Out of curiosity here, how is everyone making out with managing their sims daily schedules and activites since the addition of the Cats and Dogs EP?Prior to the release of C&D I already found the game's time management system a bit of a tolerence tester... with sims taking over an hour to eat a bowl of cereal.... or 15-20 minutes to walk to the next room. And don't even get me started on the amount of minutes they waste just standing there doing nothing waiting for the queve to finally activate their next action.I just completed a camping trip for my family (2 adults, 1 teen, 1 dog). I got the sims out of bed at 4:30am to prepare them for their vacation. Each one had to pee, shower, and eat. It was a few minutes after 11am before I was able to get them out of the door. Almost 7 sims hours later.With the pets being a bit demanding, and the game's time clock spinning by as it does, is anyone finding themselves racing against the clock?(Just to offer an example)..... My Sim teen, Monday to Friday, is busy (waking state) from 6am to 6pm. She gets up for school no later than 6am, and she is almost kinda ready for school by 8am. She's gone at school until 3pm. From 3pm (now home from school) she needs about 3 hours to fix her needs again after being at school all day. She also needs to be back in bed by about 10pm-11pm for school the next day. That leaves her 4-5 hours of sim time for other activites. Unfortunately, 4-5 hours of sim time goes by in about 10 minutes of real time.... which doesn't leave her much time for a life of her own Mon-Fri .... let alone take on the added responsibility of a pet.My two adult sims have simular stories being that they both work. They both have a bit of extra time however being that they only work 4 days a week, but, because of managing their needs vs the time clock, and trying to "give them a life to live" ... having even a single pet that is a bit needy can add to the frustrations of trying to manage the sim's daily schedule.How's life for your sims?

Time management is a nightmare in this game, even moreso now with pets. I think it’s rather interesting that they made pets incompatible with multitasking - Sims will have to finish whatever action they are doing before they do any action with a dog/cat. No big deal on the surface, but some of the actions Sims do take entirely too much time to accomplish which leads to cancellations and overall interaction failures because it took them 4-5 sim hours to finish what they were doing and to do what I told them to. It also doesn’t help that pets have the same AI pause as toddlers. Since we can’t control pets in any way, selecting an action should automatically cancel whatever the pet was doing so the selected Sim isn’t standing around forever waiting for the dog/cat to finish what they’re doing so the selected action can begin.

"drake_mccarty;c-16161274" wrote:Since we can’t control pets in any way, selecting an action should automatically cancel whatever the pet was doing so the selected Sim isn’t standing around forever waiting for the dog/cat to finish what they’re doing so the selected action can begin. Yes.

It's been okay for me. I've already introduced pets to 3 saves and made a new one with the Heckings. The pets have been occupying a lot of my time, however, and stuff like going out on dates or meeting with clubs got pushed behind a bit. I'm sure things will go back to a more steady rhythm once the novelty of pets wears off. The one save I have with 3 generations only has room for one pet though, and the grownups divide their time among caring for the twin babies and the puppy, who had just aged into an adult. Grandma and grandpa work at night in the entertainer career, so they're usually there to lend a helping hand during the day.

thank god for MCCC mod with the option to adjust time otherwise id go a lil perculiar......well...more so....

I never did understand the need to have the time clock tick by a 1min/sec. With all the different activites in the game for our sims to adopt and experience, having the time clock tick by at that speed makes it difficult to actually enjoy the opportunities the game offers. Just getting your sims ready to start an opportunity (such as a family camping trip) can take the fun right out of the entire outing. (just saying).I understand some simmers like the time clock the way it is, and fair enough. But it would be nice if EA took into account the time it takes just for queve activities to even begin, let alone complete.

Cats and Dogs VS Time Management

simgirl1010
Hero
7 years ago
"muzickmage;c-16162117" wrote:
"floridameerkat;c-16162090" wrote:
My current family has a dog, a cat, and two toddlers on top of two parents with full-time jobs. I think the trick to managing everyone is in their routine. I would have the parents wake up at least three hours before they had to leave for work because as we all know it takes forever for sims to get ready. The toddlers were mostly on their own in the mornings. I potty trained them to level two, so they no longer needed assistance with that, and I would have the parents leave plates of food out for them to eat when they were ready. Before going to work, I'd have one parent check the food level of the food bowls and the cleanliness of the litterbox, while the other took the dog outside to do her business (they live in an apartment and the dog can't seem to go outside by herself). Then everyone goes to work and the babysitter comes by so the twins can work on their skills during the day. When the parents get home, one lets the dog out again and I have them interact with their kids a bit and work on their skills and needs until it's time for the twins to go to bed. Then they get some time to themselves where I try to have them interact more with each other. Or I continue their skill building, depending on whichever I feel is more important on any given day.

That's really great. Now add to that the idea that maybe you want to start your own retail business, and on occasion go camping. Plus, you like the idea of checking out the festivals. Amongst that, you also like to go fishing to build more of your collection, and, of course, there's the other stuff to collect. That's nice to have too.

Sure, its all in the routine... if you only wish to play 10% of the game.

Those are the types of activities I leave for the weekends when everything's not so chaotic. I have one retail shop that I only open on Saturday. Occasionally I'll send my sim to the spa and lunch with a girlfriend. Some weekends are devoted to camping. Sunday is for family brunch at one of the restaurants. Date night is Saturday night.
ChampandGirlie
New Spectator
7 years ago
I agree with whoever said that the dogs take more of an adjustment than the cats. Dogs need a lot of attention partly because they need to be directed to potty frequently, or at least they seem to so far. Maybe I'm just conscientious so I sometimes end up taking the dog out 5 times a day. That said, that's pretty much life with an actual dog. (Yes, depends on the breed, I know).

Cats are a lot easier and lower maintenance as others have pointed out. The dogs absorb a lot of time and effort ... but I'm not complaining because that's what I would expect from a dog. I've had a couple of sims get hyper dogs, one in particular is always fidgeting if she's awake. Her breed is well-known for being very high energy in real life though, so I think it is great. I like being able to watch the gorgeous dog and then to turn off the game and go about my regular life because that kind of dog would probably not be the right fit for me, but she's great in the game.

As for tasks like eating? I just get annoyed by things like musical chairs which I have been seeing again in my game in the last week. When a meal is dragging on because the sim keeps getting up and sitting down in different places or keeps walking from one room to another, that is a bit irritating, but then I just cancel the action and send the sim to somewhere. If it gets really bad, I'll turn off autonomy but I prefer not to.

I don't think pets are right for all of my households. Some of them are way too busy or interested in other things to be the right fit for a pet. That's true of real life as well. As for sims dropping an action that I've directed in the queue after delaying? Yeah, that's an annoying factor in time management; I will agree with that one. Generally though, this expansion has really livened up the game and is definitely something that I was waiting for.
angsea
7 years ago
"muzickmage;c-16161388" wrote:
"drake_mccarty;c-16161374" wrote:
"muzickmage;c-16161329" wrote:
I never did understand the need to have the time clock tick by a 1min/sec. With all the different activites in the game for our sims to adopt and experience, having the time clock tick by at that speed makes it difficult to actually enjoy the opportunities the game offers. Just getting your sims ready to start an opportunity (such as a family camping trip) can take the fun right out of the entire outing. (just saying).

I understand some simmers like the time clock the way it is, and fair enough. But it would be nice if EA took into account the time it takes just for queve activities to even begin, let alone complete.

It’s not an issue with the time clock. The clock in Sims 4 moves slower than Sims 3, which moves slower than Sims 2. The issue is due to the length of time each interaction takes to complete, and it’s made worse by multitasking which essentially pauses one action while another one is taking place.

To address the issue they would have to modify the length of different actions, especially when multitasking is taking place.

I think an argument can be made for both sides of the coin.

If instead of having the time clock tick by at 1min/sec... have it be 1min/2 sec.... that would give us double the time for the animatins to play through. So animations that take (currently) 1 hour to complete (such as eating a bowl of cereal) would take instead just 30 minutes.

The animations could stay the same.... and still take the same length of time to complete. But be measured differently by the time clock running in the background of those animations.

Changing the animations so they don't take up as much time, will be helpful (as you suggest), but will cost us some animations for our gameplay. Some play the game for the animations (I do too to some degree).

I'm just not sure if the time clock is independant of those animations. Is it running in the background (as I assume)? Or is it coded into each of the animations themselves?

That's exactly how I have my game time set via MCC. 1 min per 2 secs, and it's AWESOME. My sims finally don't even need a full hour to get ready for work/school, which leaves them time to do things like play chess (get focused) and brush their teeth (get confident) etc.
simgirl1010
Hero
7 years ago
"muzickmage;c-16162971" wrote:
"Simsweetie;c-16162939" wrote:
"muzickmage;c-16161388" wrote:
"drake_mccarty;c-16161374" wrote:
"muzickmage;c-16161329" wrote:
I never did understand the need to have the time clock tick by a 1min/sec. With all the different activites in the game for our sims to adopt and experience, having the time clock tick by at that speed makes it difficult to actually enjoy the opportunities the game offers. Just getting your sims ready to start an opportunity (such as a family camping trip) can take the fun right out of the entire outing. (just saying).

I understand some simmers like the time clock the way it is, and fair enough. But it would be nice if EA took into account the time it takes just for queve activities to even begin, let alone complete.

It’s not an issue with the time clock. The clock in Sims 4 moves slower than Sims 3, which moves slower than Sims 2. The issue is due to the length of time each interaction takes to complete, and it’s made worse by multitasking which essentially pauses one action while another one is taking place.

To address the issue they would have to modify the length of different actions, especially when multitasking is taking place.

I think an argument can be made for both sides of the coin.

If instead of having the time clock tick by at 1min/sec... have it be 1min/2 sec.... that would give us double the time for the animatins to play through. So animations that take (currently) 1 hour to complete (such as eating a bowl of cereal) would take instead just 30 minutes.

The animations could stay the same.... and still take the same length of time to complete. But be measured differently by the time clock running in the background of those animations.

Changing the animations so they don't take up as much time, will be helpful (as you suggest), but will cost us some animations for our gameplay. Some play the game for the animations (I do too to some degree).

I'm just not sure if the time clock is independant of those animations. Is it running in the background (as I assume)? Or is it coded into each of the animations themselves?

That's exactly how I have my game time set via MCC. 1 min per 2 secs, and it's AWESOME. My sims finally don't even need a full hour to get ready for work/school, which leaves them time to do things like play chess (get focused) and brush their teeth (get confident) etc.

I heard of this MCC mod (from this thread) but I don't know anything about it. Could you explain it maybe. Do you have a link to the mod?

https://deaderpoolmc.tumblr.com/doc/overview
Lonewolf1044
Seasoned Spectator
7 years ago
"drake_mccarty;c-16161274" wrote:
Time management is a nightmare in this game, even moreso now with pets. I think it’s rather interesting that they made pets incompatible with multitasking - Sims will have to finish whatever action they are doing before they do any action with a dog/cat. No big deal on the surface, but some of the actions Sims do take entirely too much time to accomplish which leads to cancellations and overall interaction failures because it took them 4-5 sim hours to finish what they were doing and to do what I told them to.

It also doesn’t help that pets have the same AI pause as toddlers. Since we can’t control pets in any way, selecting an action should automatically cancel whatever the pet was doing so the selected Sim isn’t standing around forever waiting for the dog/cat to finish what they’re doing so the selected action can begin.

I remember in Sims 2 University time management was an nightmare until I discovered coffee but it had an downside to it.
HalloMolli
7 years ago
"Simsweetie;c-16162939" wrote:
"muzickmage;c-16161388" wrote:
"drake_mccarty;c-16161374" wrote:
"muzickmage;c-16161329" wrote:
I never did understand the need to have the time clock tick by a 1min/sec. With all the different activites in the game for our sims to adopt and experience, having the time clock tick by at that speed makes it difficult to actually enjoy the opportunities the game offers. Just getting your sims ready to start an opportunity (such as a family camping trip) can take the fun right out of the entire outing. (just saying).

I understand some simmers like the time clock the way it is, and fair enough. But it would be nice if EA took into account the time it takes just for queve activities to even begin, let alone complete.

It’s not an issue with the time clock. The clock in Sims 4 moves slower than Sims 3, which moves slower than Sims 2. The issue is due to the length of time each interaction takes to complete, and it’s made worse by multitasking which essentially pauses one action while another one is taking place.

To address the issue they would have to modify the length of different actions, especially when multitasking is taking place.

I think an argument can be made for both sides of the coin.

If instead of having the time clock tick by at 1min/sec... have it be 1min/2 sec.... that would give us double the time for the animatins to play through. So animations that take (currently) 1 hour to complete (such as eating a bowl of cereal) would take instead just 30 minutes.

The animations could stay the same.... and still take the same length of time to complete. But be measured differently by the time clock running in the background of those animations.

Changing the animations so they don't take up as much time, will be helpful (as you suggest), but will cost us some animations for our gameplay. Some play the game for the animations (I do too to some degree).

I'm just not sure if the time clock is independant of those animations. Is it running in the background (as I assume)? Or is it coded into each of the animations themselves?

That's exactly how I have my game time set via MCC. 1 min per 2 secs, and it's AWESOME. My sims finally don't even need a full hour to get ready for work/school, which leaves them time to do things like play chess (get focused) and brush their teeth (get confident) etc.

I am doing this as well but it does not work out too well for me, though. Unfortunately the timer for all the interactions which happen in the game directly (or hidden) scale with the length of the day. You eat longer, you shower longer etc. (REAL TIME). First I thought it was great, exactly what I was looking for. But it also means: You only gain netto "free-time" when you move your sims around the lot.

Also a negative side effect: Sims idle when they perform Actions (during an Animation-cycle, for example) in order to become accessable for multi-tasking or Player Input, however, the time Frame of said idle-window needs to be reduced by at least 50%) .

Bowling becomes literally unplayable due to the huge break sims take every turn they make.

---

In TS3 Actions did not scale with day length.
LadyEmillye
7 years ago
Not having too much difficulty with it. Just making sure when my sims leave the house, the pets did their business and are fed and happy. Mostly they sleep while my sim is away.
Cornwallfr
7 years ago
So long as you can shut-down your family members when they try to speak with you, or worse, when they try to hug you while you're eating, time management becomes a real breeze.
Jagwithtude
7 years ago
"muzickmage;c-16163050" wrote:
"simgirl1010;c-16163036" wrote:
"muzickmage;c-16163030" wrote:
"simgirl1010;c-16162986" wrote:
"muzickmage;c-16162971" wrote:
"Simsweetie;c-16162939" wrote:
"muzickmage;c-16161388" wrote:
"drake_mccarty;c-16161374" wrote:
"muzickmage;c-16161329" wrote:
I never did understand the need to have the time clock tick by a 1min/sec. With all the different activites in the game for our sims to adopt and experience, having the time clock tick by at that speed makes it difficult to actually enjoy the opportunities the game offers. Just getting your sims ready to start an opportunity (such as a family camping trip) can take the fun right out of the entire outing. (just saying).

I understand some simmers like the time clock the way it is, and fair enough. But it would be nice if EA took into account the time it takes just for queve activities to even begin, let alone complete.

It’s not an issue with the time clock. The clock in Sims 4 moves slower than Sims 3, which moves slower than Sims 2. The issue is due to the length of time each interaction takes to complete, and it’s made worse by multitasking which essentially pauses one action while another one is taking place.

To address the issue they would have to modify the length of different actions, especially when multitasking is taking place.

I think an argument can be made for both sides of the coin.

If instead of having the time clock tick by at 1min/sec... have it be 1min/2 sec.... that would give us double the time for the animatins to play through. So animations that take (currently) 1 hour to complete (such as eating a bowl of cereal) would take instead just 30 minutes.

The animations could stay the same.... and still take the same length of time to complete. But be measured differently by the time clock running in the background of those animations.

Changing the animations so they don't take up as much time, will be helpful (as you suggest), but will cost us some animations for our gameplay. Some play the game for the animations (I do too to some degree).

I'm just not sure if the time clock is independant of those animations. Is it running in the background (as I assume)? Or is it coded into each of the animations themselves?

That's exactly how I have my game time set via MCC. 1 min per 2 secs, and it's AWESOME. My sims finally don't even need a full hour to get ready for work/school, which leaves them time to do things like play chess (get focused) and brush their teeth (get confident) etc.

I heard of this MCC mod (from this thread) but I don't know anything about it. Could you explain it maybe. Do you have a link to the mod?

https://deaderpoolmc.tumblr.com/doc/overview

Thanks for the link. I'll have to filter through it all later in search of a download button lol.

I usually don't use mods for the sims game. ... but... there's a few ideas that I kinda really like soooooo... i'm jumpin in lol.

Download link in under the releases tab
https://deaderpoolmc.tumblr.com/tagged/mcccrelease

Did you use Twaillan's mod for Sims 3?

No, didn't use Twaillan's mod.

I found a download link:
(MC Command Center - All Modules Version 3.9.0)

The version broke with the C&D patch, you will need to download the latest hotfix here https://www.patreon.com/posts/mc-command-3-9-6-15332977

Any questions feel free to just ask.
Wishings
7 years ago
I mod my games for things taking *less* time and I also just forget about trying to play TS4 as if it's reality or realistic. So my sims don't often work at all except for at home jobs or if they have a specific desire for a career even then I'm very lackadaisical about advancing. I make the lifespans REALLY long because it doesn't seem like they can have a fulfilling life unless they have long lives. I have less expectations of them fulfilling an "average" human goals. So all day club meeting or all day lunch doesn't interfere as much with my playing as I already know dedicating time to a meal out or a club meeting is an all day affair.