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
I have a system I use for rotational play so that each household’s days roll seamlessly, which means no holidays are skipped or repeated. Here’s a thread I made describing how I calculate that: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/959329/seasons-rotational-play#latest
I check off each day with graph paper and note their ages as I go, along with any little notes I want to remember like first kisses or holiday gifts. I began playing on long lifespan with 14-day seasons, rotating between 8 households and playing each one for 8 days each. It’s a nice amount of time because everyone gets a weekend and I have enough time to get promotions. I switch as soon after 5am as possible, which usually allows enough time for kids to finish their homework before school (they won’t remember if they did it before the last switch) or catch up on some sleep.
I originally populated Newcrest with 8 families, each with a teen and a child. My goal has been to pair up their kids and continue through the generations, keeping extensive relationships with their peers and extended families. I’ve been playing this save file for at least a year now with no desire to change it up. Each time I switch families I save as new, just so I can revert back to any stage I need to, if necessary.
I found it really helpful to create a club for the 8 teens (Gen 2A), the 8 children (Gen 2B), the “P.T.A. Moms”, sporty dads, etc. As mentioned above, sometimes relationships are culled and they forget they knew one another which is annoying. It’s not like it’s every relationship, probably just the less meaningful ones. Having clubs makes it easy to get them back together. Some of the families were more successful than others, so I have a more exclusive club for Ladies Who Lunch, and there’s a good variety of careers throughout (I want to check each one off my list).
Gen 2A is finishing college. As posters above me have mentioned, rotational play at college is trickier because anyone enrolled will continue their term while you’re playing a different household, and you might not be happy with their grade. So I choose not to re-enroll them at the end of each term. It says they’ll lose their scholarships but 3 terms in, that hasn’t happened. And even so, it’s too cheap anyways. I just enroll them again when I rotate back.
So Gen 2A has paired off. Soon I will have 12 households and I plan to change to 28-day seasons, playing each household for 10 days (one house will be 12 days) which allows me to pick up exactly where I left off when I reach the first family again.
For a change of scenery, I’m branching a few of the families out to Del Sol Valley and Willow Creek. Some will remain in Newcrest. I like to keep a few of the households in the same neighborhood. Some of Gen 2B might move to Strangerville and I’ll actually play through the story there finally. As the parents age, they’ll either live with their kids, retire to Sulani, or downsize to the downtown area of Windenburg where they can meet up and play chess.
I think it will be fun to see how the genetics play out as the families intertwine, and keep track of cousins while still having other unrelated offspring to continue the line with. I look forward to bigger holiday dinners and BBQs as the families grow. I have a lot of fun seeing what my characters do while I’m not playing them, I just wish the AI was better. It just makes the game feel more like it’s mine when I’m so invested in all of them.
I check off each day with graph paper and note their ages as I go, along with any little notes I want to remember like first kisses or holiday gifts. I began playing on long lifespan with 14-day seasons, rotating between 8 households and playing each one for 8 days each. It’s a nice amount of time because everyone gets a weekend and I have enough time to get promotions. I switch as soon after 5am as possible, which usually allows enough time for kids to finish their homework before school (they won’t remember if they did it before the last switch) or catch up on some sleep.
I originally populated Newcrest with 8 families, each with a teen and a child. My goal has been to pair up their kids and continue through the generations, keeping extensive relationships with their peers and extended families. I’ve been playing this save file for at least a year now with no desire to change it up. Each time I switch families I save as new, just so I can revert back to any stage I need to, if necessary.
I found it really helpful to create a club for the 8 teens (Gen 2A), the 8 children (Gen 2B), the “P.T.A. Moms”, sporty dads, etc. As mentioned above, sometimes relationships are culled and they forget they knew one another which is annoying. It’s not like it’s every relationship, probably just the less meaningful ones. Having clubs makes it easy to get them back together. Some of the families were more successful than others, so I have a more exclusive club for Ladies Who Lunch, and there’s a good variety of careers throughout (I want to check each one off my list).
Gen 2A is finishing college. As posters above me have mentioned, rotational play at college is trickier because anyone enrolled will continue their term while you’re playing a different household, and you might not be happy with their grade. So I choose not to re-enroll them at the end of each term. It says they’ll lose their scholarships but 3 terms in, that hasn’t happened. And even so, it’s too cheap anyways. I just enroll them again when I rotate back.
So Gen 2A has paired off. Soon I will have 12 households and I plan to change to 28-day seasons, playing each household for 10 days (one house will be 12 days) which allows me to pick up exactly where I left off when I reach the first family again.
For a change of scenery, I’m branching a few of the families out to Del Sol Valley and Willow Creek. Some will remain in Newcrest. I like to keep a few of the households in the same neighborhood. Some of Gen 2B might move to Strangerville and I’ll actually play through the story there finally. As the parents age, they’ll either live with their kids, retire to Sulani, or downsize to the downtown area of Windenburg where they can meet up and play chess.
I think it will be fun to see how the genetics play out as the families intertwine, and keep track of cousins while still having other unrelated offspring to continue the line with. I look forward to bigger holiday dinners and BBQs as the families grow. I have a lot of fun seeing what my characters do while I’m not playing them, I just wish the AI was better. It just makes the game feel more like it’s mine when I’m so invested in all of them.
