How do you "rotational" play
i have never rotated play between families but i see in the forums that many folks have. I think it would add a bit more depth to my play ..i tend to create characters to place in a save along with a...
Forum Discussion
1. When you begin your play what rules do you abide by (if any) I have one major rotational save. When I started it I created the original families using the rules from the Build A City challenge, and for a long time I rotated strictly at 6am on Mondays, always randomized traits and randomized aspirations. Over time I've relaxed a bit on the schedule but it's still usually about a week, give or take. A couple of times I've stuck with University through the full program just because I didn't want to keep coming back and back to the same students. I also now don't really randomize things as much unless I need some kind of a household goal; then I might look at the Random Legacy challenge and roll something from there. I usually like to have a general goal or style for each household. I also wait on new content until the "right" sim is up in the rotation for it; for instance, with both Strangerville and RoM it was quite a long time before I played any of the content in the rotational save because I wanted to get to the household or sim that it made sense for. On the other hand I had a perfect sim to take up knitting when that came out a couple of weeks ago.
I keep aging off for all but the active household until I'm back to household #1; then I turn it on for NPCs and let them develop. I use MCCC to turn off all culling. Also, if they start a fire they have to manage it themselves; I don't put it out for them. It's one of the few ways to get an accidental death in the game, although I've had a couple of teenage vampires incinerate themselves because they wouldn't stay out of the sun and also one sim who unexpectedly died by lightning strike. For whatever reason I have never gotten an emotional death in this save although I have in others.
I also collect taxes from each household so that if I want to start a new one out with extra cash or in a house they couldn't afford out of pocket, they can borrow the money from the Bank of Me and repay it. This also helps a little with the problem of them all getting filthy rich too easily.
2. How many characters do you play and are they usually single..married...married with kids or are they direct family members (example ..mom dad and/or siblings I currently have 123 active sims, which I only know because I keep them listed in a spreadsheet. All my households are descended from or married into the original four families I started with. (In fact a couple of the originals are still there, thanks to vampirism and ghost...ism). They have all manner of family structures including singles and childless couples.
3. how long does this type of play hold your interest approximately? ( for example..a week...a month ...longer?) I've played this save 2-3 years and while I have several others saves I enjoy, I've never had another rotation take off for me like this one did. If I need to spice it up a little I'll pick a random event to subject them to and that's led to some neat stories for some sims I didn't really know what to do with. If I am consistently bored with a particular household I'll "retire" it to townie status.
4. Do you usually use NewCrest so you can create your own town or do you have a favorite neighborhood and why? I placed my original four families at the top of the map in Newcrest and also now have a family on the 5th lot, but the rest of Newcrest is all community lots. I have a lot of families in San Myshuno but also have them in every town except Glimmerbrook.
5. Would you say there is any draw backs to rotational play and if yes then what would those draw backs be? As others have mentioned University throws things off; I get around that by either just bulling through the entire thing on campus, or having sims go to school from home. The other annoyance is not being able to keep seasons consistent among all of them. In my mind each rotation is one concurrent week for all families, but even with 28 day seasons one family might celebrate Winterfest and another a summer holiday in the same rotation. (On the other hand I wouldn't want to run the same holiday 27 times, so I've just learned to live with it.) I know other simmers have been able to work out a pattern that makes it more consistent but it depends on how many households there are and how often they're rotated.
6. other then using rotational play what type of simmer are you in game...for example ...do you prefer family related play....single sims over couples...do you prefer to begin as a teen in a family or something else. I tend to tilt toward family play for the most part, but have tried out many other styles as well. I tend to start challenges and then abandon them. I'm having a lot of fun right now with a family that is directed by what happens in BitLife.
As far as groups or clubs go I use a lot of family clubs to do activities together or short term clubs to achieve a specific goal (like finding a spouse), plus it's a good way to achieve the childhood social aspiration. For community lots I put down anything that strikes my fancy at the time I need it.
I keep aging off for all but the active household until I'm back to household #1; then I turn it on for NPCs and let them develop. I use MCCC to turn off all culling. Also, if they start a fire they have to manage it themselves; I don't put it out for them. It's one of the few ways to get an accidental death in the game, although I've had a couple of teenage vampires incinerate themselves because they wouldn't stay out of the sun and also one sim who unexpectedly died by lightning strike. For whatever reason I have never gotten an emotional death in this save although I have in others.
I also collect taxes from each household so that if I want to start a new one out with extra cash or in a house they couldn't afford out of pocket, they can borrow the money from the Bank of Me and repay it. This also helps a little with the problem of them all getting filthy rich too easily.
2. How many characters do you play and are they usually single..married...married with kids or are they direct family members (example ..mom dad and/or siblings I currently have 123 active sims, which I only know because I keep them listed in a spreadsheet. All my households are descended from or married into the original four families I started with. (In fact a couple of the originals are still there, thanks to vampirism and ghost...ism). They have all manner of family structures including singles and childless couples.
3. how long does this type of play hold your interest approximately? ( for example..a week...a month ...longer?) I've played this save 2-3 years and while I have several others saves I enjoy, I've never had another rotation take off for me like this one did. If I need to spice it up a little I'll pick a random event to subject them to and that's led to some neat stories for some sims I didn't really know what to do with. If I am consistently bored with a particular household I'll "retire" it to townie status.
4. Do you usually use NewCrest so you can create your own town or do you have a favorite neighborhood and why? I placed my original four families at the top of the map in Newcrest and also now have a family on the 5th lot, but the rest of Newcrest is all community lots. I have a lot of families in San Myshuno but also have them in every town except Glimmerbrook.
5. Would you say there is any draw backs to rotational play and if yes then what would those draw backs be? As others have mentioned University throws things off; I get around that by either just bulling through the entire thing on campus, or having sims go to school from home. The other annoyance is not being able to keep seasons consistent among all of them. In my mind each rotation is one concurrent week for all families, but even with 28 day seasons one family might celebrate Winterfest and another a summer holiday in the same rotation. (On the other hand I wouldn't want to run the same holiday 27 times, so I've just learned to live with it.) I know other simmers have been able to work out a pattern that makes it more consistent but it depends on how many households there are and how often they're rotated.
6. other then using rotational play what type of simmer are you in game...for example ...do you prefer family related play....single sims over couples...do you prefer to begin as a teen in a family or something else. I tend to tilt toward family play for the most part, but have tried out many other styles as well. I tend to start challenges and then abandon them. I'm having a lot of fun right now with a family that is directed by what happens in BitLife.
As far as groups or clubs go I use a lot of family clubs to do activities together or short term clubs to achieve a specific goal (like finding a spouse), plus it's a good way to achieve the childhood social aspiration. For community lots I put down anything that strikes my fancy at the time I need it.
