In The Sims 2, you may direct the Sim to the telephone and call for a taxi. The taxi will come and pick up the Sim. As your Sim leaves the lot, the residential lot will be saved. Even the exact time will be saved. Your Sim will then do stuff on the community lots, but the amount of time passing on the community lot does not matter at all. Then, when the Sim comes home, the Sim will come home at EXACTLY the same time as the last saved point. A very helpful and realistic mod would be the Community Time Project mod. Instead of coming home at the default time, your Sim's time on the community lot will be counted and recorded. Then, when the residential lot loads up, the player will receive a notification that the Sim will come home at a certain time. In the meantime, you can play with the other family members, or if there is no one there, you can allow the time to speed up until the Sim comes home. In The Sims 3, time progresses forward for all Sims in the world. You can set commands for each Sim in the household, and the Sims will do them, step by step. If one Sim is in a rabbithole, studying in school, then you can switch to another Sim and check out what that Sim is doing - all in one open world. From what I can tell in the Sims 4, the gameplay feels very similar to the Sims 3. However, in the Sims 4, it may feel much more limiting in scope. You can actually command your Sim to skill, but you are not really sure what exactly they are skilling or if they are skilling in something related for their own careers and school or something completely random.As of now, I am not entirely sure how to play multiple Sims in the Sims 4. In my last save file, I just have 2 Sims in a household, and if they want to go to places, I have to make sure that both Sims have the energy to travel. Otherwise, I skip the traveling, and I let both Sims stay at home and do stuff at home.So, on one side, the gameplay does feel like The Sims 3, and on the other side, it really doesn't.

Sims 3 & Sims 4 are like apples & oranges. With Sims 3, you get open worlds, color wheel/textures plus Fairies/Genies/Werewolves, Lunar Moon & so forth.With Sims 4, you can actually build like crazy, Gallery, better Aliens/Mermaids/Witches/Vampires, way more worlds, way more cheat codes & can muliplate the environment & weather of you worlds.Plus, you can make your own Hybrids with the occults.As for multiplay, it's not that hard to go from one household to play with & the other, just select manage world & you're back on the map to select another household or even another world.You can even have multiple Game Saves. I have 6 on the go for my different timelines.Basically, Sims 4 has alot of potential & with the new devs they are finally letting the game grow regardless of what's still missing. We will probably eventually see that.You are smart for waiting this long to begin your Sims 4 experience. My daughter & I made the mistake of starting in year one back in 2014 when it was an empty game. Our reasons was because Sims 3 kept freezing up every 30 seconds & couldn't hold the 20 packs. :s Sims 4 has over 40 packs & still holding. :p However, my advice is don't ever get any mods or mccs, just play vanilla & remember to clean out your cache & tray files & select repairs after patches or packs. And have fun. :p

I play nearly exclusively in full households and can confirm that, unless this is a university run, you can spend as little or as much time micromanaging as you like. I do not tend to completely ignore any one Sim, but I always have one that is my primary focus that gets priority. The rest get attention as comfortabley given.Plus the autonomy works fairly decently and there is not much danger in 4. Death is quite a rare occurrence for me, especially for Sims in my household. (I think I have encountered some bugged deaths of neighbor Sims lately, but that is a completely different thing.) I had to fight fire so much more in previous entries (though most times I have a fire in 4 it is bugged and therefore devastating). So just ignore who you want when you need to.If anything, rather than hard, it is just annoying to have things like active careers to keep up with, too. If I remember correctly you still have to follow them to work to get your promotion, at least with the GTW ones, and I just consider it a hassle to be limited. Also, multiple households are rotational for me. I never liked story progression of any sort, so that has always been what I have done.

I don't really understand the question :sweat_smile: but basically I just jump to whatever household/sim i feel like playing and is important to my story at the moment kind of like how if you were writing a book not every character in the book is present at all times they all have their own storylines and scenes and outside of those they just exist in silence on the background but time passes for all of themwhen playing a scene with multiple households i must then decide whos perspective it is from and control that household or merge households to control more sims

I don't play multiple households, but I play multiple sims in the same household, with all of the sims in the household being special. For me to enjoy the Sims 4, I have to approach the game differently from the Sims 2 and 3, so I take advantage of the Sims 4's instantaneous travel. I have my sims travel to other lots often (almost every sim day) based on the goals I set for each one and their schedules/the calendar. Generally, though, when the children are at school, I travel with the older sims/their parents, so mom and dad can run errands, go on dates, etc. Other times, I'll simply leave some sims to chill at home. The game isn't so fast-paced that I feel the need to have every sim be productive at every second. But if I were feeling that way, I wouldn't hesitate to extend their lifespans to long.

So I rotate between about 85 sims in one of my saves. It’s about 24 households5 of those houses are my main House Holds, the families that my story revolves around, the rest are more or less either extended family members or supporting characters that my sims interact with… more or less on a daily basis.To help with family play, I actually make family Clubs, like House Hoggarth is my Large family of 8 sims, the mom and dad and six kids, so I had the mom establish the House as a Club, and added her children and the family activities include eating bathing and sleeping and then the last two club activities are tailored to the type of family they are.For social I said be friendly toward certain HousesAnd don’t be mean towards certain houses. And then the last is participating in summer activities.They like to farm, garden, Cook, Bake, and they’re also a Family of knights, Trying to develop Knighthood more, right now it's just looking like a medieval College Fraternity.While the other Family like House Charmont their club consists of a family of 4 sims. And Same thing Eat, bathe, sleep, I wanted Magic to be their club activity, but it’s chaos. So books telling stories and music is their favorite way to spend family and leisure time. If I’m taking one sim out, I really just want them to live so I leave it on “Care for Self” while I’m away with a sim.

How do you actually play multiple Sims and multiple households in this game?

22 Replies

SEREFRAS
Legend
5 years ago
Sims 3 & Sims 4 are like apples & oranges.
With Sims 3, you get open worlds, color wheel/textures plus Fairies/Genies/Werewolves, Lunar Moon & so forth.
With Sims 4, you can actually build like crazy, Gallery, better Aliens/Mermaids/Witches/Vampires, way more worlds, way more cheat codes & can muliplate the environment & weather of you worlds.
Plus, you can make your own Hybrids with the occults.

As for multiplay, it's not that hard to go from one household to play with & the other, just select manage world & you're back on the map to select another household or even another world.
You can even have multiple Game Saves. I have 6 on the go for my different timelines.
Basically, Sims 4 has alot of potential & with the new devs they are finally letting the game grow regardless of what's still missing. We will probably eventually see that.

You are smart for waiting this long to begin your Sims 4 experience. My daughter & I made the mistake of starting in year one back in 2014 when it was an empty game. Our reasons was because Sims 3 kept freezing up every 30 seconds & couldn't hold the 20 packs. :s Sims 4 has over 40 packs & still holding. :p However, my advice is don't ever get any mods or mccs, just play vanilla & remember to clean out your cache & tray files & select repairs after patches or packs. And have fun. :p
Bluebell23456
5 years ago
I play nearly exclusively in full households and can confirm that, unless this is a university run, you can spend as little or as much time micromanaging as you like. I do not tend to completely ignore any one Sim, but I always have one that is my primary focus that gets priority. The rest get attention as comfortabley given.

Plus the autonomy works fairly decently and there is not much danger in 4. Death is quite a rare occurrence for me, especially for Sims in my household. (I think I have encountered some bugged deaths of neighbor Sims lately, but that is a completely different thing.) I had to fight fire so much more in previous entries (though most times I have a fire in 4 it is bugged and therefore devastating). So just ignore who you want when you need to.

If anything, rather than hard, it is just annoying to have things like active careers to keep up with, too. If I remember correctly you still have to follow them to work to get your promotion, at least with the GTW ones, and I just consider it a hassle to be limited. Also, multiple households are rotational for me. I never liked story progression of any sort, so that has always been what I have done.
Simmingal
Hero
5 years ago
I don't really understand the question :sweat_smile:

but basically I just jump to whatever household/sim i feel like playing and is important to my story at the moment

kind of like how if you were writing a book not every character in the book is present at all times they all have their own storylines and scenes and outside of those they just exist in silence on the background but time passes for all of them

when playing a scene with multiple households i must then decide whos perspective it is from and control that household or merge households to control more sims
HaneulFier
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
I don't play multiple households, but I play multiple sims in the same household, with all of the sims in the household being special. For me to enjoy the Sims 4, I have to approach the game differently from the Sims 2 and 3, so I take advantage of the Sims 4's instantaneous travel.

I have my sims travel to other lots often (almost every sim day) based on the goals I set for each one and their schedules/the calendar. Generally, though, when the children are at school, I travel with the older sims/their parents, so mom and dad can run errands, go on dates, etc. Other times, I'll simply leave some sims to chill at home. The game isn't so fast-paced that I feel the need to have every sim be productive at every second. But if I were feeling that way, I wouldn't hesitate to extend their lifespans to long.
MasonGamerBoi
5 years ago
So I rotate between about 85 sims in one of my saves. It’s about 24 households

5 of those houses are my main House Holds, the families that my story revolves around, the rest are more or less either extended family members or supporting characters that my sims interact with… more or less on a daily basis.

To help with family play, I actually make family Clubs, like House Hoggarth is my Large family of 8 sims, the mom and dad and six kids, so I had the mom establish the House as a Club, and added her children and the family activities include eating bathing and sleeping and then the last two club activities are tailored to the type of family they are.
For social I said be friendly toward certain Houses
And don’t be mean towards certain houses. And then the last is participating in summer activities.
They like to farm, garden, Cook, Bake, and they’re also a Family of knights, Trying to develop Knighthood more, right now it's just looking like a medieval College Fraternity.

While the other Family like House Charmont their club consists of a family of 4 sims. And Same thing Eat, bathe, sleep, I wanted Magic to be their club activity, but it’s chaos. So books telling stories and music is their favorite way to spend family and leisure time.

If I’m taking one sim out, I really just want them to live so I leave it on “Care for Self” while I’m away with a sim.
RouenSims
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
I have about 400 Sims that I randomly play. Sometimes I play a household where more than one Sim has an active career. Then I just take turns going to work with them. And if there is another household member who does not have an active career, I also take a turn sending the active workers to work without following them there so that I can spend time with the member who doesn't have an active career.

If you leave a household member behind, that member will still care for themselves at home.
simsimsere
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
I play multiple households and multiple sims. I travel with the sims I want and leave the rest home. It's not a problem for me and I prefer it this way compared to TS2 where it was like time didn't pass at all. I understand TS4 way doing this might feel weird at first, but once you get used to it there's nothing stopping you from playing multiple sims/households :)
EnkiSchmidt
Hero
5 years ago
I miss the way time was handled in Sims 2 and will probably never really get over the fact that when I leave household A at sunday, then play household B until wednesday, it will suddenly be wednesday in household A, too, despite me not having played them. Or that with Seasons sims will be sad from having "missed" a holiday.

Sims 4's and 3's time shenanigans are part of the reason why I play with aging off. That way I can take my Sims 4 sims to community lots without paying for the trip with the lifetime of the sims that stayed at home.

My Sims 2 neighborhood feels very organized, with at the moment 8 households. One rotation equals one season.

In contrast my Sims 4 main save consists of ~played 170 sims, but only five main households. There is no system behind when I switch between households other than that sometimes I need to catch the Starlight Accolades on a sunday.

In Sims 3 I've given up on rotational play. The few times I play it, I keep to a single household.
mightyspritesims
Legend
5 years ago
Sounds like the question is how to manage multiple sims in the same household while they're on different lots.

The idea is that one sim is your priority at the moment, the one you're actively playing, and you're right that you can't be very specific about what you ask the other sims back at home to do. But you can switch back and forth. Like if you want a sim to go to the park with their friend Miki and bond, but you don't need to direct their whole conversation, you can take that sim to the park with Miki and then switch back to a sim who is at home. Then click on the icon by the sim who's at the park and click "Socialize with... Miki" and they will build their friendship without you while you play the sims at home. You can bring the sim at the park back home anytime.
HavenRose2020
New Ace
5 years ago
Another option may be renovating your community lots to be more multipurpose, or at least adding additional skill items so the rest of the household has things to do if you want someone to go out for a specific purpose. For example, maybe you can add some some play items or activity tables for kids out at a library so the kids can burn off some energy while other family members do library things.