MCCC because I want a decent story progression. I have lots of cc of which I use discriminately as I do like some of EA's stuff. I must have alpha hair because EA's hairs are...dang ugly.
I only use the calendar to check the holidays and make sure Father Winter and the dreaded Flower Bunny aren't included. Oh and the gnomes, the grand meal and anything else that is annoying to a single sim.
I play on normal lifespan now, with a little tweak from MCCC that makes the normal just a little bit longer. I used to play on long but nobody I played in rotation died. The neighborhoods moved on from my sims and I was getting to know 2nd and 3rd descendants of the original townie sims. I rarely play families but when I do they are not over 3-4 sims. I found out that my sim doesn't need to do everything in their lives, their kids can do stuff they didn't get to do. Works for me.
I play almost exclusively with occults, spellcasters, vampires and I want to get into mermaids in Sulani. Normal sims are just too darn boring, lol.
I use cheats frequently.
I don't think my style is unique, I read a couple of other simmers who play the way I do. I don't usually compare my gameplaying style with anyone, well except my sister's style. If she doesn't have 8+ sims in a house she gets bored.
I've never had just one main story save, I've played many, many different saves (and still do) because I love playing challenges. However, last year and this year I do have a 'main' story save for my One Month One World One Year Challenge. In this save I have around 70 or so households, but the majority do not live in houses. They are; other challengers Sims, NPCs I created or saved/modified, a very few premades, and my own Sims from past challenges.
How many Households do you play at the same time?
I always play just one household at a time. I have never played in a rotation and I never will. It's just not something that is appealing to me. I'd rather focus on and develop one household. Having a thriving neighborhood with everyone interacting with everyone else and progressing isn't the way I like to play. Hence the reason I have Neighborhood Stories turned off. I am very much in the minority with this, I know. Most play Legacies, and I have tried to in the past, but I never get very far. I don't like to play large households for one thing. It stresses me out since I'm a micromanager.
Do you Play with mods?
For the majority of this iteration I played a vanilla game. But last June, I started using Mods/CC and I LOVE it! I kind of wish I had used them right from the beginning now. I don't have much, mostly gameplay mods to improve/remove things that annoy me, and CAS CC. I don't have any object CC. The most recent mod I got is Andrews Pose Player. Such a fun mod! My favorites are UI Cheats Extension, Build Mode Free Camera, T.O.O.L., a mod that makes it so townies don't bother my Sims, and one that gets rid of those darn lot trait lightbulbs/plus signs.
Again, unlike the majority of Simmers, I don't have MCCC. I feel that mod is mostly for those that enjoy story progression and I don't. I know it does more than that, of course. But UI Cheats does most of the same things I'd want it for anyway. I might get it some day and check it out though. *shrugs* My favorite CC is body hair, eyelashes, hairstyles, default Maxis Match eyes (gets rid of the shine), and my one and only lipstick CC I use all the time. I have a few other things, but those are my favorites.
How do you use the calendar and aging process?
I don't use the calendar all that much except when needed for challenges or to check the weather for future outdoor events. I don't have any custom holidays and I have removed a lot of the default holidays. Aging is off for 99% of my saves, unless there's a rule it must be on for a challenge. Otherwise, I age up my Sims myself using a cake or just do it in the household inventory. I always play using the Normal length of life for my Sims if I do have aging on for a challenge.
How often do you use cheats?
Every single time I play, I use at least one cheat, sometimes more. I very, very rarely use any money cheats to increase their funds though, mostly to decrease them. I love MOO and use it all the time when building. Mostly just to place items on surfaces, or move objects closer together. Now and then I'll use it for something custom made, but it's rare. Never use it on interactive objects unless I know after playtesting it'll work as intended. I use a lot of cheats, but most of them are in relation to building or on Sims I'm not actively playing in a challenge.
I do use them for storytelling purposes on an active challenge Sim though, but make an alternate save to get screenshots so the challenge save stays cheat free if they're not allowed. I love T.O.O.L., but I'm a noob with it so don't use it very often. Mostly just to make a rug a custom size, etc., or put something off grid to use. For instance I built a place for my last year challenge Sims to get married in the middle of the Brambles.
What makes your play style unique?
I don't know how unique my play style is, I'm sure there must be others that play somewhat the way I do. However, there are a few things I believe put me in the minority pool of Simmers. Well, at least among Simmers here on this forum anyway.
Happy Simming!