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Hero

Re: How do you play your story? Inspiration tips needed

@EeveeTinn I can understand some of the ways you're conflicted. I also don't like playing 'bad Sims'. However, I did finally break down at one point when there was an issue with vampires really harassing certain of my households... and began I to have several affected Sims beat the crap out of them if need be to get them to stop stalking the house. 😱😇

I originally made a loosely designed 'Sim-self' and hubby, made them 'adult', then they had over time probably 8 or more children - I don't currently remember the number. The original household included the first 5-6 children. I play with aging off. I aged them up as appropriate when I was ready until they were young adults. However, a few of the later children are still at toddler to teen ages. I have over time placed copies of the original 'couple' into different game saves, sometimes with one or more of their kids placed in the same save for whatever goal I have for them, as that is the only way to preserve the relationship when placing them into new game saves.

I'm a very 'type A' player... and I'm good to my Sims. Most of the original adult children I have played a lot also, and most are married with at least one child. I play 'it takes a village' style most of the time, combining one to three couples and their children in a household. I garden heavily, have them own and run (together) restaurants and stores, max out careers, and accumulate skills. This all keeps me quite busy while playing the households.

I also build a lot and use my Sims to test the builds and new packs in this manner. While testing, though, I don't usually play more than one or two for the initial test, but then move in kids, etc. for full-out testing in the end.

So, although I don't heavily focus on 'aspirations' and skills any more, I have several Sims with mad skills and multiple past careers maxed out. I also have some with minimal skills and play time. I have other Sims I made, several that I've played quite a bit that @PugLove888made, and a few that @EuphorialQueen made. I even had my original couple's second son marry Summer Holiday, and she's the only 'default game' Sim that I've played enough to have her feel like 'my own'. Which Sims I use for any particular goal may vary, including how I combine them.

Sometimes you can 'collaborate' with other players a bit also. For instance, I decided to enter the first 'Sparked' challenge, making a casino venue. @PugLove888 (who makes amazing Sims) made a couple and their families for me to test with, and she entered the couple into the challenge. We had a lot of fun with that, and enjoyed collaborating on it. Slideshow: https://imgur.com/gallery/4mFHgX2

Ive also entered an occasional building challenge, and there are many game-play challenges that can be found on the forums, if you're looking for something like that:

Play Challenges: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/categories/the-sims-4-stories-and-legacies
Build Challenges: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/categories/the-sims-4-gallery

There are many ways to play the game and 'switch things up'. Just have fun finding which of them work best for you! ☕

3 Replies

EeveeTinn
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
@SheriGR Wow that's quite a lot of work 😁 I like to give my Sims some minor stories and then go from there. I just get frustrated with myself sometimes because it feels generic making them all perfect 😂 I like to fulfill their aspirations, it feels like it helps me with keeping up with the story.

I also do love to build and often one of my main goals are making them work hard to be able to buy the bigger house 😅😂 whether it is my build or someone else's. I was thinking of challenges but not so sure yet 😊.
I will see if others have other tips and tricks as well.

Thanks for the lengthy answer 😊
Trismagistos
Hero
5 years ago
@EeveeTinn I play a rotational game. I started with a Sim that I created in the likeness of one of my ancestors. But I already started this in The Sims 3. So when The Sims 4 came out I recreated him and his Sister. And started off from there again. (When I feel like it, I still do some searching for my ancestors with some lineages I reached to 1450 AD)
I played with this Sim for a while together with his sister. Then I wanted to create their parents but the game wouldn't let me so I ended up creating a brother instead. The Sim I created first I maxed him out on all the skills and made him a real patriarch. He also had almost all the jobs you can find in every pack and, in fact, he must be over several hundred years by now. He only married NPC's which of course became Player Controlled Sims. And had several sons and daughters more than 15 in total. He divorced more times than a regular moviestar an remarried. He also had a couple daughters with alien inseminators< which with some inventive use of a mod I lured into the world. Most of his children are still alive and are married.And most of them also maxed out on their skills and aspirations, some of them happily live for ever after. Some of them died because, I did not want to keep them alive or I did not want to keep playing with them.
At a certain moment I stopped the ageing processes because, I still wanted to make a hugh family tree and also play with the offspring. At this moment I play with over 135 Sims but I do have my favorites.
To prevent family marrying family I had to create another two extra families and have them branch out as well. These families live in all the worlds and are the famous bunch. Also, like @SheriGR, I love to let them garden, I have a family of vets, movie stars, scientists, gamers and medical staf. Practically every job you can find in the packs I play with my sims. And now with the new EP I want to experience the new Jobs too. So you see, there are so many ways to make a nice story. You will definitely find yours.
Have fun playing. 😉
EeveeTinn
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
@Trismagistos Interesting 😊 I have no idea about my ancestors and cannot trace it back really (for multiple reasons) but this sounds cool 😊 my favourite thing in the Sims is gardening so I love to collect all the seeds and herbs and make a business out of it 😁 will maybe try more with that then 😊
I put the life span of my Sims to long because I never had enough time but maybe I should turn off the aging then. I will explore these options 😊