HELP: Tips For Rotational Play
Hello my favourite Sim Community! 👋🏻 I’m looking at ways to spice up my game-play and revolutionise the way I play Sims and I’ve been considering the notion of rotational play on a large scale li...
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My preference is to start with one family and expand as the children move out and start their own households. I really enjoy the extended family relationships, and it helps me get attached to all the households when they were mostly founded by sims I've raised. I am up to 13 households now.
I play with aging on for the current household only, and play each house for the same number of days every time so they all age at the same rate. I have read of a lot of people who play with aging off most of the time and turn it on once per rotation, so even if they don't play each house the same number of days they still all age at the same rate (but some might have their birthdays while you're not playing them). And some people turn aging off and control everything with birthday cake. Anyway, how you're going to coordinate their aging is something to work out before you start.
I have a sort of handwritten sims calendar where I list the weeks according to what holidays are in them, and each time I finish all 13 households I make decisions about what order I'm going to play them in the next time based on what holidays and/or seasons I want to play each family in. That's more fun for me than playing them in a set order.
I haven't bought DU because I can't figure out how to fit the university semesters into my rotation, so I don't have any tips there.
Be aware that when you rotate houses the following things will happen regularly:
If you leave a household with a sim pregnant, the baby will be born while you're playing other households. The game will generate a name that you can't change until they age up to toddler.
Pets will almost always be sick when you enter a household after playing another one.
I think the sims are more likely to be sick than when you don't rotate also.
When you go back into a household after playing the others, your sims will be in random places and their needs will be set to things that have nothing to do with how you left them. Generally the needs are tied to time of day, so if you usually change households at around the same time of day you should be able to develop a routine for dealing with the condition they're in at that time.
If you have Seasons:
I usually rotate between 2 and 5 am. If you rotate before 2 am on a holiday, the new household will only have a few hours to complete that holiday or get the sad moodlet. At 5 am the plants spawn their harvestables, so if I switch before 5 I can get produce the first day on established plants. Also almost no one has a work schedule that overlaps with that time window. If you rotate into a household during a work or school shift, the sim will almost always be at home missing work or school.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head.
I play with aging on for the current household only, and play each house for the same number of days every time so they all age at the same rate. I have read of a lot of people who play with aging off most of the time and turn it on once per rotation, so even if they don't play each house the same number of days they still all age at the same rate (but some might have their birthdays while you're not playing them). And some people turn aging off and control everything with birthday cake. Anyway, how you're going to coordinate their aging is something to work out before you start.
I have a sort of handwritten sims calendar where I list the weeks according to what holidays are in them, and each time I finish all 13 households I make decisions about what order I'm going to play them in the next time based on what holidays and/or seasons I want to play each family in. That's more fun for me than playing them in a set order.
I haven't bought DU because I can't figure out how to fit the university semesters into my rotation, so I don't have any tips there.
Be aware that when you rotate houses the following things will happen regularly:
If you leave a household with a sim pregnant, the baby will be born while you're playing other households. The game will generate a name that you can't change until they age up to toddler.
Pets will almost always be sick when you enter a household after playing another one.
I think the sims are more likely to be sick than when you don't rotate also.
When you go back into a household after playing the others, your sims will be in random places and their needs will be set to things that have nothing to do with how you left them. Generally the needs are tied to time of day, so if you usually change households at around the same time of day you should be able to develop a routine for dealing with the condition they're in at that time.
If you have Seasons:
I usually rotate between 2 and 5 am. If you rotate before 2 am on a holiday, the new household will only have a few hours to complete that holiday or get the sad moodlet. At 5 am the plants spawn their harvestables, so if I switch before 5 I can get produce the first day on established plants. Also almost no one has a work schedule that overlaps with that time window. If you rotate into a household during a work or school shift, the sim will almost always be at home missing work or school.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head.
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