Getting back into Sims 4 and changing playstyle

I remember being so bored with Sims 4 back in March 2020.  So I made more Game Saves based on different Timelines.             I now have an Ancient Times game save, a Medieval Time game save, a Georgian to Victorian Age game save and a                        20th Century/Current/Beyond game save.  These with many of my worlds kept me busy with my play.  However, I think I've developed a bit of an obsession to making Tree Landscape lots along with my historical game saves, lol.                                            I also now have an unusual Rewards Event game save where anything goes.  And yes, I've saved many of my build & household saves in the Gallery under SEREFRAS.  They are all from my imagination with history & pop culture fun.  I've only used my packs/kits so it's all vanilla on my PC.🙂

I hear you loud and clear. I think sharing this will help those who struggle. I played this game only once on Normal, and that was due to the Pintar Legacy Challenge  rules.  Not so fun when things go by so very fast nothing much gets accomplished.  I let my Founder die, (he's Erik Cantrell, if you've heard of him), but I was dissatisfied having so short a time with him. So, since I used to play on Epic in Sims3, and best we could do in Sims4 was Long. I play on Long and savor the time with my Sims. I try to set goals for my Sims, reaching for those can keep things interesting.  I also have autonomy on full. I play large households, and this allows me, for the most part, to concentrate on the one Sim guiding them to said goal. Relaxing is key.  The only time I go off, is when my Sims refuse to care for the infants . . . 

Lastly, I'm starting to explore the other packs a lot more. There is a lot of stuff that I have yet to do in this game so I'm making it a point to try out other things besides having families.

That's exactly what I've started to do when things got a bit dull. I've played with my main family for almost nine months before I decided it was time for them to have a baby so I could explore family gameplay a bit since I had never done that before. I'm also trying to make good use of the packs not just in terms of CaS and build/buy, but also gameplay. So I have one Sim who's a chef and has a side hustle selling home-cooked food at her foodstall; I have set up various clubs for my Sims, I send them on dates, make them go bowling, have set up new holidays for them, let them throw parties and events, send them skiing or to Sulani for some sunbathing... and I'm trying to place a household in every world so I can dive a little deeper in that respective world's gameplay and mood. In short, I explore more, and I found that exploration can lead to a ton of new ideas for storylines.

I've also started to play around with traits more, I've created Sim couples that are not compatible at all simply because I wanna see what comes from it (very likely, two divorces in the near future), and while I made sure my first three teens did very well in college, I figured the current one from a different family isn't such an eager beaver and doesn't give a toss about taking those violin classes he needs for his degree. So I let him fall asleep during his final lecture, and he promptly failed that class even though he had done the paper and all the homework. 

It's really little things like these that keep the game interesting and fresh, and one reason why I play on rotation is I find it a lot easier to explore all the possibilities with different Sims.

Another thing I'm doing that I never done much of before is paying closer attention to the quirks my infants and toddlers have, and have their personalities, aspirations and even career based off the quirks they had as infant and toddlers. Infants, I usually randomize their trait But as they get the randomized quirks it will shape their personality throughout my gameplay. And since the quirks are random, you never know what your Sims be will as they grow up. For example: an infant who develops the 'Hates Being Held" quirk will grow up to be an independent toddler and thus be a noncommittal adult. And if a toddler has the aggressive trait, they will likely grow up to be hotheaded or mean as a adult. It keeps the gameplay fresh because it gives you a chance to play with traits you usually don't play with, at least for me it does. And I'm aware their might be quirks that might not have a corresponding trait that would go with it, example: feeder tinker, that is when I'll use the random traits option. I don't normally play with the noncommittal or mean traits, but I won't have a choice if I have an aggressive toddler or an infant that hates being held. It would make every generation something interesting to play. 

So this is another thing I'm doing differently for my playstyle.