I need some incentive.

I know what you mean and have this a lot as well with TS4. It’s just that there isn’t much happening around you. I find it helps me to start off with single sims or very few sims and just play their story as it comes. Say yes to everything: festivals, bar nights, etc. Because if you get out of the house at least some stuff happens. The other alternative is to play a relatively large household with adults doing very different things to keep some variety. I always end up playing a family, no matter how I start, but the story to get there is usually what makes me feel attached at all. But yeah I always find that TS4 works best for me when I don’t plan a specific story (or keep it minimal) and just kind of go with the flow. Although even then I might have to start multiple sims / households until I feel a click with any of them lol but when I finally do it can get really fun, otherwise it’s tedious.

Well, its not a challenge to me, but I found myself more interested to play when I did this. I have a legacy, but each generation I focus on exploring one of the new packs or old ones. It makes me more involved with features I had forgotten existed and all of that, and I have more goals for each generation.

Rotational play is what keeps me busy. It gets fun when sims see other families in the world, get to know them have children with them etc. I play a rather big rotation, over 30 households, but you could start small - or you could try to play the whole town, up to you :smile:

"Metaphasic;c-17790329" wrote:

"SimTrippy;c-17790328" wrote:
I know what you mean and have this a lot as well with TS4. It’s just that there isn’t much happening around you. I find it helps me to start off with single sims or very few sims and just play their story as it comes. Say yes to everything: festivals, bar nights, etc. Because if you get out of the house at least some stuff happens. The other alternative is to play a relatively large household with adults doing very different things to keep some variety. I always end up playing a family, no matter how I start, but the story to get there is usually what makes me feel attached at all. But yeah I always find that TS4 works best for me when I don’t plan a specific story (or keep it minimal) and just kind of go with the flow. Although even then I might have to start multiple sims / households until I feel a click with any of them lol but when I finally do it can get really fun, otherwise it’s tedious.

I think that is part of the problem. In 3, I used to take my sim downtown and meet people, hang out and stuff. My sims in 4 don’t usually have much impetus to go out.

I might try a politician and go for national leader. Anyone want to name him / her?

Maybe you just need some fun community lots.

"Metaphasic;d-986492" wrote:
Back when I purchased Sims 3, well before any packs were available, I started a young adult female. Soon, she married Blair (the cop girl). I played them for the longest time, adopting three children and moving to larger and larger houses, eventually designing one specifically for them. I used no cheat or mods, and they struggled along the way but fared well in the end.

Now, I've had Sims 4 for several years, and have every pack except Eco-Lifestyle. I have a few families started but spend little to no time on any of them. The one family I did spend some time on, I caved and used cheats on.

I really want to recapture that initial zeal for actually playing the game again, but so far, I haven't found it. I am not sure I want to do a challenge or anything like that. Maybe some advice on how to look at the game? Or something like that.

I dunno, I'm bummed out.

maybe you should play sims 3 again or maybe you could make a sim and get all the aspirations with them
and all the skills or maybe you could use mods

"QueenSaraphine;c-17790368" wrote:
I honestly only find the building and decorating houses and homes to be of interest these days.
Mostly cause I find it boring playing with npcs and not real people.

I know a lot of you don’t want it to be online cause you’re scared of getting judged, but a simple option for those of us who don’t care about being judged by our builds and such, to have it online and be able to play with other players and have some real unexpected things to happen, is number one on my wish list for the Sims.

Because even with new packs the gameplay is dull cause it’s the same things happening over and over when you start a new save. Vlad knocking on your door, a phone call about adventures on another planet etc etc.

I know that a wish like this is so much work in coding and making everything come together without bugs and such, so I’m not holding out for it to ever happen. But that’s what would make me enjoy the game again :)

I think most people don't want anyone interfering on their stories. That's what i feel at least... It has nothing to do with being "scared of being judged". If it was so, why would we share our stories here? We share them, we just don't want anyone interfering with it...

"musteni;c-17790336" wrote:
Rotational play is what keeps me busy. It gets fun when sims see other families in the world, get to know them have children with them etc. I play a rather big rotation, over 30 households, but you could start small - or you could try to play the whole town, up to you :smile:

Absolutely. I find one sim household restrictive. I own all the EPs, all the non-occult GPs (except the Star Wars one), and like nine SPs, and that's way too much stuff for one sim to take in. So I make many, many sims! Some of them live in San Myshuno's Spice District (I find this one has the liveliest mini-neighborhood to socialize and do stuff, but that may be my being a total sucker for food festivals IRL), some are travel-minded and go to places like Granite Falls, Selvadorada, and the slopes of Mt. Komorebi, some are fitness nuts who are always at the gym, one of my sims is basically Billy Joel at the Blue Velvet, playing the piano and watching the other NPC sims interact and enjoy a night out...

Funny you mentioned you don't own Eco-Lifestyle, because I've enjoyed greening up my neighborhoods. Every house has every square centimetre of roof space covered in windmills and solar panels with a few dew collectors out front; the Power Conservation and Water Conservation NAPs do nothing on shut-off day, and they sell power back to the grid. It has made the houses look a little same-y (I use walls and flooring with a +2 Eco Footprint Green, of which there are a limited number), but I've always liked stonework, so...

Point is the game's whatever you make it (and that's without even having to download a single mod), so experiment!

I did this on TS4 also, initially I set up a goal that my sims wanted to buy the biggest penthouse in San Myshuno for him and his children, he work in journalism(?) i think, and also write book afterwork, he was struggling to manage time for his children, sometime i let him take personal time off from the career to spend time with the children, and only wrote book when his children asleep. i didnt purchase any of the aspiration reward as i dont want the game to be easier. he completed the goal in 2 weeks(real time) just after his children aged up to young adult.

I dont know what was your goal with your sims and blair was, but it seems you also wanted to get them larger house from what i've read.

"izecson;c-17790293" wrote:
I did this on TS4 also, initially I set up a goal that my sims wanted to buy the biggest penthouse in San Myshuno for him and his children, he work in journalism(?) i think, and also write book afterwork, he was struggling to manage time for his children, sometime i let him take personal time off from the career to spend time with the children, and only wrote book when his children asleep. i didnt purchase any of the aspiration reward as i dont want the game to be easier. he completed the goal in 2 weeks(real time) just after his children aged up to young adult.

I dont know what was your goal with your sims and blair was, but it seems you also wanted to get them larger house from what i've read.

I didn’t have a goal with them really. I just enjoyed playing that family. But I lost that save years ago and don’t remember enough to recreate them.

I’m not sure what it is, but I am having difficulty feeling the same about any of the families I’ve started in sims 4. There’s something missing.

"SimTrippy;c-17790328" wrote:
I know what you mean and have this a lot as well with TS4. It’s just that there isn’t much happening around you. I find it helps me to start off with single sims or very few sims and just play their story as it comes. Say yes to everything: festivals, bar nights, etc. Because if you get out of the house at least some stuff happens. The other alternative is to play a relatively large household with adults doing very different things to keep some variety. I always end up playing a family, no matter how I start, but the story to get there is usually what makes me feel attached at all. But yeah I always find that TS4 works best for me when I don’t plan a specific story (or keep it minimal) and just kind of go with the flow. Although even then I might have to start multiple sims / households until I feel a click with any of them lol but when I finally do it can get really fun, otherwise it’s tedious.

I think that is part of the problem. In 3, I used to take my sim downtown and meet people, hang out and stuff. My sims in 4 don’t usually have much impetus to go out.

I might try a politician and go for national leader. Anyone want to name him / her?