Sims 4 Effects of Moving Sims to Other Households

Can someone explain what changes with households when moving them to 'other households'? I'm concerned with losing progress, skill levels, and relationships when moving from 'my households' to 'other households'. EA support couldn't really explain and asked me to come here stating that there was no article that really explained it and I would have to rely on support from this forum. Unfortunately, the new Emily Help Center feature ironically doesn't explain this either. I'm now up to 200+ sims in "my households" from fear of moving them to "other households" and losing my progress that I've established with them over time. The "other households" sims seems to change and be swapped out over time and I don't want that to happen with my personal sims that I place in that category. Although I have them saved in my gallery, I want them accessible to pull in and out of my specific saves, as I often do. Any details that can be shared would be greatly appreciated. I would be very much appreciative of anyone who can shed some light on this for me as my game is super laggy and I know its because of all these households that I have in "my households" and I need to make a decision soon ☹️

gameplay issue

simsplayer818
3 years ago
@CherelynRodgers
This is something I do a lot to free up space in My Households. There is a warning that Sims may lose some skills or relationships progress but I've personally not seen that. I do have Neighbourhood Stories turned off though, so as not to affect my previous households whether I've moved them to Other Households or not.
I create family networks across different worlds and I often keep relatives, in-laws and friends in Other Households or just Sims that aren't my favourites. I keep them at the top of the Other Households category by regularly checking them and editing them, that way I've not had any get culled. I also keep Other Households between 70 to 100 households by deleting random townies/NPCs once a week when I'm playing. I started doing that when Cottage Living flooded my game with townies.
I have favourite Sims I always keep in my Households but as I reach the maximum recommended number of Sims I start moving some over to Other Households and I've never had any negative effects. I tend to fill up households with stray pets and so that total keeps getting closer. My game really starts to lag when I'm near the recommended number of Sims.
I play on Console so I don't know if playing on PC with mods makes any difference.

7 Replies

chinsrus101
Hero+
3 years ago
Moved to Sims boards
simsplayer818
Hero
3 years ago
@CherelynRodgers
This is something I do a lot to free up space in My Households. There is a warning that Sims may lose some skills or relationships progress but I've personally not seen that. I do have Neighbourhood Stories turned off though, so as not to affect my previous households whether I've moved them to Other Households or not.
I create family networks across different worlds and I often keep relatives, in-laws and friends in Other Households or just Sims that aren't my favourites. I keep them at the top of the Other Households category by regularly checking them and editing them, that way I've not had any get culled. I also keep Other Households between 70 to 100 households by deleting random townies/NPCs once a week when I'm playing. I started doing that when Cottage Living flooded my game with townies.
I have favourite Sims I always keep in my Households but as I reach the maximum recommended number of Sims I start moving some over to Other Households and I've never had any negative effects. I tend to fill up households with stray pets and so that total keeps getting closer. My game really starts to lag when I'm near the recommended number of Sims.
I play on Console so I don't know if playing on PC with mods makes any difference.
mzda_grl
Seasoned Hotshot
3 years ago
As far as I can tell, the only difference when you move sims to "Other Households" is that they have a separate tab for Neighborhood Stories and are not actively played. So you could set "My Households" and "Other Households" to have different settings. I have about 5 families in my households, and probably 100+ families in "other households". I rotate frequently between my households and other households, so the sims go back and forth from time to time between "my households" and "other households". I haven't noticed any losses or issues from the sims who go from "my households" to "other households" and then back again. I have the Neighborhood Stories option that allows sims to "move in" or "move out" turned off so that could be part of it. I also delete the townie Sims that I don't like often from the Manage Households tab. I also have the amount of Sims set to Unlimited so maybe that's why mine don't get culled or whatever that is.
Curious if other players who rotate which households are playable and which are "other" have had any issues but I haven't personally experienced any on PC yet.
CherelynRodgers
New Rookie
3 years ago
@mzda_grl thank you so much for sharing this information - definitely brings some clarity to this for me. I appreciate you!
CherelynRodgers
New Rookie
3 years ago
@simsplayer818 Thank you so much for sharing your method! I will certainly implement it.
simsplayer818
Hero
3 years ago
I've got some households that I use as "feeder" households, so for example groups of roommates. So my solo Sims who aren't going to have a big family network instead start out with a group of friends. I'll then split them out and play them individually. The base household goes in and out of Other Households depending on what I'm doing.
I have one Sim named Sapphire for example who is the main kind of landlord of a big apartment in Uptown (Uptown is bugged and causes crashing so I don't play it for more than a couple of hours), I use her household to add roomies to. Sapphire has been in and out of Other Households multiple times as I edit her household for new characters or dip into it to move out another solo Sim to move to their own home. The only effect in Sapphire's case is that when I play her household again after moving her back from Other Households she will have relationships that I didn't create and she might have the odd enemy or 2 that I didn't cause during gameplay and maybe a few skill points. However, I see the same thing in households that stayed in my Households too when I return to them.
CherelynRodgers
New Rookie
3 years ago
@simsplayer818 thanks for sharing that with me. I'm getting some great tips and I really appreciate it.