My favorite thing in the sims has always been playing with a big cast of characters, creating links between families. I like playing in a very loose rotation, always aging off, jumping from households to households as the mood strikes. Sometimes you wanna play a nice happy family, other times you need to play an unhinged old dude with his 16 cats, you feel me? A save always feels more special when you "know" everyone!
Sadly blogs and forums are dying and it's getting harder to find people who play like me. So please, tell me all about your world! What's your favorite families, how long have you played them, what's going on in their lives? Do you plan in advance and make their homes etc match your vision or do you make a household and go with the flow? At what point do you feel like a household's story is "finished" and you let them become a background character? Have you ever revived a background character because they were better suited for a new pack?
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Gameplay; there are never any background stories (or families) in my games, my sims live for the moment. If I send a sim to my outdoor club in Windenburg in a blizzard, and people are dancing in the snow (and falling lol), that's the story. It's all about making my sims do funny stuff.
Oh, and as for big saves; I think I have a couple of them with over 50 households?
My favourite save is my Legacy save. I play each family member on a rotational basis. I am currently playing with grandchild 7/10 of the original founder. I play each family until each child has gone through uni and has got married and had their first child. It is getting longer and longer to play each family with each new pack that is released. Growing Together is going to make a massive difference to my game and I can see it taking even longer to play each rotation but I'm not complaining! There is a link to my legacy tree in my signiture.
so for me its more about exploring them all in my own time
I've been playing this save about 3? years by now
and most of the households are only like on the first few children
I also aspire to build something of my own for every lot in the game while at it
so thats rather time consuming
as for stories i sometimes scheme beforehand
and sometimes i just feel like playing some family without particular goal
and as for when story is finished it really never is
unless the sim is dead they'll be on background chillin as i play other household
I don't really revive sims all that much
because i feel like by the time i kill them their purpose in the story is fulfilled
i don't want to do everything in the game with one family and all that
but i do have plans to maybe resurrect Emily Parcel when I get HSY
because she barely got to exist in my save
before she had the bad luck of meeting Olive Specter
and I do think I might make her teacher
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I pick an expansion pack or game pack or stuff pack, and they will focus on that until they ‘complete’ it. They will wear the CAS, live in the world, use the B/B, do the gameplay features. Then when they’re done take a nice photo and move onto the next adventure. Their story is very casual, like a cartoon TV series or something. I’ve done this for about half a year and it’s the most fun I had with sims.
For growing together I’m giving them a complete reboot and starting a new save where they will grow up from children with new looks, the extra personality traits and a family which I will also try to keep playing. When they are teens again I am thinking to move them to Get Famous or Eco Lifestyle to continue their adventures.
Having the additional family members will help me play some of the more ‘solo’ packs that are hard to play with 3 sims - I might have their uncle open a restaurant for example.
Prior to that I was focusing on all sims in San Myshuno but I find rotational play a bit difficult and never come back to older sims. I do think it’s very cool if you can make a whole world of your own sims.
But my favourite one I am so connected with most of my sims. Started as a strict rotation fully planned out. But I found this a bit hard to maintain and I used to lose interest if I got to a household where I wasn't quite sure of a plan for them, or it was a bit boring getting them there.
So then I decided I would make it more relaxed. I choose at random, but I do have a notebook of ages and family links so that I make sure they are aged up in the right order etc.
And I go with the flow more, I recently found a household with a toddler and a baby in it, no parents so I had one of my sims take them in. Took a lot of figuring out and has completely thrown off my originals plans for them, but seems to have opened up the possibilities a bit more. I also think this could go so well with Growing Together, not too sure if the family dynamics will be relevant though as they aren't official children.
In this save I have:
A scientist girl who took in her little alien brother (who was a massive curveball in my game anyway) when her mum died and dad moved to the retirement home. Actually ended up working so well for her story.
A pro at flower arranging and has her own store she runs with her husband and has his son and adoptive daughter chat with the customers when they get back to school.
A 5 star celeb.
A wannabe criminal who married a guy, stole his money, slept around with other men and woman fathered twins who have disappeared (literally, they have pictures in his family tree but are completely gone from game and not aging either,) but he has semi learnt the error of his ways. He got a young girl pregnant and decided he didn't want to lose this child too so they are settling down together.
I had the 'perfect' nuclear family, the son has grown up wanting the same thing, they won the lottery, had twins themselves and now his wife isn't happy.. Not sure on where this one is going to go just yet...
I have a police man. An explorer...
I need to start planning the next generations starting points really.
Basically trying to get a bit of variety throughout the families in this save. Sorry for the rambling!
When Sims4 came around I brought Erik back to be my Founder of the Pinstar Legacy Challenge. I discovered playing on normal was just too short. Erik died and then his wife died a few hours apart. I decided after I completed the challenge (when the first heir of generation ten was born) that I wanted to play him again. On LONG. Some of you have read my updates and know how often I've had to restart.
So, it's no surprise, I'm sure, that I have chosen Erik and his bride-to-be, to be the first of my Sims to play with Infants.
I also play a loose rotation, if you can even call it that. Particularly when I was playing my ancestral save. I have my favorites, that I don't like to leave, but if one of the other families was due to have another child, I would pop on over and using MCCC get that child started, or sometimes even born, if I left things too late. It's a bit more fun for me to do it that way, rather than a strict, house one, house two, house three, start again.
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Like I said, I don't play it very often anymore. I got frustrated when I realize I had skipped generation 4's toddler pictures and lost all motivation. Until that point, I had every single lifestage of every single sim documented.
The initial vampire save I did that was long term turned into one where the initial vampire served to sire the second [the face of my avatar] which I then decided was my favorite and is 520some days old. I also have a variation of that save where she is stand alone and racking up quite the fortune as the night time shift crime leader... Oracle.
But that first save was unique in that the family won the lotto of a million simoleans and such.. Its getting fairly empty, that first save. That save, vampire retired from Oracle and went to scientists career, then dabbled in stuff... And had children as well, I dont really know how many, just that its been over 10 kids that have been grown up and moved/died/etc..
Similar with the second variable on that save, she's had a number of kids and they've grown and such...
Then there's my Yopson save. He started out in the detective career and had a cat. I eventually let the cat die or something as I started basically seeing how many kids I could get before it broke the game... Thus far, he has fathered 114 kids in total; about 5-10 have already died, and he has several grandkids somewhere in that game. I have taken the choice to export several of his offspring into my library. As far as I can tell, he's had 14 kids with an imported version of Lilith Pleasant and 2-6 children with many of the other females in that game. Even ended a couple papparazi this way.... Nosy things.
Depending on the update, I'm leaning toward Yopson settling down with Lilith Pleasant, maybe 130 kids isnt all that far off anymore...
I play every family, but my main family are the Stellars. They're a spellcaster family who don't have a concrete theme compared to most families, since I like to change things up. But unlike most spellcasters, they're more willing to marry outside their life state. The current religious leader is one of their ancestors, and that's a whole bit of drama because he had to execute the current heir's dad for plot-related reasons, it's this whole thing.
The Sims 4 hasn't introduced a new musical instrument since 2017
Once Gen 3 got together, I ran out of steam on their stories. The story needed something like werewolves, but at the time those weren't anywhere near the roadmap. I didn't want to stop with those sims since I was so attached, but I didn't have any ideas for where to take them. I tend to set up an end goal for my sims, then roll with whatever the game gives me on the way. My stories have been way better for not sticking strictly to the script. If I had stuck to my original plan, I would have just had two cookie-cutter families living in the suburbs instead of three occult families building towards...something.
I'm not a huge builder, but I love taking photos. I just trawl through tumblr looking for suitable houses. This storyline actually happened across 3 saves. The first I just moved into a better, rebuilt save file very early on, no story explanation. MCCC settings got away from me, so I needed to move them again. I made an evil spellcaster to play the paranormal pack, and she was instantly attracted to my main spellcaster. So that made a convenient story was to justify suddenly dragging them all into a completely different reality. I tend to get the kids to play out new packs or make a new sim and work them into the main storyline.
I never intended to let any of them fade into background characters; I couldn't bear for them to age and die off unplayed. However, I recently had an idea for how to work in werewolves and a few favorite characters into a new variation on this main story. I've been making a lot of extra background characters in CAS while waiting for Growing Together to drop, and imported a extra families that I played for a short period before moving on. Once I update to infants, I'm going to get back into this with a new save for the favorites - new makeovers, new friends, new buildings. It's going to be fun.
My other save was a legacy, so I only cared about the one main family. I kept it separate because I didn't care about the background characters, and I knew it would bother me if any of my faves did weird things in the background.
The story in this save revolves around the detective career sims and their extended families, to the point that whenever world-shattering events occur (like werewolves getting discovered, magic coming to the world or the first contact with Sixam), those events somehow are centered on the Detroit municipal police, central station. It's totally unrealistic, but that's just how things are.
Supporting characters fade in and out of the spotlight. I play a household intensely and then have them stay in the background for rl months. Sometimes I think I do not really play my sims, but the overall story of my city. I decide what event will happen next, and then I pick a family that fits this theme best.
I couldn't tell you exactly how many households I have, but I'm usually hitting right around, or just under 200 played Sims. I try to keep 200 as the cap for performance, but there are some "background" sims that I move in and out of unplayed periodically, whenever I need room to have a baby, add a pet, etc. I've never had a problem with any of those being culled, as they are housed, have jobs, and have relationships with my played sims. (I also regularly cull the unplayed sims that are automatically generated.)
Someone pointed out to me a few years ago that the premades/townies for various worlds often have a hidden trait to indicate that they are a native of that world. (E.g., Sulani native, Henford native, etc.). So when I start a new pack, I go in and evict all of the premades, then add them to one household with maybe some townies, local sims from the gallery, or sims of my own creation, and I make sure that they already have (or I add) that hidden trait, before evicting them all again. That way, I can free up houses, while also improving my odds of having locals of my own choice wandering around, instead of just, like, Nancy and Katrina. However, sometimes I will also temporarily leave the premades in their original homes until I actually have a need to move in a different household.
While I don't play with most of the premades, I do at least occasionally check in on the classics, like the Goths and Landgraabs, and definitely give them jobs, update their houses, maybe add family or other relationships. For TS4, I had to add a Worthington family (frenemies of the Landgraabs), because I was surprised they haven't shown up yet, since they date back to at least TS2 in both lore and premades.
Usually I just wait for ideas for new households to come to me, based on new pack content, a name I heard that I thought was cool, old sims lore, etc. I'm not actually planning to create any new households for Growing Together, but I'm going to start creating families with several of my existing households that have been on hold for years. Oh, and not surprisingly, I play with aging off. Though with the new pack, I expect I will soon start using manual age-ups more frequently than I have so far.
I focus a lot on community building, and the more I add the better I understand how things should have been done differently in the past. So, there is always development. I have a kingdom ruled through 3 chambers, where of one has 21 politicians including a President and a VP. There are 5 years elections and currently 3 political parties. There is also nobility with a good range of dukes, counts and barons. When I realized my royal family had only lower ranked sims to mingle, I founded 2 more kingdoms, LOL, but those are mostly the royal family and hardly any stately system.
I like to make essential stuff available to the common sims, ie I use cc corkboards with stuff to hang on it, and I create new swatches to allow sims to decorate with anything from favorite party logo to signed card from their favorite actress or musician. Elders like to add a photo of the royal family, LOL. I also make CC to have tons of nice and formal family portraits on the manor's walls. The royal palace has tons, but other finer Houses often have a handful, too.
And I keep family trees and profile pages for all sims, many trees going back 6-7 generations. I actually played Sim Medieval just to learn a bit about their founders and how they looked
Half the fun for me is to plan and organize, and most of it is available on my TS4 site (tons more contents than you will ever want to see, LOL), plus my blog. I also have a local Newspaper online.
When I started both stories I intended for the sims to do their own thing and I would build storylines and dialogue from anything interesting they did that I thought I could work with. Both stories have turned into more of a situation where I come up with the storyline and then I direct the action to get the shots I want. That happened for a few different reasons, but the main reason was a lot of the main characters had careers that are part of the story but they're the type of careers that if I don't direct them to write a novel or accept an acting gig, nothing will ever happen. As I've gone on I've realized I can do something similar with the ones with rabbit hole careers. I build lots to look like and perform like their workplace. When the storyline calls for them to do something at work I send them to the lot I made and I act out their work scenes. Since they are technically unemployed I cheat them some money every sim week or two to simulate a paycheck. So they have their days free to do whatever they want when I'm off with one of the other households until I need them to 'work'. It's so much more fun to act out what I think is happening at work instead of them just disappearing for a few hours.
My main save is filled with all kinds of different sims, including my simself and sim versions of my friends and family, as well as characters from video games, novels, TV shows and movies, premades, etc. With roughly 340 played sims across over 100 households, you can probably imagine that I've tried out all ages, occults, and living conditions I could think of. The most boring world to me would be one where everybody is exactly like me. That being said, there are certain repeating patterns in my gameplay. For example, my sims tend to focus more on their hobbies and careers than social contacts and romance, and while I do play with families of varying sizes as well, most of the kids come straight out of CAS rather than being born in-game.
What defines my playstyle the most is probably the worlds, and how each has a different theme that is represented by the sims living there. In other words: I don't just move households wherever I want, but to a place where they actually fit in. The worlds themselves also follow certain rules. I have divided them into four different regions: The urban region with its capital San Myshuno, the country region with its capital Windenburg, the mountainous region with its capital Mt. Komorebi, and the desert region with its capital Del Sol Valley. I know that these distinctions only exist in my head, but they do influence the way I play. For example, if a sim from Windenburg wants to hit the gym, but there isn't one in their hometown, they visit the one in Brindleton Bay, another world within the country region, rather than the one in Oasis Springs, which is part of the desert region.
These are the themes of the individual worlds at the moment:
URBAN REGION
Inhabited by asari, androids, and sims with futuristic tendencies. Mayor: Cerulean Quinnette, a rare "male" asari that is secretly an android.
- Evergreen Harbor: Eco lifestyle
Pretty much what the entire pack is about. All neighbourhoods are green. Mayor: Jacqueline Nought.
- San Sequoia: Not sure yet
Copperdale is already my designated "family world", so this one will get a different theme. No mayor yet, obviously.
- Willow Creek: Arts and aristocracy
The residents are - you guessed it - artists and/or aristocrats. Mayor: Lady Catherine de Bourgh-Bingley.
- Newcrest: Religion
Two rivalling churches and a mayor trying to broker peace between their congregations. Mayor: High Priestess Domaris.
- Magnolia Promenade: Post-apocalyptic wasteland
Families struggling to survive the aftermath of an industrial calamity. Mayor: Dustin Fowlsten.
COUNTRY REGION
Every neighbourhood represents a different time period, in a way. Can't say the mayor's name, it might be offensive.
- Brindleton Bay: Pets
Every household must include at least one non-human member, be it a furry pet or a farm animal. Mayor: Thor Brindleton (a cat).
- Henford-on-Bagley: Farms
Similar to Brindleton Bay, residents are gardeners and/or ranchers. Mayor: Lavina Chopra (unplayed).
- Britechester: Higher education
Again, the very theme of the pack the world comes with, but some people are staying there permanently. Mayor: John Jacob Gibbs.
- Copperdale: Family
Mostly inhabited by families, or households with at least one child or teenager. Mayor: To be determined.
MOUNTAINOUS REGION
Residents are winter sports enthusiasts and/or fans of the Japanese-ish culture. Mayor: Masahiro Shimizu.
- Granite Falls: Capital of magic
Turned residential via mod, each lot is inhabited by a different occult species. Mayor: Rana Thanoptis.
- Glimmerbrook: Spellcasters
The theme says it all. Mayor: Pompiliu Popescu.
- Moonwood Mill: Werewolves
Mayor: To be determined.
- Forgotten Hollow: Vampires
Mayor: Vladislaus Dracul Straud (who will probably move to Granite Falls soon, however, making Alcina Dimitrescu his successor).
DESERT REGION
All residents are already world-famous for one reason or another, or aspiring to become famous. Mayor: Ronald Frump.
- Oasis Springs: Aliens
The town where the first UFO from Sixam crashed. Residents are aliens or space-exploring humans. Mayor: Bobo Chichi.
- StrangerVille: Strangeness
Only for the strangest of my families and the few outsiders that don't fit in anywhere else. Mayor: Rosario Piantamadre.
- Tartosa: Love
Mostly couples, married or otherwise. Mayor: Regina di Cuori.
- Selvadorada: Adventure and archaeology
Inhabited by sims who were born here and/or are interested to learn about the history of the place. Mayor: To be determined.
- Sulani:
Mermaids and sims who enjoy living the island life, also angels in Lani St. Taz. Mayor: Makoa Kealoha.
... Sorry for the lengthy post that probably includes way more information than anyone ever asked for. But I had a lot of time waiting for the EA App to finally work again.
Something wicked this way comes!
I don't use MCCC.
I've basically played with the same save from the very start. Like you, it's been a rotational (when I feel like it) game where I've just added more and more characters and people as I've needed them for my "main sims". Some of those additions became main sims.
There's been ideas in my head, but times when the game has never gone in the direction I have wanted to go. I always have visions for my sims and have never just played them to go with the flow....they're my "design for my world". LOL. I am the Creator.
I have too many favorite sims to list, right from Frank Miner who was created in 2014 all the way up to the current sims I am playing in 2023.
I would absolutely DIE if anything ever happened to this save.
And yes, I have revived a sim...(in this same save) and used her to serve another purpose in a different story line....they both co-exist.
Destiny is my gardener/collector sims who made all plants perfect.
Her "mold" in CAS became Ms Higganbotham when witches came out. She needed a few tweaks I just wanted a witch already adept at gardening and potions.
For my PC version, I have at least 8-10 save files, but each one just has one family. Those save files I plan for the one family to extend through the save file through generations.
My PS 4 version is a whole other animal. I have at least 6-7 at the moment, and the best way to describe it is insane. My biggest save file also serves as my test file. In it I was on a Frozen kick, so my Sims are Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff based on canon, AU, and other stuff all living together. I threw in some other Sims too to break up having just Sims based on Frozen. It is hilarious seeing my magic realm made up of nothing but Elsa Sims, though. I also plan to change the file through generations, for example, one family has a family I named one kid Hiccup, and another one Astrid, so I plan to change it up through generations.
Two other big save files I have are similar, I have normal Sims in both, but each one is filled up with Sims based on series I like. I like a series called Natsume's book of friends, and have my own version of the main character, as well as ones downloaded from the Gallery. I have more of a mixture of series I like in another save file.
One save file I am working on is loosely based off of Harry Potter. I have five families so far, but plan to add more. My main three are Ron, Harry, and Hermione as toddlers in their families. I am keeping Harry's parents alive, and have to leave the Ginny as an in-game born Sim, so there may end up being more Weasleys. My other two families are Harry and Ginny with their kids as teens, and Ron and Hermione with their kids as teens. Still working on the save file on and off.
I have another save file with three families so far. Two were a separate Elsa and Anna, who I had pursuing careers. I wanted to focus on careers, so they had one to themselves. I gave Elsa two teens, and Anna with two teens, and a child she had with Kristoff. I gave Elsa a boyfriend when I moved her out, and edited a kid for her. She and her boyfriend don't like each other, but love their daughter. They were put on the back burner, because I used the save file for a scenario, and the Sim I made for ended up getting with Clement Frost. So, once I am done with the scenario, those two will be the founders on an not so planned legacy.
I have another save file that I moved large families I created in CAS, and made them all neighbors. I wanted to experiment with looks, and wanted a place to put them, so I made a save file for them.
My last current save file is based on my Sims 2 game. I used to keep a list of the Sims I created for Sims 2, and made them again for Sims 4. I have most of the families I created for Sims 2 in there, and may add a bit more, or keep the population smaller for now.
I still plan to create some save files based on Avatar the last Airbender and Legend of Korra. As well as some other series I like. For my Avatar and Korra it may be generational like the series, or have Zuko and Mako the same age. It may be a mix of both. For series I like, I tend to create a save file dedicated just to them, however other series I like may be mixed into save files with normal Sims. I also don't want to fill up the entire save file since there isn't much room for the amount of Sims I want to include. In my first save file, almost every single available house is filled as well as houses I pulled from the Gallery. So, I have to plan my goals and save files going forward.
I refused to have them get married and start families because we did not have toddlers and family game play at the time.
So they were pretty much Career/Party focused.
Olivia Banks is my main sim and everyone else is her friend or a friend of her friends.
I play them all and intertwine their lives
By the time we got toddlers and the packs I felt I needed, (Parenthood, Discover University, and High School Years) this group had grown to 24 sims. I felt it was time to start playing families.
Instead of matching them up, I decided to age them all down to toddlers in CAS and gave them parents.
But this was way back in 2017
Fast forward to 2021 and my first 3 toddlers have grown up and graduated Uni.
And they wait while the other sims who are still children, teens, and a few YAs go through their education.
Every time we get a new pack, my sims are put on hold because I am testing out the new pack and creating new lots in test saves.
Sometimes I set the game aside because I can't stand the bugs or a few annoying new features. High School Years was the reason for the latest Sims break. I had to create and test for the new pack, and I couldn't stand Fears because they wouldn't turn off.
These are the sims waiting for me to get back to playing High School Years with them.
Six of them will be living in this high school dorm that I was using as private school housing before I got High School Years.
And now I get to use Growing Together as the rest of them go through Elementary School, High School, and University.
I won't get to see infants until they start getting married and having babies. My first three sims missed out on Growing Together for their younger years, but it's okay timing for the rest.
My first Thyme save, I've gotten scienced baby with Vlad strauss. Disappointed so far in lack of possible multiples...
Second Thyme save, finished the basic design for a 30x30 vamp house in Newcrest... Looks good. Just mainly spent time building this afternoon.
I see your pictures from time to time when I check one of the pictures thread
Everytime I visit your blog I'm jealous and in awe and also very overwhelmed by it all. Could have been me if I didn't restart my town every year oops!
I remember bookmarking a bunch of your rotational threads for tips!
What happened to the cat girls, that was you right?
Don't tempt me
Boom just like that I get the itch to play and plan a new world again, so many amazing ideas!