Turning Story Progression Off

@fujicakes1 Here is a link to a video by lilsimsie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4_L2NEnRXg

@Atreya33 Thanks for that link! That is helpful. For right now, I think I just want it off because I am so disgusted about the ridiculous world that I woke up to after I finished those aspirations. But when I calm down, at some point, I am likely to want to tweak the system instead of disable it.

The aspirations were all ones that I have completed many many times. The game spawns things differently in different saves. Small changes that I make might have consequences larger than I understand. I just got stuck. Really stuck. I had aging off and the seasons set to 28 days. I didn't think about how much time was passing in the Sim world while i wasted so much time trying to find 5 crystals, when every world was only spawning those stupid boxes with the trophy doll thing inside. The other task was a gardening task and lets not even discuss dirt piles in the Sims 4. If there is ever a reason to play the Sims 3 instead of Sims 4, it is gardening.

I had the game on triple speed and was whizzing through week after week after week. The game thinks a week is a LONG time, but my active sim was living a week like a week. When things go so badly wrong, they can teach me how to play the game better in general. I will never forget to pay more attention to the world in general. My active sim lives in a world that can get destroyed, leaving her without a good place to live.

@musteni thank you for sharing your gameplay style. I have never played rotationally or legacy. This was one of my longest saves because I got stuck on the aspirations. I am going to need to pay more attention to what people say about playing legacies even of I don't play them. All romances in Sims 4 have been an immediate disaster for me. I think I am going to save my romances for Sims 3. But sometimes I have a longer save in Sims which is as long as a legacy family.

@Lenny_Ogg There are just some Sims that need to be in certain places. The Itos are certainly one of them. Jeb's paperbag head was so startling to me when I first started playing the game that I did not give this family the attention that they deserve. I have gradually learned to appreciate a world with rabbit themed clothing, endless grilled cheese, and paperbag heads, but the "madness" of neighborhood stories is still too much for me.