How Do I Make Sims 4 More Interesting?

Maybe try challenges? There are a lot of family/legacy style challenges.

@NationalPokedex Unfortunately, I think challenges are outside my comfort zone. I like storytelling and legacy challenges often have specific requirements for each generation, leaving no room to tell a story.

@Simtown15 Couldn't you use the rules and goals within challenges as jumping points for stories? Almost like they're writing prompts?

@NationalPokedex I actually hate writing prompts. I’m currently working on a book, but when I had to write to prompts in school, I would often just sit there for the entire hour.

I just had a lot of fun playing 'Friends" . I downloaded them separately finding the best lookalikes on the exchange and combined them into one group and moved them into the Alto Apt. I had fun redecorating it, its a nice big place. Ross and Rachel are married and so are Monica and Chandler. I gave them appropriate jobs and had them increase their skills. I recreated the Central Perk Cafe and used it for their "friends" club meetings. They have all become good friends and Phoebe entertains them all.
I now play other Sims in rotation when I have them visit the cafe I often find some of the friends there.

Have you ever tried colonizing or playing rotational? It can take a little while to set up, but if you have several families that you've made in your library you can put them all in your new save in different households. You could start with your favorite world, and choose a neighborhood and fill those houses with your own families. (You'd have to use the Freerealestate cheat.)

If you turn aging off, you can switch between households and should see your other Sims in the neighborhood sometimes. If you have Get Together, you can even use the club system to have all of the children hang out at the park, or have all of the mothers go to an art center, or have the dads have a specific pub they all go to. You can even use the club system to make specific families be friends and have a place they tend to meet at. When you're playing a different household and go to that location, you could see them there. The club system has a lot of potential.

I'm not sure anyone can make your comfort zone more interesting once your own creative brain gets bored with it, this is why people suggest exploring new things. You don't have to do anything radical, you could do small things in small increments to help freshen things up. There are some really good suggestions here, you can always take the ideas and adapt them to your style or wishes.

Maybe try to play legacies with short lifespan...?You'll have to think quick in stories but they'll change quick too as generations go by.

@LiELF I’ve actually been meaning to do something like that! I did that once a long time ago, clubs and all, with aging on long, but I stopped playing it when Discover University was released, and then forgot about it. Maybe I could go back to that save?

"Simtown15;c-17455717" wrote:
@LiELF I’ve actually been meaning to do something like that! I did that once a long time ago, clubs and all, with aging on long, but I stopped playing it when Discover University was released, and then forgot about it. Maybe I could go back to that save?

@Simtown15 Sure, why not? :)

I love to play with a lot of my own Sims in the world, it makes me happy to see them around, doing things. And I prefer to hook up my Sims with other Sims of my creation because those game-made townies are...ugh.

Plus, I personally love to play with Occults, and I find my worlds are much more interesting with magic, Vampires, Aliens and Mermaids around. But that's my own preference, yours may be different.