Re: I've never played a Sims game...
@gardenlobster wrote:I just started playing myself. Here are some things I wish I'd known. Your mileage may vary, as it depends on what you're expecting.
Pause to queue actions. You never have to do anything in real time.
Save often. There is no auto-save. You will eventually exit without saving on accident at least once or the power will go out or something will otherwise happen, so save save save. And Save As... if you get to a decision point with your game and you think you might do it differently next time.
You can change the length of lifespans, and playing on long is essentially easy mode. No matter the lifespan, pregnancy is 1 day per trimester, + maybe a day or so extra at the end. Don't buy the bassinet in advance. The game will give you one regardless.
You might get emotionally attached to your first Sim or Sims, and cry when they die.
Sims can die of accidental death, not just old age, so be careful when repairing anything that's sparking.
Buying things is ALWAYS done in build mode. I initially expected shops.
If you're playing without cheats, the best ways to make money are painting and writing. Not so much the careers, but doing it on your own time. You get nice rewards from the careers, though.
Read up on rewards for various career promotions and such ahead of time. Find guides, walkthroughs, and forums.
Cheats, custom content, and mods are available and pretty much encouraged. Personally, I'm playing without them for now because they tend to make me get bored faster.
I wish I had known about some of the more common bugs, like family leave not working since November, or pizza delivery sometimes not working randomly (or not having a pop-up when the pizza place is closed).
I wish I'd known how important having Sims exercise daily is, as my original playthrough Sims (I used the tutorial) got pretty chunky pretty fast.
Sims only need to eat about twice a day, and they don't have to drink but they like to get water and juice on their own. They don't seem to get drunk. They don't care what they eat. Coffee is had at night instead of the morning.
You can drag and drop most things to the fridge or trash instead of making the Sim do it.
If you have the Parenting expansion, even the most well-behaved kids will make messes all over the place and nothing parents seem to do culls this, you just have to keep an eye on your kids and stop them if the action cues up, unless you're going for a parenting-related aspiration.
I wish I'd known to learn the aspirations ahead of time and learn to switch them often, and be strategic about it.
You can turn off autonomy but sometimes it's fun to spend a day just watching what the AI decides to do.
You may be tempted to speak Simlish out loud: "sul sul" or "dag dag" or even "sheer chihabery".
Stairs pose an interesting dynamic to the AI. Once a toddler can navigate them, parents will only pick them up to go up/down them when putting them in the high chair or putting them to bed. You're just going to have to wait for that kid to climb up/down for dinner. Stairs can also cancel out queued actions or prevent you from queuing actions.
Toddlers can grab a plate off the counter or you can sit the food on the floor. Only pre-set foods are eaten in the high chair.
You can add potty chairs and game tables and other things to public areas like parks and lounges/bars.
If you get the seasons expansion, read up on gnomes in advance. Also note that while you can disable blizzards and thunderstorms in the main menu, they will happen on occasion on "mystery weather" days (it's not a bug).
I don't want to spoil everything. Just have fun with it. Just wait until a child Sim sleeps in a non-toddler bed for the first time!
Oh, and if you romance Alex Moyer if she's your tutorial Sim (as my first Sim did), and make her playable, she still won't age. In fact, I don't think she's aged in any of my saves.
Thank you
