Tips for making an Ultimate Sim?

My sim Julianna who I've been playing for the last 4-5 years.

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

Devoted wife, mother of three lovely girls, grandmother of two. She's working on completing all the aspirations, careers, skills, collections, etc.

As others have said, I don't think you force it to happen. Goodness knows, I've tried for years and only have had a handful of those Sims.

Something I've found that draws me in, is the unexpected, as I said in another post. An unexpected pregnancy or experimenting with features I rarely or never use.

One of my favorite households, the Westbrook family, was born from the "I'm a Lover" challenge. I got so attached to the first 2 generations and couldn't go through with some of the milestone in the challenge. I ended quitting the challenge and just playing them without any real goal in mind. I continued the family through the 4th generation.

The funny thing is, in the challenge the second generation has to be a single parent. I didn't have the heart to put any of my sims through that. But the game had other ideas and my sim, Emma's husband flirted with a man right in front of her, while she was pregnant.

The only tips I have for you are, try something different or try a challenge. If you're not opposed to mods or not on console, try some. Since I started using mods, my gameplay has become really interesting. I would gladly recommend some if you're interested.

Another thing I do that helps me get more involved, is I make a family history for my sims. I include their jobs, likes/dislikes, traits, aspirations, relatives, etc. I begin giving them backstories as their lives progress but I don't worry too much about the story. I let it happen organically. I also take lots of pictures for every lifestage. I have folders of pictures for each sim in each generation.

For me, Sims that get in trouble and doesn't have it too easy are the ones that are dearest to me. Like Marci who had no money, worked nights, a wild toddler to care for and had to spend all her money on a nanny for when she was working. It was hard, and she used to cry in the bathtub each morning, but it was so rewarding to see her succeed and get ahead in life.

I also loved Laurie who was the victim of a manipulative cheater and the reward when she was finally angry enough to throw him out and turn her life around and find true happiness with a new husband only to see him die soon after they married.