A question for those who own all or most of the packs (Expansion, and Game packs)

My main save is a huge rotational save so most sims are born there and throughout their childhood I think which direction they'll go. Last time I started a new save I actually used the story function and it did help me decide what type the sim was going to be. Overall I don't want to make too specific plans in CAS but let the live mode shape the sim. I only give them one outfit per category at start for example, so I can add later. Same with likes/dislikes.

I have a huge main rotational save too. When I make a new sim, family or household, for that save, it is usually when I get a new expansion with new careers, etc. and will have them explore that. I also have a scenario rotational save which is newer and a bit smaller at this point. Most of the sims ( family or household ) I play in that save are made for a new scenario, and depending on what type of person they are Supposed to be I choose certain jobs/careers. Many times I have explored careers in that save that I haven’t explored in my main rotational save. I too have used the story function, only a few times though. In fact I believe I used it for one of my scenario sims once. I like rotational play because it is less boring, I change households when I want to play something different, and my sims know many other sims in their save that are in my rotation.

Playing the simple living lot trait if you have cottage living makes the game a little bit more challenging too, especially in the beginning. So do some of the other lot traits.

I wish the dev’s would bring out a simple clothing lot trait, so my sims would have to buy a piece of clothing, hat, shoes, jewelry etc. to open it up in CAS.

If it's a sim for a brand new game I have very little in mind when I start. Sometimes I will know what career they'll be in, or maybe they'll be part of a sub-culture. Most of the time I just start trying on outfits and applying makeup and let the character emerge, making changes as I go.

Right now I'm only making new sims to fill specific roles in one of my two rotational saves. I still don't have a vision of their final look or personality, but half of them will have a career path and lifestyle pretty well set in my head when I start. I usually give them two outfits in every category except formal and party. My sims just don't find themselves in those situations very often. Formal almost never, and party on rare occasions. It's not that they don't go out, they go out a lot. The night's out usually aren't prearranged events, just someone calls up the group and says 'let's hang out at X', so party wear doesn't figure in. I keep meaning to make it a thing and then I just roll with whatever they show up in.

I don't give them likes or dislikes, with the exception of disliking mischief. I don't give that to everybody, but I do give it to most of them. It's my way of trying to rein in the use of mischief. Like a few things it's so completely overdone to the point of being irritating instead of funny.

I haven't been playing as long as many people here, but the first thing I felt I needed to do was to get the town to look how I wanted. That's probably because I like creating things in games and it also increases my own enjoyment knowing I've put my own stamp on everything. As for my sims if they're not one of the premades or Maxis gallery sims I'll create their main outfit and then do the others as I play, but what sims I use matter less to me than the world itself.

I don't really have any specific career goals unless its for one of the premades, for example I want Jonny Zest to remain as an entertainer but I don't want Nancy as a crimelord when her husband is a detective so usually I make her a politician or put her in the business career. Generally for my own sims I prefer the easy money jobs such as writing or painting but the downside of that is that staying at home causes their social need to drop so I often find the military career a good fit and that was also true for me in Sims 3. When I bought Get Famous on sale I found I really loved the media career and also the acting (haven't had a bug with that yet except one odd costume change).

This is one of the reasons why I love doing Random Legacy Challenge style games. I've made my own tables to include some extra things (hobbies, different and more specific goals, occult sims, for instance) and don't hold myself to the hard rules of the challenge (it's a personal game and I won't hold myself to complete an objective I don't enjoy or to stay stuck on something for the sim's lifetime if I'm getting bored with it). Then, I try to find how the random rolls fit together and add things based on that.

When I create a new Sim, I usually use a random sim generator or a spin wheel picker to assign traits, aspirations, jobs, hobbies, etc. There are a lot of useful pickers on this site:

https://goodlilmousey.wordpress.com/helpful-links/

I particularly like the 'Roulette' one for injecting a bit of random chaos >:)

"Ilikebuilding;c-18185068" wrote:
Why do you create a new sim for new expansions? Surely the game is about generations?

This game can be whatever you want it to be :) Generational, one and done, challenges, scenarios, just building, just CAS. The beauty of a sandbox game is that people are free to play however they choose. There's no right or wrong way to play.

I don't often start brand new sim i just choose premade to play in which its easier to choose direction cause you're like " well this would be bob pancakes thing to do"

only issue is when you get new premades that you don't know much of and you don't know yet what you want to make of their lives :sweat_smile:

or when you scheme for things you could do with packs you do not have currently

like the way I keep bottling all the teenage occult drama for when i get HSY but i mean do I really need HSY to play it not really to be honest just think it be fun to explore that pack like so

I used to start a new game with a new sim and have a plan for a career and kind of go from there. I would get bored once they reached the top of their career or whatever goals I might have given them. Then I would go back to sims 3 for a while. After a while I had a bunch of sims saved in my library so I started playing rotationally and adding them all to one game. Now I have tons of my own sims and also play all the premades with homes. I’ve added versions of my sims 3 sims and a lot of premades from sims 3, mainly occults. I have created relationships between many sims. It’s kept me from getting bored most of the time but honestly if it was easier to play rotationally in sims 3 and not have save issues, I would be playing sims 3.

I'm trying to remember if I have done this, but I don't think I've ever made and played a Sim without any direction in mind BEFORE I make them. There's always some kind of gameplay reason when I make a Sim whether it's for a challenge, a scenario, a contest, to try out new pack features or just general gameplay. I used the 'Create a Sim Stories' a couple times with the quiz thing, which was fun, but it was mostly just because it was new and I was curious what kind of Sim I'd get.

I don't believe for a second the game is intended for a generational gameplay only. A lot of Simmers love to play that way, but it's not the only way to play the game. I rarely play with generations, in fact once my Sims get a partner and perhaps have a child, I get bored with them and start thinking of other ideas I'd like to try which usually results in starting a new save with a new Sim. My personal challenge has curbed that tendency a bit, but I still have other saves I play along with it when I have time.

My favorite way to play is with a single Sim starting out Rags to Riches style with a specific goal or set of goals in mind for them. I've said it many times before, but there is just something so satisfying to me helping them gradually succeed in their little pixel life. I like to keep this Sim single for as long as possible since it's so much easier for me that way. I get overwhelmed trying to play with too many Sims in a household since I'm a micromanager.

I've tried the full autonomy way to play when having more than one Sim in a household, but it's just too frustrating for me. The Sims left to their own devices do such silly, random, repetitive things that mean nothing most of the time. I wonder, why have them at all if they're just 'there' in the background doing their own thing? I guess I just care about my Sims too much and want any I'm playing to have a goal and work towards it. I just can't let them go wild and do whatever. I'll admit sometimes they do surprising things, but not often. I've tried mods to nuke those repetitive actions, but it never lasts. They just get enamored with another object and it starts all over again.

There is SO many different ways to play this game, it satisfies my creative side like no other game. I have all the packs except one EP and a few kits. It makes me happy I have so many options on what to do with my Sims or builds. The possibilities are endless and no, you don't always have to have an imagination to make things happen, but it does help to have an open mind and not get stuck believing you are required to do this or that. Play in whatever way makes YOU happy! <3

One last thing, about my challenge. I started it specifically to do aspirations I've never tried before and have a Sim live in every world doing them, plus build a new house for them every month since I love to build. I didn't intend to write a story as the year progressed except for their background story and a short summary of their progress with a daily post pic. However, gradually I did start to write a story. Here's where the imagination comes into play. Every month, I have to come up with a reason why they are moving using the next month's aspiration(s) to explain it. I don't have a clear vision written out at the beginning of the year. Playing that way is challenging and fun, especially if it works out these reasons somehow all work together and reveal a final outcome at the end of the year! At least for me since clearly I love to write.

Anyway, to sum it all up, I don't just make a Sim and plop them in a world without a vision in mind for them, there is always a reason, but not always a story. My goal in playing Sims is not generational, not rotational, it's playing one Sim and exploring everything the game has to offer, it's building houses/venues, it's telling stories, it's playing challenges, it's taking beautiful screenshots, collecting and so, so much more. :)

Happy Simming! <3