Does anyone else play this way? (Rotational gameplay)
I have been playing the sims for years. I started playing with Sims 3 about a 1-2 years before the Sims 4 came out and started playing ts4 upon release and I’ve always played mostly rotationally.
I used to play with one household until my founders died then create another and just let the first household fend for itself while checking in every once in a while, but now I play exclusively in rotations with only families that I’ve made because:
- I enjoy playing the sims that I make and creating different household dynamics ( large families, young couple starting out, grandparents raising their grandchildren etc)
- I get so bored playing with one household in the slower moments when they are having to go to work/ school and nothing is going on for 2-3 days at a time ( I’ve always been this way for me, even with ts3)
- it adds so much variety and to see how multiple families grow and interact.
- i get to experiment with the different career paths and aspirations as well as different methods to achieving them without having to wait until someone the next gen picks that career/aspiration
- im generally really impatient and like to move around a lot 🤣
I know that rotational gameplay itself is not new at all but I’ve never seen someone play the way that I do. The typical rules for rotational play are:
- Auto- Aging is off for either everyone or unplayed sims which means you’ll either be manually aging everyone or turning on/off auto-aging between rotations
- Stay in the household between 3-7 in game days
- I’ve seen some rules state to turn off neighborhood stories to ensure you can control who is doing what when it comes to moving, having children etc
The only difference I have with most I’ve seen who play is I allow aging to stay on and I keep neighborhood stories on for unplayed households. So all of my rules are :
- Auto aging is on for all households ( long lifespan)
- Leave households every Sunday (with the exception of weddings and births because I want to name all children)
- All households that are not in my rotation have neighborhood stories on
- No cheating for money unless it’s part of the family’s initial story (rich family moving into town etc)
- Adoption and science babies allowed for 1 sibling every other generation ( if there is an adoption in gen 3, no adoptions until gen 5)
Currently I am playing 9 households (originally it was 5 the other 4 are new branch offs of them) I would like to create more, but I know these 9 will become more as the next gens grow up 🥲
I like this method of playing because everyday is different and I think it keeps things fresh. I like seeing the my other sims walking around in the background, living their lives. I don’t like feeling like a “God” over the characters (if that even makes sense 😭) and having super control over every detail. I like letting a story naturally unfold, while managing and guiding their choices. While I’ve been playing, two of the funniest unplanned scenarios were:
(Starting family : YA woman, man and their dog) - I’d just updated their house so they had about $700 simoleons in their account, the women was pregnant and at work (criminal career) and the husband was at home. He can’t cook so he died by fire the day before the baby was born so she had to quit her criminal career & turn her life around because she had to take care of the newborn and a dog. She got a job as a babysitter and started painting on the side. Now she has a new husband $30,000 in the bank and paints full time. It was a struggle to get them to that point but they’re my favorite household now.
(Starting family: a couple and their twins, m&f)
As the twins grew up their parents continued to have more children, causing a financial burden so great that they had to fit 6 people into a two bedroom house. Both twins found love but since the family only had about $4,000 in the bank, the parent had no money to help them move out with their loves. The girl twin married a friend from childhood and ended up in one of the richest townie families, going from sharing a bunk bed with her brother to living in a mansion with 1,000,000 in their account ( this was completely unplanned as I don’t play the townie families and didn’t know who lived where)
So I really enjoy how much randomness can be in the game when played rotationally.
I used to play on pc but I had to switch to console but once I’m back on pc I want to improve my game play using mods to :
- Decrease the likelihood of pregnancy ( I feel like everytime I try for a baby I have one and that’s not realistic. I’d like it to go down at least to 50%)
- increasing the length of my sims lives to at least 1000 in game days
- make the seasons longer( I know there currently isn’t a mod for this but a gal can dream)
What do you think? Could you play like this?
Sidenote: I did find ONE other creator that keeps aging on and increased her sims lives to 2400 days. let me know if you all know anymore https://simsarahsarah.tumblr.com/howiplay
