Little personal challenge for some realism in my game

If you play with children, I find it more challenging to not play as them so the parents can only influence them to do things. That way to get all the skills up and make the kids successful is totally dependant on how much the parents work with them.

"Mstybl95;c-17846880" wrote:
If you play with children, I find it more challenging to not play as them so the parents can only influence them to do things. That way to get all the skills up and make the kids successful is totally dependant on how much the parents work with them.

interesting! Thank you

I charge my sims to travel since we don’t have cars.
Same world, different neighborhood: $3 per sim for the round trip bus ride
Non-vacation world: $20-$100 depending on where they’re going (per group for the “Uber”)
Going on vacation: $300 per sim child-elder for plane fare.
Toddlers always travel free and I have a map in my head of where the world are in relation to one another and I try not to let the sims travel where it doesn’t make sense for them to be.

I plan holiday meals. I try to always have a sims that’s completed the culinary aspiration for the forever fresh trait. Then I cook and bake all the time and stick it in the household inventory for special occasions. Sometimes I have so much food that it lasts for a few generations.
Harvestfest: Turkey dinner, salad, breadsticks, baked potatoes, iced tea, sweet potato pie and chocolate cake
Winterfest: Ham dinner, salad, veggie casserole, breadsticks, iced tea and punch, decorated fruit cake and winterfest cake
Pride: Usually BBQ ribs and baked beans (mod), burgers, hot dogs, elote, grilled chicken, lemonade, and 2 rainbow cakes, one decorated and one undecorated
Sunday family dinner: Rotate family favorites (Shepard’s pie, roast chicken, spaghetti, etc) salad, something that can be considered a side dish and random desserts.

When sims age up, they always have their favorite dinner, a confetti birthday cake (mod) and their favorite ice cream and a present pile. (They don’t really have favorites of course but for story purposes, I give them favorites)

I also use mods that add realism and those little things that the game lacks.

I try to let conversations progress naturally after an introduction or one manual interaction. I do this in an attempt to let their traits and mood dictate the chat options they use. Hopefully this will get even better with traits starting to be improved.

I do work tasks or work on skills for promotions and aspiration goals, but I let Whims influence what sims do if they have nothing planned.

If I'm manually starting a cooking interaction I choose a recipe I have all, or at least some, of the ingredients for as this is how I'd cook IRL (prioritise what I can make over something I would have to adapt or go shopping for). If I don't have the ingredients, I make one of the no-listed-ingredients dishes (I guess they use store cupboard basics) such as Mac & Cheese. I always cook the most economical size and live off of leftovers to save time (unless the sim is a chef and needs to cook for daily tasks).

I do sell some things from the inventory if they have an appropriate sell interactions (such as "Sell to Publication" for cash/fame on photos). You can sell them via Plopsy, but I'm not sure if you get fame. You do get more cash, but can only list 3 at a time and it takes forever.

When I play roationally I like to set up retail stores for craftables and furnishings (especially unlockables) so that all my sims have access to all the things without being cheaty and using bb.ignoregameplayunlocksentitlement or bb.showhiddenobjects for unlocks/collectibles respectively. This can take time to set up though. Until sims can buy things via shops, they can still access them in the catalogue, but only the things that aren't locked/hidden. Once they are available in a shop, they have to go buy it with the inflated retail mark-up, and in the process create profit for the retail owner households. With Seasons you can gift books (or copies) and other craftables to retail owner sims so they can add them to their stock, which means less families need to own or buy stores to display everything without cheats and with the creator's name intact.

Similarly with restaurants, I like them to be owned if possible, so a family profits when sims eat out.

I make sims into museum/gallery patrons by changing the lot to retail, purchasing it, adding valuable display items/collections and reselling it before changing it back to a museum.

I try to restrict each sim to two aspirations like main and secondary in TS2. Also I try to "reduce" amount of aspiration points they have simulating mid-life crisis for them. When they age up to Adult they must purchase 3 potions of youth (then delete) to keep their traits and aspiration. If they can't I change their trait randomly for each missing potion. I f they can't purchase any potions I also randomly change one of their aspirations.

I divide worlds in regions. Within the region sims can travel freely. To go to other region they need a rental property to stay at thus spending money for travel.

I use Kuttoe mods for harder careers and parenthood values as well. But this is only if you are not opposed to mods.

No cooking on vacations. All food must be bought.
Sims donate ancient artefacts to the museum and receive only 10% of their cost.
You must grow or buy your food or go without. No foraging around the neighbourhoods.

Most of the things I do for a little bit extra challenge are mentioned here. I will start with the one that hasn't been mentioned yet. (if someone already mentioned it, I apologise)

- clothes cost money : no one has an endless free wardrobe. If my sims need a new outfit, they will have to pay for it. Sometimes they go to a retail store but most of the time I just use a dresser and the money cheat. With the money cheat prices are per outfit: 200§ for formal wear, party and cold weather, 50§ for sleepwear and swimwear, 100§ for the rest including everyday.
- travel fares: my sims can travel freely within their neighbourhood. Going to a nearby location costs money, I imagine some kind of bus fare. 10§ for a location in a different neighbourhood in the same world and 50§ for travelling to a nearby world. Travelling to a remote location used to cost more but since the snowy escape patch, they have to rent a vacation home. Just like some players already suggested I have a mental map of which worlds are close together and which are far away. A sim in Europe can't just travel to America for an afternoon and vice versa.
https://i.imgur.com/7SLIDFg.png
This is my personal way of dividing the worlds.
*Note: I split up America in two parts because it would be too big compared to some others. I apologise in advance if someone should be offended by this choice, it is merely done for gameplay purposes. And some worlds like Glimmerbrook or Evergreen Harbour can fit into either Europe or America. Stores in magnolia promenade and the graveyard in forgotten hollow are always considered nearby for practical reasons. Remote locations always require a vacation home. (or in case of Sulani residents: a vacation home for every other world)
-household chores use the laundry and dust features in the game. I like to have some additional chores for my sims.
- no money trees obviously no money tree. Use of the cloning machine and copy paste spell is limited so it can't be used as a money maker.
- always repair broken itemsalways repair broken items, don't just replace them.


One last note: while the title of this discussion mentions realism, I mainly focus on the challenge part. I like to combine rules like these with supernatural elements. All my sims, including spellcasters, aliens,... have to follow the same rules.


Edit to add the picture about the world.

I use the money cheat often to take away money for stuff I feel is completely unrealistic, never saw how someone could catch and sell fish.

I often restrict my sims travel between towns (worlds) and neighborhoods, don't think he should be able to travel to too many neighborhoods in the same day and when traveling to another town he's committed to at least one overnight stay there.

I set up vacation rental homes in the towns for the sim to pay to stay in while traveling or they just need to rent. Unfortunately since this puts sims on "vacation" it makes getting into a job more difficult (instead of going to work they automatically take days off) so I've had just set them up in the house and use the money cheat to take rent from their account.

When doing Rags to Riches like challenges they have to wait till they can afford a structure before they get a shower and toilet etc. I've let them set up the cot bed for sleeping outside at night

I used to make my sims repair broken objects or hire someone to do it to make the game more realistic. Nowadays i replace the objects because that's much more expensive than hiring someone. It helps me keeping those huge bank accounts in line.

"texxx78;c-17847411" wrote:
I used to make my sims repair broken objects or hire someone to do it to make the game more realistic. Nowadays i replace the objects because that's much more expensive than hiring someone. It helps me keeping those huge bank accounts in line.

I find repairing more challenging because it takes time. But this is definitely an interesting take on the repair issue. If you look at the finances, replacing is more expensive.