Are there certain things you do when starting a new game?

Well I find my sims some kind of job or way to make money - build a basic house, and have them watch the cooking channel through their first few easy meals in the house to keep them from disasters until they can afford a sprinkler system to not burn their house down.

Toward the end of their first week in their house I generally have had them walk around the neighborhood and meet a few sims they might like - maybe pick a few plants to start a small garden, and just check out the area they live in.

I edit the calendar to make certain days less of a chore -- I don't like gnomes, and I prefer Valentine's Day to be an easy one, fulfilled by smooching or drinking, with no flowers/formal dates necessary. I also turn aging off, because I prefer to take a few in-game weeks to get my sims some established skills. The CASstories helps a little nowadays.

Starting new games? Oh yeah, I forget that people do that.

Since I made the mistake of buying Parenthood, I go in every house and age up the kids.

I delete all pre-mades. :D

I usually also delete most houses in the world and build new ones, especially if there is an area I plan to use more than others.

Make my sim buy an empty plot of land, then delete the vampires, demolish everything in FH, and replace (or add) the public venues such as library, museum and gym with CC lots that have my own traits sets. To start making some money, I either get them into painting or I buy a camera and they sell their photos as they take them (I of course use my Viable Photography mod to make some extra cash).

And that's basically it - each new iteration then starts to take its own turns with story progression depending on what storyboard I'm using.

I have a custom template that I created and use for every new save. It's set up with modified lots, premades and copies of all my favorite Sims from other saves as 'not-in-world' townies. All I need to do is; open that template, click on the 'create new Sim to move in' button at the lower right of the Manage Worlds screen, create my Sim(s), place them on a lot, build them a house (or not) and start playing. When I'm ready to save gameplay for that new save, I choose 'save as' and rename it something appropriate. Lather, rinse, repeat for the next new save. :)

Whenever I get a new pack, I just update the custom template for any new premades/worlds to my preferences and carry on as usual for the next new save. Using a custom template has made everything so much faster when starting a new save. I don't have to spend time updating everything before I can start playing. I love it! <3

EDIT: Forgot to add that I always create a folder for any new save and place any screenshots I've taken in it. I also create sub-folders inside that folder for the Sims/Lot tray files and for their appropriate save game files too if I'm finished with the save file or it's on hiatus to play later. This has made it a lot easier when picking/choosing which Sims I wanted to put in my custom template. Also, if I ever want to reuse a house in another save, I have them in those folders to easily drop in the current tray file.

It helps to streamline my game too by not having it cluttered up with a ton of Screenshots/Sims/Lots/Saves in game all the time. I have very little lag (if any) as a result.

"DoodlyDoofus;c-17209650" wrote:
Starting new games? Oh yeah, I forget that people do that.

This. I have a lot of saves that I rotate on and all of them have turned into something completely different from the "new game"-state.

I usually delete all the ready made lots. Also the Villareals.

Not organized enough for that... I wish I were. If I didn't have about 20 save games I actually use and was starting over completely . I'd put a bowling alley, spa, and some basegame restaurants in a starter save then build from there. My template save gets lost in the shuffle of my saves currently. I do usually have to add those in by hand when I run across not having them. I actually wish I'd put all of my business places in Newcrest also.. it gets confusing to remember when I move between my themed saves.