I'm sure there are as many answers to the question as there is players, from those who has kept the same save for 10+ years without letting go to those who constantly start new saves, but for you, when do you know that it's time to let go?
When I get bored by a certain family or feel their story has run it's course, I usually start a new family within my save. I like encountering my own sims in my save. There are sims I switch back to when I feel like it.
I would only give up that save if it becomes totally unplayable. Let's hope that doesn't happen.
I usually let the story go when the original sim is already elderly, achieved a lot of things like getting job promotion to a higher level or had done a lot of things from their aspiration. Usually if their children are already grown ups and I dont know what the story would be then thats when I end the story.
Mama didn't raise no quitter and I could never abandon my babies. If this ship is glitched beyond human comprehension, I'll just go down with it <3
Maybe when/if my main save becomes unplayable due to bugs?
I have wanted to start a new save, so that I could get rid of some bugs, and I have thought that maybe I could move the most important sims to a new save. Yet when my main save became unplayable due to the black photos bug (I have a back up so no worries) I realised I have way too many background sims I still want to have around and play, so moving only the most important sims isn't enough. I have almost as many stories as I have sims in my main save, so there's always someone I want to play.
When I feel like I've exhausted a household or situation, or I'm just bored with the characters. Recently I decided to start a legacy-style game and have the heirs rebirth and be tracked in my followed households whilst living their lives according to neighbourhood stories and MCCC, but I honestly got so fed up I stopped when the generation 4 kids were teens. The family was super wealthy and the adults had so many traits I was just bored of them. I decided retain the various branches of the family in my households then start a new concept with new households in the same save.
It may also mean that I need a break from Sims 4. I'm planning to get back to BG3 but I was in a tricky situation when I took a break from it last year so I'm still a little hesitant about picking up where I left off.
I can so relate to this! When you've played a save for too long it's impossible to differentiate between your sims and the save, and also the family relations and the friendships that would just vanish... I could never handle it.
If you start new games in the same save, how do you keep it safe from bugs and corruption?
For me it's when I can't see anymore growth for a particular household after playing it for over 6 to 8 years. And then I get inspired for a next story. In fact, I just did that with my newest household. I brought back Cleopatra Selene who was the daughter of Queen Cleopatra of Egypt. I deleted her whole family & aged her up to a young adult. I gave her the necessary traits, personality likes & dislikes. Then I made her husband, King Juba of Africa. (I had to google that info). Anyways their love story that I created is that her loving husband wanted to combine his Culture with hers because she's lost so much & wants to please her.
Normally I create and delete a ton of sims. One of the main reasons I've kept my current story is because of all the writing and work I put into it.
I hope I can avoid corruption by limiting mods, no big mods with overhauls or new systems , regularly save as, no rental units. But it's all down to luck. One house has a lot of lag so I might have to move the families I care about to a new save at some point.
