I have always played The Sims 3 as if it was The Sims 2, switching active households constantly, like maybe 8-9 times on each playthrough. Guess it's called rotational play here? I have never used story progression, and I'm a complete control freak even when it comes to playing my so-called "inactive families". Even with families that don't really matter, I check back on them once in a while and do adjustments. And I never have a main family, more like 6-7 of them that I switch constantly. Now that I'm back to TS3 after a few years' break, and I'm playing with all EPs and in larger worlds, I'm wondering if this play style can kill my save files or do some other kind of damage in the long run. What do you think?

That's the way I play because although I have one main Sim I've had for years I get bored playing the same family all the time. I have story progression turned off and aging off. The only real problem I have is game related with the Pets EP. No way I can turn off the giving of multiples of pets to my inactive familes when I'm not playing them. I'm not sure there is even a mod. I haven't noticed anything else.

"nickibitsward;c-16730982" wrote:That's the way I play because although I have one main Sim I've had for years I get bored playing the same family all the time. I have story progression turned off and aging off. The only real problem I have is game related with the Pets EP. No way I can turn off the giving of multiples of pets to my inactive familes when I'm not playing them. I'm not sure there is even a mod. I haven't noticed anything else. Oh yes, there is a mod for that. NRAAS Overwatch. You can turn off neighborhood pet adoption completely. It's a very useful mod generally too.

It may lead to a bigger save file size. Bigger save file means it's going to take longer loading. There are ways to clean up a save file. First things first... turn off memories via in-game options. Memories clog save files.This guide shows how to use Save Cleaner will do it for you... V2.2 for patch 1.67 & belowSpoiler (Highlight to read):star: To avoid having your photos/paintings deleted in v 2.2:star: To avoid having your photos/paintings deleted in v 2.2Save Cleaner V1.1(direct link) for patch 1.69 since V2 doesn't work with the last/latest patchTips For Better Game PerformanceIf crashing occurs, I would make sure the save file isn't bloated or the game isn't hitting memory cap first. (3.7GB for Windows & 2GB for Mac - you can track this in task mananger)Even though I don't play rotationaly, it's not going to blow up your game doing so. :) Just the normal concerns any player runs into. Playing rotationaly is common. I haven't used EAs story progression in years but I know it isn't perfect. If you're already using mods and may consider one day using story progression... I reccomend grabbing the NRaas: Story Progression instead. The SP mod along with other NRaas mods have adjustable settings. All it takes is a little reading and if you need further help, you can post in the NRaas forums. Most of the mods have a FAQ page along with the Interactions page. The Interactions page listing every setting and of course, the FAQ page listing frequently asked questions.NRaas: Story Progression Rotational Caste Settings suggestions for those who play householdsin a rotation@nickibitsward Just as Zei says... NRaas: Overwatch can be used to disable the neighborhood pet adoption system.click on a computer or city hall for mod menu | NRaas > Overwatch > Settings > Stop Pet AdoptionNRaas: Register can be used to disable strays. (Deer, Raccoons, Cats, Dogs, Unicorns, & Wild Horses).click on a computer or city hall for mod menu | NRaas > Register > Animal ControlI think those are the right steps... can't check atm.

The underlying concept here is that if we wish to control story progression and limit what can happen to "our" inactives while they are not being played, then either NRaas SP or for another way to go entirely, AwesomeMod, is required. The mods make things happen, but also provide user controls (that come with a learning curve) to make things not happen. TS3 is not TS2 and never will be, the challenge is to leverage the mods and tools that we have to work with to get things close enough to a satisfying experience for those of us who wish to play more than one household in rotation.Overwatch does have an option to shut down the Neighborhood Adoption Center because the scenario often gets stuck or breaks, the baby animals that are made available that way have no parents in the game, they just magically appear then disappear if they aren't adopted, and many players don't like that. SP shuts down the Centers on its own with no options given for the same reasons.But shutting the Neighborhood Adoption Centers down won't stop inactive sims from adopting pets from the newspaper/animal shelters that we don't see on-screen. Again, NRaas SP is required to control the resident pet population. @nickibitsward - I've answered this several times for you lately. I get it, you don't want to use mods, you are not the only one who feels that way, and of course that is fine. But I'm afraid that telling other players that the mods you do not want to use might not exist is kind of a bit much. Honestly, I am not making this stuff up about what the mods can and cannot do as I type it. :/

@TadOlson - Our styles of play are very different from each other. My worlds are not set in the seventeenth century or earlier and many of them have upwards of 250 residents. I do not wish to control that many households myself, anywhere from 2 to 10 out of what could be 80+ households in each world is plenty, but instead leverage SP to guide their progressions and their lives without my having to constantly intervene.The school enrollment thing is not an issue for me because my worlds have multiple schools in them with plenty of ways for children and teens to navigate to them and get inside without routing issues or long bottlenecks at the door. I am familiar with AwesomeMod and used it myself for a couple of years before getting rid of it for other reasons, but even then I didn't need it to address school assignments. If one of my sims whom I would prefer to be homeschooled or attend a private custom school ends up in public school seconds after their age-up, or if for some odd reason all the children in town are enrolled in the same elementary school while the two others remain unused, it is not difficult for me to change these things around myself right away or as soon as I notice them. I always thought one of the main objections you had to school auto-enrollment was that your towns' kids had to walk 4-6 hours to school each way, that's not going to happen in a more modern century with subways, taxis, and enough schools close enough to residential population centers so the kids can ride their bikes there if school buses are not rolling. But in my worlds, all resident children and teens are expected to be schooled, either at home or in formal school buildings. Much as in real life in quite a lot of the world today, there are no exceptions.

Is there a drawback to switching active households frequently?

LiniSim
7 years ago
That's the way I play because although I have one main Sim I've had for years I get bored playing the same family all the time. I have story progression turned off and aging off. The only real problem I have is game related with the Pets EP. No way I can turn off the giving of multiples of pets to my inactive familes when I'm not playing them. I'm not sure there is even a mod. I haven't noticed anything else.
zeyneph
7 years ago
"nickibitsward;c-16730982" wrote:
That's the way I play because although I have one main Sim I've had for years I get bored playing the same family all the time. I have story progression turned off and aging off. The only real problem I have is game related with the Pets EP. No way I can turn off the giving of multiples of pets to my inactive familes when I'm not playing them. I'm not sure there is even a mod. I haven't noticed anything else.

Oh yes, there is a mod for that. NRAAS Overwatch. You can turn off neighborhood pet adoption completely. It's a very useful mod generally too.
SimplyJen
Rising Spectator
7 years ago
It may lead to a bigger save file size. Bigger save file means it's going to take longer loading. There are ways to clean up a save file. First things first... turn off memories via in-game options. Memories clog save files.
This guide shows how to use Save Cleaner will do it for you... V2.2 for patch 1.67 & below
Spoiler
:star: To avoid having your photos/paintings deleted in v 2.2

Save Cleaner V1.1(direct link) for patch 1.69 since V2 doesn't work with the last/latest patch

Tips For Better Game Performance

If crashing occurs, I would make sure the save file isn't bloated or the game isn't hitting memory cap first. (3.7GB for Windows & 2GB for Mac - you can track this in task mananger)

Even though I don't play rotationaly, it's not going to blow up your game doing so. :) Just the normal concerns any player runs into. Playing rotationaly is common. I haven't used EAs story progression in years but I know it isn't perfect. If you're already using mods and may consider one day using story progression... I reccomend grabbing the NRaas: Story Progression instead. The SP mod along with other NRaas mods have adjustable settings. All it takes is a little reading and if you need further help, you can post in the NRaas forums. Most of the mods have a FAQ page along with the Interactions page. The Interactions page listing every setting and of course, the FAQ page listing frequently asked questions.

NRaas: Story Progression Rotational Caste Settings suggestions for those who play householdsin a rotation

@nickibitsward Just as Zei says... NRaas: Overwatch can be used to disable the neighborhood pet adoption system.
click on a computer or city hall for mod menu | NRaas > Overwatch > Settings > Stop Pet Adoption
NRaas: Register can be used to disable strays. (Deer, Raccoons, Cats, Dogs, Unicorns, & Wild Horses).
click on a computer or city hall for mod menu | NRaas > Register > Animal Control

I think those are the right steps... can't check atm.
igazor
7 years ago
The underlying concept here is that if we wish to control story progression and limit what can happen to "our" inactives while they are not being played, then either NRaas SP or for another way to go entirely, AwesomeMod, is required. The mods make things happen, but also provide user controls (that come with a learning curve) to make things not happen. TS3 is not TS2 and never will be, the challenge is to leverage the mods and tools that we have to work with to get things close enough to a satisfying experience for those of us who wish to play more than one household in rotation.

Overwatch does have an option to shut down the Neighborhood Adoption Center because the scenario often gets stuck or breaks, the baby animals that are made available that way have no parents in the game, they just magically appear then disappear if they aren't adopted, and many players don't like that. SP shuts down the Centers on its own with no options given for the same reasons.

But shutting the Neighborhood Adoption Centers down won't stop inactive sims from adopting pets from the newspaper/animal shelters that we don't see on-screen. Again, NRaas SP is required to control the resident pet population.

@nickibitsward - I've answered this several times for you lately. I get it, you don't want to use mods, you are not the only one who feels that way, and of course that is fine. But I'm afraid that telling other players that the mods you do not want to use might not exist is kind of a bit much. Honestly, I am not making this stuff up about what the mods can and cannot do as I type it. :/
igazor
7 years ago
@TadOlson - Our styles of play are very different from each other. My worlds are not set in the seventeenth century or earlier and many of them have upwards of 250 residents. I do not wish to control that many households myself, anywhere from 2 to 10 out of what could be 80+ households in each world is plenty, but instead leverage SP to guide their progressions and their lives without my having to constantly intervene.

The school enrollment thing is not an issue for me because my worlds have multiple schools in them with plenty of ways for children and teens to navigate to them and get inside without routing issues or long bottlenecks at the door. I am familiar with AwesomeMod and used it myself for a couple of years before getting rid of it for other reasons, but even then I didn't need it to address school assignments. If one of my sims whom I would prefer to be homeschooled or attend a private custom school ends up in public school seconds after their age-up, or if for some odd reason all the children in town are enrolled in the same elementary school while the two others remain unused, it is not difficult for me to change these things around myself right away or as soon as I notice them.

I always thought one of the main objections you had to school auto-enrollment was that your towns' kids had to walk 4-6 hours to school each way, that's not going to happen in a more modern century with subways, taxis, and enough schools close enough to residential population centers so the kids can ride their bikes there if school buses are not rolling. But in my worlds, all resident children and teens are expected to be schooled, either at home or in formal school buildings. Much as in real life in quite a lot of the world today, there are no exceptions.
TadOlson
7 years ago
@igazor -I would have school be required by law in the later times when they get to modern days in the 20th century when school started to become required by law and kids were sometimes still not getting educated until the 1950's in many places.That issue of sims all attending the wrong school is usually caused by the autmaoted assignment and that glitches out in larger worlds like Evermore Falls which is why I prefer manualy assignmets.It's fun to see how everybody plays and I've found others playing like me with Sims 2 style and I've dine that before adding Mods and it didn't work and I tried without story progression on when 163 was released and that didn;t work well until I configured the NRaas version of story progression and enabled it.I still have the option to have automated school assignmets to home schooling though NRaas and in story pogression if I want schooling to be mandatory.
LiniSim
7 years ago
"igazor;c-16731192" wrote:
The underlying concept here is that if we wish to control story progression and limit what can happen to "our" inactives while they are not being played, then either NRaas SP or for another way to go entirely, AwesomeMod, is required. The mods make things happen, but also provides user controls (that come with a learning curve) to make things not happen. TS3 is not TS2 and never will be, the challenge is to leverage the mods and tools that we have to work with to get things close enough to a satisfying experience for those of us who wish to play more than one household in rotation.

Overwatch does have an option to shut down the Neighborhood Adoption Center because the scenario often gets stuck or breaks, the baby animals that are made available that way have no parents in the game, they just magically appear then disappear if they aren't adopted, and many players don't like that. SP shuts down the Centers on its own with no options given for the same reasons.

But shutting the Neighborhood Adoption Centers down won't stop inactive sims from adopting pets from the newspaper/animal shelters that we don't see on-screen. Again, NRaas SP is required to control the resident pet population.

@nickibitsward - I've answered this several times for you lately. I get it, you don't want to use mods, you are not the only one who feels that way, and of course that is fine. But I'm afraid that telling other players that the mods you do not want to use might not exist is kind of a bit much. Honestly, I am not making this stuff up about what the mods can and cannot do as I type it. :/

I don't know which mod to download.

Is it the Base Mod Eleven 1.63 - 1.69? Is that all I need?
igazor
7 years ago
"nickibitsward;c-16731732" wrote:

I don't know which mod to download.

Is it the Base Mod Eleven 1.63 - 1.69? Is that all I need?

Let's go back a step first. Do you have the Framework in place to work with package based content? You already would if you have package based CC, but there is no Mods folder setup in TS3 on its own.
http://modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help%3AInstalling_Sims_3_Package_Files%2FSetup_and_Files

And which mod are we talking about? "Base Mod Eleven" sounds like Overwatch to me, not StoryProgression. If so, yes that is the correct version for Patches 1.67 and 1.69. Overwatch only has a base mod, there are no add-on modules for that one like there are for some of the others. Then the setting to disallow the Neighborhood Pet Adoption Center scenario is on City Hall or an in-game computer, NRaas > Overwatch > Settings > Stop Pet Adoption > True (is False by default)

And again, note that Overwatch with the correct setting will shut down the Neighborhood Pet Adoption Center scenarios, it won't stop inactive households from adopting pets in other ways. For that, StoryProgression is needed.
LiniSim
7 years ago
"igazor;c-16731778" wrote:
"nickibitsward;c-16731732" wrote:

I don't know which mod to download.

Is it the Base Mod Eleven 1.63 - 1.69? Is that all I need?

Let's go back a step first. Do you have the Framework in place to work with package based content? You already would if you have package based CC, but there is no Mods folder setup in TS3 on its own.
http://modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help%3AInstalling_Sims_3_Package_Files%2FSetup_and_Files

And which mod are we talking about? "Base Mod Eleven" sounds like Overwatch to me, not StoryProgression. If so, yes that is the correct version for Patches 1.67 and 1.69. Overwatch only has a base mod, there are no add-on modules for that one like there are for some of the others. Then the setting to disallow the Neighborhood Pet Adoption Center scenario is on City Hall or an in-game computer, NRaas > Overwatch > Settings > Stop Pet Adoption > True (is False by default)

And again, note that Overwatch with the correct setting will shut down the Neighborhood Pet Adoption Center scenarios, it won't stop inactive households from adopting pets in other ways. For that, StoryProgression is needed.

It was Overwatch that I looked at.

I'll have to do more checking on this "framework".
sparky1922
7 years ago
Hi @SimplyJen

Thanks for posting that link to the Nrass site for cleaning up saved games I have copied and paste the info and may give it a go when i feel brave enough because I have never used S3PE before :)

Hi @igazor

when players mention bloated games what does that mean exactly? is this mainly related to how many saves of the game we have or the objects described in P2FX's article on the Nrass site for cleaning up the save game with S3PE? or a combination of both? I was also staggered looking at the figures in that article relating to sims travelling because I send my sims travelling all over the place and never really thought about it that way before..I would love to try a legacy but in all my years of playing I could never make one game last that long..

I was also looking at playing rotationally soon because I will be playing in a world with very varied types of sim households but now am feeling a little wary.. Does the awesome mod you mention play nicely with all Nrass mods and do you think it would be easy enough for me to learn and apply it just for the purpose of a 2 style gameplay?

On another note I managed to collate all the info you have given me these last few weeks and have applied changes to my game lately so some of the info has stuck at last lol :)