Sticking with a household

Who would want to stick with one household when you can have a whole heap of different varieties? ?

I get bored playing the same household constantly - bored of those sims, their house, the neighborhood and the world. That’s why I haven’t gotten very far in a legacy, either. Plus, they accumulate so much money and it’s too easy to run out of things to spend it on. By the second generation, house goals have been met and it feels stale.

Have you tried playing multiple households on a rotational basis? That’s what keeps me interested in a save. They’ll often befriend each other and hang out together, their kids grow up and date one another, etc. Then some kids might stay in the family home but others will start their lives elsewhere. For me, playing 8-12 households offers enough variety while still being manageable. By the time I play each of them for a week or so, I’m ready to start over at the top and it keeps things feeling fresh. It also makes their social lives feel more alive and real.

One thing I've done for a few saves is when my "heir" ages up to young adult, they aren't the heir to the house, but rather the heir to my playing. I move them out with just enough money to purchase a new lot (sometimes that's a starter house, sometimes it's an empty lot) and then "start over" with the new generation that has to build itself up again. So I'm still playing the same family, just a different household.

I've tried to play rotationally, but I actually get caught up in whatever my current active household is doing/their story so I end up forgetting about whatever I set up in other households.

I play on rotation for the sake of variety. I follow a list making sure I stop by them all, but some I play for a few simdays, others for just a few sim hours. Some times when playing a house I did not really want to play, I find something to develop or build on, making me play them for a few days instead. So, I recommend entering each house on a list, but not forcing yourself to stay there for long ;)

"elanorbreton;c-18014610" wrote:
Who would want to stick with one household when you can have a whole heap of different varieties? ?

@elanorbreton, exactly! LOL

"babajayne;c-18014614" wrote:
I get bored playing the same household constantly - bored of those sims, their house, the neighborhood and the world. That’s why I haven’t gotten very far in a legacy, either. Plus, they accumulate so much money and it’s too easy to run out of things to spend it on. By the second generation, house goals have been met and it feels stale.

Have you tried playing multiple households on a rotational basis? That’s what keeps me interested in a save. They’ll often befriend each other and hang out together, their kids grow up and date one another, etc. Then some kids might stay in the family home but others will start their lives elsewhere. For me, playing 8-12 households offers enough variety while still being manageable. By the time I play each of them for a week or so, I’m ready to start over at the top and it keeps things feeling fresh. It also makes their social lives feel more alive and real.

@babajayne and @Simmerville , rotational play does sound like a good idea. I think I'll try that!

for this exact reason ive started playing multiple households in same save

can't for life of me stay with one household for long but this keeps me from the delete button and having sims ive played before just kinda hanging out at background is fun

also like i can always continue where i left off if i feel like it

I've been playing the same family for the last five years. The three kids started out as triplets and I aged Hannah to child and Juliette to teen. My sim mom is my main playable character and with the release of each pack I've moved her out to focus on the new pack features. She's completed a lot of the aspirations, skills, careers, collections, etc.

https://i.imgur.com/vmGdwDH.png

After about four years I aged Juliette to young adult. She remained in the family home for a few months while I decided how to play her. With the release of the Spa Day refresh I moved her out to her own place in Winderburg. She is currently working on the new aspirations and also owns a shop selling spa related products. Juliette was my first ever second save game.

https://i.imgur.com/3eSraEi.png

Shortly after I aged Isabel to child. Not sure when I'll age them to teen.

https://i.imgur.com/0si7kPa.png

Mom has been living on a farm in Windenberg since Cottage Living released in July.

https://i.imgur.com/jrFsDuJ.png

Hannah and Isabel reside in the family home with Dad and Coco. I'm not playing them at all right now.

https://i.imgur.com/1RWjhhZ.png

I'll be moving Mom back in in the near future and then renovate their home to include space for farm animals. This is when I'll probably age up Hannah and Isabel to teen. Then young adult and move them out. They'll probably share an apartment in San Myshuno since I've never played a sim in an apartment or done the City Native aspiration.


And for anyone interested this is Juliette's teenage story.

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/17872598#Comment_17872598

I tend to make more than one family in each save file. Each of my families slightly differ in their dynamics.
For me it enables me to switch to another family if I am getting bored of the one I am playing nonstop. It also gives me an idea of what to do with the families later on.

I have never had much luck sticking with one family for a Legacy type game play with a couple exceptions. I love the Drifter challenge because the heir starts over in a different world and has different goals to reach than the previous heir. It's fun because I get to build since they usually start from scratch and it never gets stale in the same house. Unfortunately, that save file has been on hold since gardening was bugged out due to the Eco pack. I made a vow back then I wouldn't play the challenge again until it was COMPLETELY fixed. Hasn't happened yet.

The other exception is a save I started on January 1st of this year. I made up a challenge for myself called One Month One World One Year. The basic rules at the beginning involved posting one daily screenshot every day for a year, similar to other photography challenges I've seen on different sites. The screenshot would be something the challenge Sim did that day, a landscape, or something else pertaining to the current world and it's aspiration(s) she was working on to complete. A short text synopsis would also be included. Each month the challenge Sim moves to a different world.

Whether they move to an empty lot, Rags to Riches style, build a house from scratch using funds they've acquired, or download one from the Gallery to use or modify is optional. The challenge Sim starts as a teen with aging off. Aging is done manually every 3 months. They can get married, have children, etc., but that's purely optional. I didn't really plan to make a story with my challenge Sim, but slowly it morphed into that and the adventures she's had with her friends, family and now husband has been incredibly fun! It sounds like a simple challenge, but it really isn't. It's tough posting and playing every, single day!

Money is not really a factor in this challenge. She's had millions for months now, it's about the daily pic post and the aspirations. And, of course the story. It's been fun trying to come up with reasons why she would need to move each month and then make a story about it involving the aspirations in the world for every month of this year. Next year I plan to simply do the challenge with one Sim and not have him get married, not tell much of a story and just work on aspirations for each month to make it simpler so I will have time to play other Sims and packs that I've put on hold for this challenge. That's the plan anyway, I have a feeling I won't be able to resist again telling stories with him. We'll see how it goes. :)

Note that in each of these ways I've played with one household per save. I do not rotate and have never played that way. Just a personal preference since I'm a micromanager and it would drive me crazy not being able to control what my Sims are doing when I'm not playing with them. I am thoroughly in the minority of Simmers that does not enjoy story progression for ALL Sims. Only my own. Sometimes I'll manually go into their friends or family households to do something that progresses the challenge Sims story, or just for fun. But that's it.

Before this year long challenge, my normal way of playing was/is challenges! I love them, especially Rags to Riches, the Asylum Challenge, Just One Sim, Apocalypse, and many, many others including build challenges. There isn't many listed here on the site, other than Legacies, that I haven't tried to complete. Some I have, over and over, others are on hiatus until another time, or I got bored with the repetition and just quit playing it. I have a very nasty case of restartitis. A new pack comes out and I want to play a challenge for it, or I get an idea from a thread here, a YT LP, etc. and just have to try it! The Drifter challenge and my own personal challenge are the ones I've played the longest since the beginning of Sims in 2000. So, that's my long-winded way of sharing how I have stuck to playing one household in two different challenges, but mostly this current one since January 1st.

Thanks to anyone that read this far and Happy Simming! <3