What's Something You Always Do In Your Sims Games?

All my Sims start out poor, with only the allotted 10,000 Simoleans. They then go out in the worlds and find harvestable fruit and veggies that they use when cooking their meals. Then they plant a small 'Kitchen Garden' so they have harvestables to sell then purchase basic items like eggs and meat. They must use fresh ingredients when cooking.

Very few of my Sims have a career. I do allow them to have parttime.jobs or they do odd jobs for extra money. And I seldom allow their funds to exceed 25,000 Simoleans because it's too easy to amass a huge fortune in Sims4. I like the challenge of keeping a general Middle Class feel in my worlds. They donate to charities a lot, as well as volunteer their time to help others and clean up the environment.

All the babies in my game are the result of my Sims marrying and starting their family. None are created in CAS. I like watching the genetics at work as the family ages up and the kids grow up, marry, then have babies of their own. The young adults are allowed to choose their own love interests and that can take a long time for some of them. They spend a lot of their time meeting and dating new Sims before they show any interest in a potential mate. I don't interfere with their choices even though it may derail the storyline I had in mind. But it creates a bit of drama when the in-laws take an immediate dislike to the new bride or groom. Or a sibling develops a strong interest in the new family member.

I enjoy knitting items then selling them on Plopsy, utilizing the woodworking table, and hitting up the recycling center for bits that can be sold for cash. Or can be used if I have a Sim who produces candles, furniture and electronic parts.

Solar panels and water catchers are placed when my Sims can afford to purchase them. In RL I am a huge fan of renewable energy.

My Sims gain skill points by doing that skill or by reading about the skill. But I freely admit I cheat their motives from time to time. Especially if their current love interest calls and wants to meet up.

Toddlers must have their skills maxed out before being aged up to a child. All children and teens must take part in after school activities. Good grades are expected and homework has to be finished before dinner is served. And both parents help with their children's needs. Equally. If Mom is busy creating candles at bedtime, Dad must read to the toddler until they fall asleep.

I don't always play the family scenario, but it is my favorite style. I have a couple of saves inhabited by single YAs that party every day and night and generally don't have a set storyline in mind. There are no rules and I love the difference in gameplay that brings whenever I get tired of playing with families.

- only play my sims. Premades are back ground characters except for a very few which marry into my households.
- My sims always start out as unmarried young adults without children.
- the majority of my sims start out as occults or become occults very early on
- I use freerealestate when it makes sense for my sims to own a house. But no money cheats after that moment and no selling all furniture to earn money
- all toddlers max all skills
- ever since I discovered the fresh chef reward trait, I have sims persue this aspiration to earn this trait. No cheating the trait
- use the likes feature to make Sims raise fun with hobbies like painting, writing,... Some activities make sense to raise fun

I keep pause on until I check on each Sim in the household, so I know where I left off, last.

I often cheat up their needs, especially when I'm sending my Rock Star out to do his Rock Star stuff, as in concert and photoshoots. I would hate to have him empty his bladder on stage or worse.

I devise a plan of attack for gameplay.

Newly created and teen Sims always get skills cheated, because I find it totally unrealistic that a child ages up into a teen without any life skills or that an adult Sim wouldn't have any skills either.

My occult Sims, especially Vampires, get cheat codes added to them to ensure I can just enjoy playing them without having to worry about things like burning up in daylight, and also so I can control what hidden traits they might end up with.

All my Sims have the 'beloved' trait so I don't have to worry about relationship decay as much.

I cheat needs, especially for Sims that are at work, and because I tend to have large family groups that I'd rather have doing stuff besides just the daily ablutions et al.

I only play occult Sims so all my Sims become occults pretty much straight away, unless of course they're born that way.

I don't play premades, except if I happen to have one marry into the family.

I always give my sims the "observent" reward trait as their first one. I also always give them wind turbines, dew collectors and solar panels when they have the money.

Jump on that garden treadmill. Start with the basics like apples, lemons, strawberries, garlic and a few herbs. Water and weed frequently, harvest and use as fertiliser. Home grown food is great stuff.

I also scatter garlic bulbs near the front door to alert me to nearby vampires. No bloodsucking ectoparasites allowed.

- Use money cheats for the start
- Buy, harvest or grow fruits & vegetables in order to cook with fresh ingredients
- Stop Sims from aging

First i set up my game settings, then I go through all menus for my sims/household (the sim, the mailbox, the computer etc) for all of my mod settings for the file and for each sim.

Once I have everything set the way I want - mods, aging, season length, everything - I move on!

Then I set up the calendar with holidays and stuff. I am extra with all of that lol.

I set up their home. I usually only use starter funds or they start with nothing because I like the struggle lol. I never cheat money, skills, rewards. They always start from scratch. I even have a hard time letting them keep starting funds even if it isnt a rags to riches, and I have them paying back loans w/ interest for every simoleon they started with ? choose lot traits and challenges, etc. I like the simple living one or parallel in mods where i have to either grow or buy ingredients.

All kids are born in-game. For some reason I can never start with kids. I looove family gameplay but I am just very into the whole "starting the file at the BEGINNING of their story" like i can never get comfy with starting a family that has already progressed or has money or things or skills lol. Unless it is very important to storytelling

Once my home is set up I make sure there's a few key items always:
-thermostat if they can afford it or any other heating/cooling things they might need
-umbrellas set up
-vacuum & laundry set up. I make this mandatory lol
-everything i need for my custom recipe mods is purchased and set out where it needs to be
-lighting is set the way i want it
-photos! I am a huuuge storyteller and having photos is one of my musts! I literally go into a separate file, age the family backwards, set up scenarios and everything else, just to get good family photos so it looks like theyve been around forever lol. I also get whatever i need for taking more photos as the game begins. Cameras, flashdrives (mod) and all of that.

Then I go into the world map and add/delete/change lots as needed throughout the world. Adding family members or friends too if needed. I always make sure all the places i want to go are in world and ready, and everywhere has a thermostat!

Then I press play and I immediately do whatever is needed for my mods starting out. I use snb bills to set up utilities, i open their bank accounts, i get them their jobs, i claim their beds, I get them vaccinated and go to all their checkups if needed (dr, dentist, eyedoc), get their subway passes or drivers licenses, all the things.

Then i will usually save as, and that is the start point for that particular file. And im good to begin!

Ps - i have my general starting point save file with a world set up in depth with lots i normally like to have and the calendar holidays set up the way i normally use them. So this is my starting point for new games and it is a huuuge time saver even if i change a few things. So much easier than doing this from scratch every time.

Anymore:

Boot out all premade Sims with MCCC. If I have an existing character or household I like, chances are I've already saved them to the gallery. I move them in when I populate the worlds with my own Sims that either I created or downloaded from the Gallery.

Develop Newcrest as to where it's the center of business that includes shops and restaurants.

I tend to also humanize and/or delete pretty much all of the occults.

"notetoself00x;c-18221686" wrote:

Ps - i have my general starting point save file with a world set up in depth with lots i normally like to have and the calendar holidays set up the way i normally use them. So this is my starting point for new games and it is a huuuge time saver even if i change a few things. So much easier than doing this from scratch every time.

I was going to do that at one point but I kept forgetting. Next new save, maybe.