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Playing Large Households - Tips?
Sha2520032003
Posts: 2,258 Member
I was curious how large of a household others Simmers play and if they have any tips for managing a large family. I usually don't play with greater than 4-5 Sims. However, my Sim just had triplets and I have 7 Sims in my house (2 YA's, 1 teen, 1 kid, 3 babies). One of my Sims has an active career and is a doctor. & I have a retail store. 2 of my Sims are leaders of clubs. This is my first time playing with such a large household and with all the activities I had before the triplets, it was manageable. But now...whew, I'm having a bit of trouble keeping my Sims productive plus managing the other things (i.e. active career, retail, clubs).
For those that play with large households, how do you play? Any tips?
Also, once the household increased to 7 Sims, I can barely see their pictures in the UI. It's like not enough space to have them all in a straight line and they're teeny tiny pics. Is there a way to enlarge this? I think it's a setting in options to change, but not sure which.
For those that play with large households, how do you play? Any tips?
Also, once the household increased to 7 Sims, I can barely see their pictures in the UI. It's like not enough space to have them all in a straight line and they're teeny tiny pics. Is there a way to enlarge this? I think it's a setting in options to change, but not sure which.
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I suggest this because I play mainly large households in all these games. In this game we are lucky we can take one to a community lot and leave them there. You can give them things to do while they are away out of your hair. Sometimes you just need a break from so many. On really hectic days take several to different places and leave them there. The game (since the last patch in May) sends them home on their home and you can't actually leave them there for hours anymore so it's good to get them out sometimes so you can deal with those at home.
Leave often with one you prefer to keep their social obligations up and to keep their friends. If you don't they will lose their friends and you will basically not know anyone else over time but the family.
Lock doors! To keep them out of each other's rooms and or out of rooms you want for a specific Sim to use the pc or tv or whatever. If you don't they all wind up hanging in somebody's bedroom or in a room where you wanted one Sim to use for their work or whatever.
Cook ahead! Make a Sim cook breakfast meals and at least two dinners ahead of time so they can feed themselves and get to work on time.
Skip the chores and make sure they are keeping up social and friendships. Promotions come eventually and if you stress about it, then large households become a grind.
Don't forget to set aside time for quite time and group outings together. It makes it less dull.
Hire a maid, and a repair guy. Replacing stuff is more expensive.
Have fun sometimes hectic is hilarious in these games.
Oh, one more do not have any bathroom access where Sims can go through one either side. They will do that all and use it as a path to get to other rooms (shortcut). It will only lead to bad moodlets and interruptions.
Ahh...the resolution...got it!
If you want your children to do homework, put the TV in household inventory for a while. Playing chess is a good way to build logic and take care of fun and socialization needs.
Having enough bathrooms is important -- 1bathroom for 3 sims works pretty well.
And @glorifica has a good idea -- with that large a household, you might want to try a challenge where you only control one sim per day or something. TS4 sims are actually pretty good at taking care of their needs; the only thing you really need to worry about is making sure the babies are fed.
These are my tips:
1) I have parents and teenagers that are working towards their cooking skill. It is good to have a couple of stoves and cook many meals at one go. If you fulfill the cooking aspiration you can cook meals that will never spoil. I have a stay at home mom and she places all the left overs that will expire soon on the table (buffet style) when the kids get home from school and calls everyone to a meal.
2) Form groups: this has made my made caring for sims in a large family so much easier! I form one group with the teenagers and another with the children. Having to click on each sim to get them do things is so tedious. I have my kids do their homework together and sometimes swim or anything else you can do in a group.
3) I will choose a sim to clean all the dishes which are generally strewn all over the house.
4) The pause button is your friend! I don't micromanage that much - I tend to let them go wild after they have taken care of their basic needs. Pausing allows me to que up actions for all my sims if I want to skill them up.
5) Both parents and teens rotate between repairing broken objects so everyone gains skills. In large houses things break often and it's nice to have another hand to fix things. This skill can be used in woodworking as well. I hope this was helpful, good luck on your large fam!
sounds like they are being very productive!
pause, queuing tasks, and locked doors are your best friend.. and rotating through the sims as they go through their lists to keep things on track..
a good sleep schedule makes for a good morning routine.. and splitting up tasks.
mini-example: when they wake up, have one group do their bathroom stuff, another group cook, and the last group prepare coffee/teas, etc..
Bathrooms: group 1 > group 2 > group 3
Cooking/Eating: group 2 > group 3 > group 1 >>> go to school/work
Tea/Coffee: group 3 > group 1 > group 2
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I recently made 72 Sims in The Sims 4 with a plan to make them all students at Hogwarts but I have no way to add more families to the same household! PLEASE HELP!!! I AM SO DESPERATE!!! Creating all those sims...finding a decent Hogwarts... IT WAS MORE THAN 30 HOURS OF WORK I DON'T WANT WASTED!!!...and I was going to cite my sources on my BlogSpot page so everyone could have access...I know about the full house md but I REALLY don't want to add them all by name 64 times so if I try to place Hogwarts and then delete their houses? Should I try the Go To School Mod? Does that have an option to keep them at the school more then a day? Is their a better mod that I could be using? I NEED YOUR HELP!!!
Even with the Full House Mod, one household that big will bork your game. I recently saw The Sim Supply on one video of a You Tube Let's Play have 100 Toddlers in one household as a bit of a lark. Yep, his game was struggling mightily, running in fits and starts about like a drunken llama. He added them just by using the Spawn Sim cheat, and aging down the random Sims that spawned. So he didn't use Sims that he had made. His computer is a beast, too.
What you might be able to do alternatively is to make a Household living at Hogwarts with around maybe 20 Sims. I've read about folks on the forums here that have that many, I think, using the Full House Mod. Next you could put the rest of the Sims into houses in the Neighborhoods, and then into Clubs, if you have Get Together. You'd need to use several Sims to make the Clubs, because 24 Sims is the max number for each Club Leader--8 Sims max in a Club, 3 Clubs max per Sims. You can get mods to increase this, but your computer is going to be taxed even without more mods. Anyhow, once you have Sims in the Clubs, with Hogwarts as the Club Hangouts, you could have each Leader call gatherings. The Sims should stay at Hogwarts as long as the gatherings are going on. Here again, tho, with that many Sims on the lot, good luck!
All the sims err'day
I use MC Command Center to lower the amount of decay on friendship and romance relationships for this very reason. I like to play big families too and it's hard to find time for all the family members to keep up their outside friendships and, like you said, those friendships will start decaying too fast if they are ignored.
My Legacy Family Tree
1: Prioritize. Know what's important to you for each sim. Are you pushing to complete that aspiration? Or is the career more important right now? Maybe there's a club, or relationship, that you think need the most attention. Have a clear idea for each sim, so you can default to that whenever there's a decision to be made.
2: leaving the lot with a 1 or 2 and leaving he rest to "care for themselves" can be super useful, lol. Sometimes, if the needs aretoo overwhelming, I'll just bail and leave them to sort it out themselves. You can also have them build skills, tend garden and clean when away, by clicking on the little thingy by their icon, so if you just need a sim to get a skill up, leaving them to it can sometimes be better then grinding it out.
3:If you're gonna micromanage (which I do, sometimes. can't help myself :-P) I absolutely second using the pause button. When I'm feeling up for it, I'll just cycle through, pausing as I go, and cue up the next set of actions for everyone. Then unpause and--break! Off they go! That kind of play can be pretty exhausting tho, so know to pace yourself, lol.
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> I was curious how large of a household others Simmers play and if they have any tips for managing a large family. I usually don't play with greater than 4-5 Sims. However, my Sim just had triplets and I have 7 Sims in my house (2 YA's, 1 teen, 1 kid, 3 babies). One of my Sims has an active career and is a doctor. & I have a retail store. 2 of my Sims are leaders of clubs. This is my first time playing with such a large household and with all the activities I had before the triplets, it was manageable. But now...whew, I'm having a bit of trouble keeping my Sims productive plus managing the other things (i.e. active career, retail, clubs).
> For those that play with large households, how do you play? Any tips?
>
> Also, once the household increased to 7 Sims, I can barely see their pictures in the UI. It's like not enough space to have them all in a straight line and they're teeny tiny pics. Is there a way to enlarge this? I think it's a setting in options to change, but not sure which.
I currently have 6 sims in a household after a sim had twins. It's a case of stepping away and not trying to micro manage absolutely everything. For example, I let the kids do a lot on their own whilst I focused on the one sim's career and caring for the toddlers. Now they're all children and teens, the work load has eased a lot!