How to create a legacy and stick with it

I think I’ve blown through 25+ generations by now with 330 Sims, all starting with 4-6 random Sims I created. The very first one was named Harding Costain ? My town is still swimming in Costains, Sterlings, Solittos, and Trevelians. I occasionally add in a few new randos when needed. Each family line usually has their “thing;” like the Costains are fresh-faced, beach-loving prepsters and the Solittos like to doll up in lots of makeup and wear all black.

I pick one household as a favorite and usually play them most of the time until another favorite strikes my fancy. Usually it’s one that inspires me to try a new career, hobby, town, type of house, or maybe a particular couple just seems cute together. Right now all the favorites are wealthy Sulani beach dwellers that like to gloat about their illustrious Britechester degrees ?

I play with aging on for everybody. Along the way, I hop around to other branches of the family tree to make matches and woo hoo to keep the family line going. Also, when anyone ages up into a kid, I go CAS their household so they match the family theme. It’s cool to have a bustling ecosphere of Sims with unique looks and personalities, but at first glance I still know who is who!

Hm... I am on the 3:rd generation of the longest legacy that I have played currently and I am having a lot of fun with it. Guess I have different saves for different experiences. The legacy-save for family time with some added vampirism and spellcasting on the side. Then I have other saves that are not centered around family where I go after different stories. It is nice to vary what I am doing a bit, after 2 real life weeks of playing Uni it is nice to go back to the family-save.

A bit like reading different books, when I feel like Sci-Fi I get one of those, if I want action or comedy I know where to find it. Just trying to figure out what I really want to do before I start the game so that I pick the right save.

"Mariefoxprice83;d-970211" wrote:
I was wondering how those of you who love playing legacy style manage to stick with it through so many generations. I have done it, but I think it was years ago when I was still playing Sims 3. Usually I get to generation 4 or 5 before getting bored. What is the best way to do it? Pick a theme? Pick goals for each generation? I wouldn't bother with a points system or anything but I'd like to do it again for sure. I usually play rotationally, including the younger children of the household and all their descendants but I use MCCC so I could definitely play with just the heirs if I so wished.

I have played Pinstar's Legacy Challenge in Sims2,3 and 4. Legacies, on the whole can get boring. And this one is over once the tenth generation heir is born! To slog through can be painful, but I decided to create certain goals for my heir to achieve and basically tell a story as I play it through. Sometimes, just finding the right spouse is enough to provide the needed entertainment. I was blessed in that, once again, I experienced many 'firsts' in my game via playing the Legacy Challenge. First successful alien abduction, making my young groom preggars, along with this wife on their wedding night. She had a girl, and then several hours later, he gave birth to twins; a girl and a boy. Needed the boy as an heir. Then, of course there were subsequent abductions. Since the Dad/Mom didn't come back preggars, I wove that into my story that the aliens were just checking on the progress of the twins. Certainly, their father wasn't inclined to send them back.

It all boils down to this. Have fun with it. Don't make it a grind. If you get too bored to play, start a new game save and play that for a time, just don't forget about your legacy save.

Unabashed plug: https://galacticgals.blogspot.com/2014/09/chapter-one-eriks-choice.html

I guess my biggest problem that I almost always play families, even when I start out with single sims. I've been trying to slow down a bit in that respect and let sims achieve something with regard to aspirations and their career before they produce kids but when it comes to legacy-style, I get sucked into the mentality of having them produce kids ASAP. I also get obsessed with aspirations and career goals a lot of the time so I may be missing out on a lot of the stuff that isn't "goal orientated."

"GalacticGal;c-17345180" wrote:
First successful alien abduction, making my young groom preggars, along with this wife on their wedding night. She had a girl, and then several hours later, he gave birth to twins; a girl and a boy. Needed the boy as an heir. Then, of course there were subsequent abductions. Since the Dad/Mom didn't come back preggars, I wove that into my story that the aliens were just checking on the progress of the twins. Certainly, their father wasn't inclined to send them back.

That's amazing! I love it when random stuff like that happens (unless I am playing super realistic).

I have 4 legacies currently running simultaneously and that's what keeps me from getting bored. I play a different save each day or on the weekends when i have more time to play and i start getting bored with the currently family i just switch. 3 of my legacies have surpassed 10 generations. My newest one, just started generation 3.

Right now I'm thinking about ideas I could use as the starting point for a new save. I've played with magic and university a lot in the recent months so I should definitely pick something else. At the moment all I can think of is starting "off-the-grid" with a sim who lives off the land, with no modern tech, Maybe the sim can't read so they can't gain skills via bookcases either.

I play my multiple families legacy style, but not strictly by the rules and in different save files with max 2 rotations each. Have also made my own game themes for each world I play. So in 5 years the longest legacy is only 4 generations. Never bored playing this way.

I usually blog about it. Or write about during the time I took off from the blogs lol. I don't know why but having that written proof that I was going towards a goal kept me a lot more accountable. I knew that I shouldn't stop because people other than myself would know I'd thrown in the towel.
Also I threw really big weddings which kept it a lot of fun lolll

"asimbsim;c-17343254" wrote:
I used to be the same, and could never get past gen 3 or 4. But I'm now on gen 23, and I can't imagine going back to anothe rway of playing, or even starting another save. I think the key is to mix it up a bit and not play by the actual 'rules' of the legacy challenge. The only rule I have is that my next heir is the first born child of the current sim. But they can move out to wherever they like, and I change between randomising traits and choosing my own, depending on how I feel. I've also found that keeping the aging on Normal helps things to feel quite flowy, in that I have enough time to enjoy my sim but by the time my new heir ages up to YA I take over and make that one my new main sim. (I have lengthened the age using MCCC since university, just so there's time for uni and a family, otherwise the parents kept dying when the new sims were children or teens.

I think the key for me, is to keep each new generation different, and let them be whatever I want. So, if I am getting bored and want something different I like to randomise everything, to turn them into a sim that I might never normally play (and it takes you to discover parts of the game that arent played very often), or sometimes I'll have an idea for a sim that I really want to play, so instead of starting a new save, I keep that idea for my next gen, and then create that sim. So although I have a legacy, each generation feels like a new save and a different game. One tip I would give you is to try and take a family photo of each generation, and save them somewhere - it's really fun to look back on your whole story and remember all of your sims and how they all fit together :smile:

I made it to gen 9 before I lost my save and I thought that went on forever (over two years) how did you get to gen 23? I'm mad impressed but omg how long did it take?