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 likely involving a few families over a save.I’m used to sticking to one family for a very long time, generations actually, but I’ve been inspired reading a few posts around the forums on how people play multiple families at once. So this is where you guys come in: I’d like to know some tips on how to start out rotational play. What are the easiest rules to go by? How do you keep track of your families? What should I avoid?All help is appreciated, I am a sponge seeking knowledge!

I play rotationally about 30 households. I'm kind of interested in starting a smaller scale rotational save, but my current one is keeping me too busy. I don't follow a strict schedule, I just play whose story I feel like advancing and try to keep friends and family aging about the same pace. My best tip would be to rotate around night time, personally I rotate around 4am, to avoid sims missing work. Some criminals work night shifts though so you may still end up someone missing work, but not as many! Another tip would be to keep aging on for active household only and keep track when you put aging on for unplayed households. I'm not a big fan of rules myself, you're doing well as long you're having fun.

Well, I can give you the rules I go by, but know that there are about as many ways to play rotationally as there are rotational players. There's no "right" way to do it.My save is a Prosperity Challenge, which is a set of rules first thought up during the TS2 era. The TS2 rules were much more involved than TS4, but basically it boils down to starting a completely blank save and creating a randomized number of households, which you then proceed to rotate through on a set schedule. Over time, the numer of households grows as the Sims marry and have children. (I started with 5 houses back in 2015. I now have close to 30.) Like I said, the gameplay rules are pretty involved but I can give you the gist of how I set up my save and how I keep everything organized.Setup:1) Either download a blank save file, or evict and bulldoze all pre-made lots and families so you're starting with all empty lots. In the options menu, set your aging to "active household only".2) Roll a dice. That number (between 2 and 6) is how many households you will create. If you roll a 1, roll again.3) For each household, repeat the dice roll. This is how many Sims you will create. Again, if you roll a 1, roll again.4) For each Sim (you guessed it!) roll a dice two times. The first number represents the Sim's age. 1=toddler, 2=child, 3=teen, and so on. (If you end up with all children and toddlers, you can re-roll, since the game won't let you create a household without an adult.) The second number represents the Sim's gender (odd for male, even for female). 5) Use a Sim randomizer site (I use createarandomsim.com) to choose aspirations and traits. (There is a very long guide in the rules about how to roll for aspirations, but this is so much faster...)6) Names and appearance are up to you. Relationships are up to you as well, as long as everyone in the household is related in some way. (No roommates).Even if you don't choose to go this in-depth with randomization, I would recommend creating your own families to start off. By starting everyone fresh out of CAS together, you give yourself an equal chance to find the story for each household. (The randomization options also can force you to play with family structures and traits you may not have chosen otherwise.)I play each family for 7 days each. This is easy to keep track of (I just go Sunday to Sunday) and as an added bonus it lines up with the calendar weeks in Seasons. No matter how you choose to set up your rotation, I would recommend having some sort of a structure. I've found that having this in place keeps me motivated to play through the weeks with the families I don't love as much because I know that the ones I absolutely love are just a few lots away. As far as keeping track of them, I have my play list pretty well memorized now (I actually set up their houses in the order that I play to make it easier). I do, however, keep a list each round of Sims who are due to age up into teens during that rotation, so I can think ahead to who should end up with who. (Because the youngest child of each family inherits their parents' house, I've found that I can reduce the number of new households by strategically matching up my playable Sims rather than bringing in townies.)Another kind of odd thing that I do to keep track of my Sims is to assign each house a naming theme. These themes range from the semi-normal, such as characters from a TV show or movie, to the bizarre, like brands of medication or types of fish. That way, I can instantly tell which Sims grew up in which house. Finally, since you mentioned that you typically play a family for multiple generations, know that you can do that with rotational play as well. The 5 houses that I started with have since spawned 4+ generations of descendants, and the family lines have become so interwoven that half the town ends up showing up every time there's a wedding or a birthday. Again, this is just what I do. Just do whatever keeps you excited and engaged.Good luck!

When I end up playing rotationally, it's usually just the result of playing one household for a long time and it expanding over the world. Like, I almost always start with one sim, but then maybe they get married, have kids, some of the kids grow up and move out, so then I'll start playing their households as well, and so on and so forth. Pretty soon I've got 20, 30, 40 households, all descended for that one sim! Most recently, I ended up popping over to another already in game household when they interacted with my played household enough that I got interested in them. So, it's always kind of an organic evolution and not something I necessarily set out to do, if that makes sense. As for tips...I have to admit, at a certain point I usually end up pausing or turning off aging for non-active households, just to make it less stressful and makes sure I get to spend the time I want with each sim. You can't really send a sim to university for instance, and then expect them to do well in school while playing another household. Generally, I tend to focus on whatever household is active at the time, giving them all my attention until I feel like I've gotten to a good "pause" point, and then switch to another one. One thing I've found kinda nice--since most of my households are related, and I have the Seasons pack, I'll end up switching up what household I'm playing for different holidays, I'll invite the rest of the fam over for Harvestfest, for instance, and so different households will end up "hosting" the big family holiday on different "years". I find it quite cute anyway :D

Thank you @FanPhoria , @purplestarz2006 and @musteni for your tips- you've definitely given me a few ideas!I think I'll go through and head into a new save and set up all the lots, etc that I want to have before starting. Who knows what I will do with the family though. Hahahaha!

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.

HELP: Tips For Rotational Play | EA Forums

20 Replies

wehaveobsessions
New Spectator
6 years ago
@elanorbreton I’ve seen that suggestion floating around the forums a lot, and it’s not a bad one really. I’d just have to remember to turn it on at a certain stage!

I’ve also seen how some people have tended to age their sims up manually. That could potentially work too, depending on how in depth I will go with my Sims.

I’m a realistic player and kind of love the idea of trying to adopt a more realistic ageing style. Keeping track of age, etc and ageing up as they pass certain milestones to indicate how old they are.

If I was to go down that path though, I’d need to figure out what constitutes a sim year. Is it a run of each season, which seems the most logical, and long do I want my seasons to be? That in itself will dictate in itself how long the Sim lifespan would be in that kind of situation.
DoloresGrey
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
I have a list of families with their numbers. I start to play with a single sim or a couple so they are my number one.
When I play with a household number one, the unplayed households are aging. Aging is set on for active household all the time. Once they have kids and any one of them is ready to move out then the kids are going on the bottom of the list. I switch every Monday at 6am. So when I move from household number one to household number two I need to turn aging off for unplayed household so everyone ages the same way = 7 days every cycle/week.
When my sims are on a university then I turn aging off for everyone and I play only with the student.

Also, it is important to plan pregnancies. The latest day for concieving is on Thursday. That way I can name the baby/ies immediatelly and I don't have to wait for their toddlerhood. Also, I noticed that you'll likely get multiples when you are not playing with the household while giving birth. I don't know if it is a thing but it seems like it to me.
illustratedbliss
New Veteran
6 years ago
"LehmanLegacy;c-17457224" wrote:
@elanorbreton I’ve seen that suggestion floating around the forums a lot, and it’s not a bad one really. I’d just have to remember to turn it on at a certain stage!

Maybe you could make a holiday without any traditions - one on a Monday and one on a Sunday - this way you'll get a reminder every sim year :smile: I don't believe they'll get a sad buff when there aren't any traditions, but I have not tested it.
thepiepers5
6 years ago
I use MCC which is also great for rotational play. It allows you to pause pregnancies so your sims don't have babies while you are playing another family. I also keep aging on for only the played household, so my other 'played' families don't age unless I am playing them. To keep the townies and unplayed on the same lifecycle, I turn aging on for unplayed once per rotation and I rotate that amongst my families each cycle so one of the played families doesn't always have to deal with the death notifications.

I used to rotate on Monday mornings at 2am, but with university I have changed that to Friday's at 4:59pm. Apparently if you do this your sim won't get low marks and it won't mess up their admittance. My first sim is currently going through university and I haven't yet rotated back to him to see if it worked, but others say it will. I have also decided to turn his aging off when I play him at university every second time to try and maintain some of his young adult life upon graduation.

The one thing I have noticed about moving my rotation to the Friday's is that now my celebrity sims no longer win awards, as the rotation time of Friday PM to Sunday awards is so short and the game doesn't remember they wrote an award winning book the last time I rotated through. Does anyone have some ideas to fix this issue? It's almost like you either rotate to manage university, or rotate to make the awards happen.
Daephene1
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
"MHsimsFan;c-17459736" wrote:

The one thing I have noticed about moving my rotation to the Friday's is that now my celebrity sims no longer win awards, as the rotation time of Friday PM to Sunday awards is so short and the game doesn't remember they wrote an award winning book the last time I rotated through. Does anyone have some ideas to fix this issue? It's almost like you either rotate to manage university, or rotate to make the awards happen.

I have been thinking about this question too, and it's one reason I don't have DU yet. I don't want to deal with how to change my rotation to accommodate it. On the other hand, the game definitely does remember that you created something on an earlier rotation. Mila Munch won two weeks in a row for the same book, which she wrote the first week, and my actor sim got three awards in a week where he'd only filmed two things. But the whole award thing is pretty random sometimes, so I kind of don't want to switch things up right now.
BrittanyJeanP
6 years ago
Switching from one family to rotational play really changed how fun I found the Sims. I used to play one family for generations then get bored. But now I find the whole game more interesting. I also play with different sim personalities because I don't feel the same pressure to make everything perfect like I did playing only one family.

My main tip would be around aging. I like the more realistic play as well. I originally played with aging on everywhere so kids would all age the same way. But when I'd get to a new house, people would already be elders and that made me sad. So now I have it for active household only. I don't follow a set pattern anymore but at first it was 3-7 days per house.
mariefoxprice83
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
"DoloresGrey;c-17457230" wrote:

Also, it is important to plan pregnancies. The latest day for concievign is on Thursday. That way I can name the baby/ies immediatelly and I don't have to wait for their toddlerhood. Also, I noticed that you'll likely get multiples when you are not playing with the household while giving birth. I don't know if it is a thing but it seems like it to me.

It's definitely a thing in my game.
Cat_Mom2014
6 years ago
I love rotational play. I love forming stories and watching character development unfold. I started with my founder who got married. They had triplet girls on my first sims play ever :o Rotational play began when the daughters became young adults and started families of their own. I have decided I will rotate with four max so I can have one week per season with a household. I do go into other households to add relationships and pregnancies so their are children in the world. I keep aging
off for the most part and age characters with a cake but when I see fit I will turn aging on for everyone. I currently switch Tuesday night at 9pm as that works with the households schedules for now. Right now I have three households I switch between. Two of the daughters have families so the founder grandparents go between those two houses. My third household is a pale sickly character who I decided has xeroderma pigmentosum so she needs to limit being in sunlight. She does odd jobs and paints as she doesn't wasn't to commit to one job. She is a human who moved to forgotten hollow and is currently flirting with Caleb Vatore. That rotation is fun because it's so different from the other two. If you do rotational play have something different about the households so you can change it up and have variety. Happy playing!
Meka3211
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
@LehmanLegacy So cool that you're going to start playing rotational! I just started playing rotational last year and I can't believe I waited so long to try it.

I don't really have any rules, like a specific time or day to play a certain family. I admire those Simmers that have a schedule. I like some other households better than others, so I don't like to force myself to play a household if I'm not feeling it. The toughest challenge with rotational for me is keeping track of the timeline as it relates to children and if multiple households are having kids.

I do play with aging off for Played Sims and aging on for NPCS. I have MC...so I like to feel as if my world is progressing. I play on a customized version of 'long' as normal is to short and long is too long lol. But I guess these are my only "rules".

My rotational save is setup where everyone is tied to everyone in some kind of way, rather it be that they're family members, or friends, or club members. So it really makes my households that I do rotate between very immersive with everyone. Once you start playing, you'll see what works for you and what doesn't. Great thread by the way....I always love to see how other Simmers play.
ChampandGirlie
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
I'm also in the rotational gameplay camp. My game grew into a rotation when I decided to follow the two sons of an "original sim" in the game who was really just a random test sim. Afterward, I made other characters and followed them. Quite a few of my characters are townies who I thought were interesting after editing or rejected love interests of other sims. I decided to follow them and see what would happen.

I have various characters and the gameplay sometimes shifts a lot. After a break, I brought back a quirky family that I had almost deleted, now they are causing major drama. Not all of my households are like that but they keep things from getting boring. I like watching the game shift, so I think the focus of the new EP is probably a good one for me.

Basically, pick some sims that interest you, move them into a few houses and have them run into each other, see what happens. You could make various single sims and then see who runs into each other and what happens.

One thing that I do now is that I limit the travel of sims in ways that make sense, so Oasis Springs, StrangerVille and Del Sol Valley are relatively close together. Windenburg sims tend to stay there while Willow Creek sims tend to have their lives revolve around there. Anyone can go to vacation or restaurants. Newcrest is like a centralized world for me where they all can go, except that Sulani sims rarely ever want to leave. San Myshuno functions like any city, some people move in or out but the residents tend to hang out in the city. Who can snag a good apartment?

I'm not totally random but I've gotten more random about adding traits kind of mixed with some genetics. For example, the child of an athletic sim might be more likely to be athletic too ... but might be a couch potato.

I tend to age the household I'm playing and then the generations shift roughly together. If I get bored, I'll get rid of some households or make them unplayable. I have some reasons that I haven't aged unplayable sims for a while but eventually, I will.

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HELP: Tips For Rotational Play

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