Inspiration please

You may want to check out one of the challenges in Creative Corner.

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/categories/the-sims-4-stories-and-legacies

Also one of the in game scenarios might be a good start. ?

I've been creating a new save file from gallery lots. It's different and it's been a lot of fun.
This person has been a good resource
https://youtube.com/@yeilei?si=sEcKPtajyFeJiDnE
I also incorporate a lot of community lots and vacation destinations in my gameplay. Having somewhere to go adds a lot to the game imo.
I hope that helps!

Whenever I find myself questioning what my sims shall be up to, I check their personality and the household's community engagement - if any (I have a system where each house is assigned one skill and one career (not necessarily matching). Once I see what their focus should be and who they are, it is often easier to find inspiration for their activities.

When everything feels a bit uninspiring - you and your sims probably will benefit from a vacation! If you don't have packs providing vacation worlds, you can just buy them a tent and go anywhere to live a few days of simple life, or tourist life. Remember to buy/collect souvenirs, and to take some pictures. It's also more fun if you plan their outfits before going, and perhaps add a few basics to their inventories. Won't need Selvadorada to go wild :)

I find that if you take any sim, if you go by their wants and fears, the game usually takes an unexpected turn and you don't have to plan a storyline as much. Also, nice community lots help a lot with immersion into a story or to create a different setting from your regular game play and sometimes a nice lot will inspire some fun gameplay as well.

With books, movies and TV shows, I find my best inspiration to be the characters, themselves. If they're interesting enough I can keep reading, watching and promoting it to friends. So, I create my own and only ever rarely play a premade. This gives me license, as it were, to create their backstories myself. Once I have my actors aligned, complete with a goal for their lives, I build the house for them. Choose a world, and the right neighborhood. I consider which season I should start them off and then plunk them into that chosen lot. (Generally, I use freerealestate on, so it doesn't eat their starting funds, which is still too little even when you create the entire family.)

I do use mods, which can help with some of the chaos. But sometimes, it's strictly the game that throws in the monkey wrench. Sudden fire, lightning, you name it. I do try to roll with the punch for the most part, but my 'star' isn't allowed to check out prematurely. I have a very loose script in my head of just what is supposed to happen.

Take inspiration from something that interests you - whether it's a movie, TV show, book, a hobby or even a positive aspect of your real life. You can do Sim challenges or create a story with your Sims. Be creative and think outside of the box. Perhaps then, you'll get your spark back. Hope this helps! ?

Sometimes set dressing can make a difference already. So last time you played a music loving criminal sim (for example), how about this time the same music loving criminal sim lives in the 20s... or in a Star Wars world?

Or take your save from June, but visit it with a new sim. Watching your old sims through the new one's eyes might be fun.

Have you tried any of the scenarios? They're great for when you don't know what to do, but the challenges are good too.

"Lenny_Ogg;c-18324742" wrote:

This might sound boring to many, but I found the most fun while sticking with my Sims for a very long time.
Vlad and Jack, for example, are with me since my Sims 3 days. For over ten years.
They grew on me and I can't wait to log in and learn more about them.

I just picked Rosa, one of my Sims I played for many years, to playtest a house and a little story started to enravel.
And in this story she met her childhood friends in the pub. And then I wanted to learn more about their childhood - a never ending story ^^'


So I made them children in CAS and they went on their adventures together.
It's just so much more interesting and funny for me when I already know about them and makes it easier to tell their stories.

Rosa, Sara and Michael are on an adventure tour around Saarburg



Same for the Boys. I just wanted to test the highschool years pack and made 4 of my favourite Sims teenagers.
And since then I got stuck with them. For over a year now.
Usually I was a builder (70% of my ingame time)/rotational player ^^'

For me it's far more interesting to play a Sim that doesn't age up/dies within a few days/weeks.
My relationship to them is so much deeper and I care for them and I want to learn more about them.
Why did they end up here? How did they become friends/lovers? What made them the person they are now?
Teenager Jack was different from adult Jack, so I wanted to find out why. And why did Jeb wear that bag on his head? (We found out ;))

I love a good origin story too. My favorite Star Wars movies were Episodes 1-3 (2000s) because of Anakin's story. I liked learning what led to him being evil. I know I'm probably in the minority in the Star Wars Fandom with that but I don't care. I like what I like.

I've been playing the same family (off and on) for over a year. They've all aged, and it's nearing the end of my founder, Orion's life. I'm ok with my sims dying and aging because it makes my time with them even more special. Orion has had a full life, not all sunshine and rainbows, but it he got there in the end. He's built a nice legacy to pass on to his 4 children, and (as of right now) 4 grandchildren.