New save without CAS

@AlHollandiyah There's already a fairly easy way to start a new game with a Sim or Household you have saved in your Library:

Start a new game and do this when you get to the CAS screen:

• Skip the questions for the story mode
• Click the Add a Sim button in the lower left
• Choose Add Sim from the Gallery from the pop-up menu
• Go to your My Library tab and find the household you'd like to play
• Click the Place Household icon in the lower right
• Choose Replace from the Merge Household options

Now you should be all set to start a new game with the household of your choice!

Good luck & have fun! 

I know that but I am worried that they don't have the stats that they had where they were imported from if they go through CAS. CAS in Full Edit mode tends to reset certain stuff. And then there is still the factor that you are forced to both place a sim AND load that household.

Far more often then not I want to spend some time in the world changing / demolishing / building lots before I decide where to put my sims. If there was an option in a future update to just skip the whole lot all together that would be a huge convenience!

I have noticed it was mentioned in a planned upgrade once, but then it was revoked in the actual update. So I'd thought I'd bring it back under attention.... : )

@AlHollandiyah  I have used the method that @RandomBuzziness outlined several times when I brought sims into my current game from an earlier save and when I created a new game.  They never lost anything as far as I can tell and I'm almost sure that they gained something in the process.  What I noticed was that when I brought them in, they gained things like they knew all of the 27 dishes from CL where they hadn't in the earlier save.  It was little things like that.  They kept all their skills and traits.  I considered that a plus.

I do agree with you though.  Why should we have to go through CAS when there are already sims in world when the game is created that we could go and just play?  But it is what it is.  I just do it, place the sim and then delete them in manage households and move on.  

@AlHollandiyah I just ran a quick test with one of my long-time Sims. I saved her to My Library, exited the game and then started a new game & imported her as described in my last post. I used the Show Sims Info mod to capture her before and after stats and there seems to be no changes for traits, hidden traits, skill levels, career status, family funds, etc. She even kept the same red umbrella choice! The only thing she seems to have lost were her tan lines xD

I fully understand what you are going for in the rest of your post. Good luck! Maybe your plan will work ;-D

Thanks for testing. How about collection stats and career unlocks? That stuff seems to reset even upon splitting households. Let alone making a new household with an existing imported sim.

Details aside this thing will never be more then a partially usefull and (excuse my English) rather lame workaround. This whole ride through CAS belongs in the tutorial rather then in every game, IMHO.

Nobody in TS3 had trouble creating any sims. Being able to choose what to do directly at the start of a game is a thing I still hope to see one day. And just maybe by posting this, and people reacting to it, I can invite the Devs to look into it!

@AlHollandiyah @RandomBuzziness   The career unlocks and the collections do get lost on importing a sim.  You're right, you tend to lose those whenever you move.  The one thing I can't remember was what happens with aspirations.  I can't remember if they still show as completed or if you have to start over.  The points you've already accumulated do stay though I think.

One odd thing I found though is if you clone a sim use the cloning machine built in the Scientist career, they keep just about everything the original sim had as far as skills, traits, etc.  but they don't get any credit for the aspirations and you get to start over.  You can end up with an incredible amount of points from them if the clone already has most of the buyable traits, there is nothing left to spend them on except the potions and money tree seeds.  

@AlHollandiyah Back to another new game for a few more tests. Will my Sim get any frequent flyer points for this? xD

The good news is all of her career and social gold unlocks stayed with her in the new game after going through the Replace from Merge Household process in CAS. Same for all of her aspirations, reward traits, and reward points.

All of her collection stats did reset. Not too surprising as I've seen these stats reset just from switching households in the same save! I tried importing her directly from my Library without doing the Replace from Merge Household part in CAS and it didn't make any difference. So we seem to be stuck with losing Collection stats even if we are able to completely skip CAS at the start of a new game.

I know all that is getting a little off topic from the original post but I just wanted to test and clarify these things since the questions were asked. For all of the other reasons you listed I do agree it would be great if we had the option to skip CAS at the start of a new game.

@AlHollandiyahIf you want to avoid those steps, just create yourself a template save.

Ever been annoyed when starting a new game and found Newcrest always empty? Miss all the townies you've created? Their jobs, relationships, etc?

Just take the time to set up one more new game. Do it perfectly. Create your townies, build all the lots for Newcrest, set everything up perfectly.

Then just save it and never play it again.

If you want to start a new game, just load up your template and immediately do a Save-As under a new name. There you go! A brand-new game, no initial cas/sim setup, plus your entire world is set up exactly how you like it.

In the past 2 years, I can count the number of times I've started a REAL empty new game on one hand and have several fingers to spare.  Plus it has all my favorite townies. Characters from Frozen, Life is Strange, Detroit BH, Favorite actors and actresses, My own houses I've lived in, houses from games, tv shows, movies... it's perfect.

Thanks, I know about the template save method, but the same one goes for that. It is just a workaround. And I always like to start a fresh save with everything that is included at that moment, even though (yes I know) it will be added to your template either way. It's maybe an OCD-ish thing of wanting a REAL fresh start.... If the devs could look in to the possibility of adding this option then workarounds like these wouldn't be necessary anymore. One can still hope, right?