I feel overwhelmed when starting a new game in The Sims 4. Anybody have Tips?

I tend to stick to one family and then play kids as they age. You could try rotational play then it doesn't really matter what you do

I play 100households spread all over, of course it goes slowly for each of them, but at least I get lots of variety. Eventually two households merge as kids marry, or I get a new EP and am urged to create a handful more households ...

If you never played multiple houses on rotation, perhaps it's time to try it? Create 4 families, send them to different worlds, make them meet often, build relations and join the same clubs and events etc. Give them different careers and preferences, for more variety. You could make them based on 4 siblings, making them related, but then it would be harder finding love stories and new couples.

I never had your problem, LOL :) I never create a household without having tons of plans for them, and I know where the only vacant lot in my game is :)

It can be overwhelming to start a new save. I can relate for sure.
I start with a character in mind and try a new career or a new world or even a new life aspiration.
I play in rotation and my most entertaining save is the one where I spent an evening creating sims in cas and placing them in the same world, San Myshuno, and had them varying jobs I hadn't tried or done in awhile. It was nice to see all my new sims in the same apartment complex and to build relationships.
I'm up to about 40 households now (I started with 4) and they are all expanding into other worlds. From singles they've become families. When I move one Sim or sim family I put in a new one in Myshuno. For me it's either "escape city life" and they have to save to do so or they love city life and move into better apartments.

Start simple, pick something you enjoy or want to try and just remind yourself it takes time and to just enjoy the process.

i do have this problem somewhat because i like playing with my many households and sometimes i cant seem to pick which one next cause too many ideas :sweat_smile:

easiest way is to obviously just go back to the monkey brain and go eeny, meeny, miny, moe...or any of the variations

James Turner also has that random pack generator thing on their site you could use if its not so much the household but what pack to play with
https://jamesturner.yt/randompacks

aand remember there is really nothing to stop you from doing it all at once :wink:

Have a few characters going at once, maybe in different households, and have them be into different things :)

I, honestly, tend to do a bit of everything with one full household. Family gameplay, laundry, dust, seasons stuff, haunted house, restaurants, spa, gardening, different careers, usually occults, sometimes off the grid, sometimes pets, occasional vacations, occausional University run through, etc. all in one family.

It probably boils down more to how you play, but I've always been an "everything and the kitchen sink" type with playing DLC. No division necessary in my mind.

I agree with doing multiple households if you need that division; multiple Sims in a household if you do not. My most diverse saves tend to be ones I really stick with, so devoting the time to really live out a particular Sim's or Sims' lives might be really fulfilling for you since you can have them go through stages in life.

For example a YA that climbs the celebrity ladder only to throw it all away for a childhood sweetheart in Henford on Bagely. After farming by his/her side with their now young children (s)he yearns again for the urban life like (s)he did in their shared youth. They split, and through the fulfilling single years in San Myshuno (s)he is now ripening in late adulthood. (S)he discovers a love for forensic work by chance and pursues this new dream in life, working along the way into a cozy retirement with a retail store on the side. That sounds like a pretty amazing concept right there, and totally doable. You don't have to commit to any one thing.

Thank You very much for all of your reply! <3 I will apply your tips to my gameplay when I get to play later today. Thank You very much!! <3 <3 <3

This is the reason why I have so many different saves that I play rotationally. :D
I could never stick to one save because there is so much things to do. And some players complain that there's not enough gameplay in Sims 4... I don't know what game they're playing but it's definitely not the same Sims 4 that I have.

I find a bit of a backstory helps. One game was a young war widow and a son, a child. Her husband and and her married young then he was killed in action, he had joined the military. She put herself through college as a political activist and when her son was school age, she moved to Oasis Springs.
Or, have guidelines, in my current game I started with a random townie from my last game I liked the look of. I decided to have her marry and/or befriend premades. She is currently friends with the BFF household and is deciding whether to persue a romance with either: Salim Benali, Akira Kibo, or Marcus Rowan, another random townie. Who will it be? I'm waiting till one of them shows up in a romantic mood, that's how I will decide.
In essence, I really think it is a lot easier if I have something to hang my game on, a hook, if you will, that gives me a direction to start my sim story off.

I never have this problem because I've been playing only one save since 2015. But I keep adding new Sims! If I don't have any idea where to start, I'll try to find a new Sim off the gallery who really speaks to me.