Sims Team: How to Support Rotational Players AND Open World

Sims 1/2/4 Closed world is easier for rotational players
Sims 3 Open world is not built for rotational players
Also allow for aging of unplayed townies

How do we do it?

For rotational players (playing at least two households), they need their families to have no progression and no aging while not active. They like to celebrate milestones, birthdays, and aging up while that family is active. They also want the unplayed and NPC sims to age in sync, but not overage. So...

Build Sims 5 Rene so rotational players can bucket their households into these 3:

The Primary, Slot #1 Household (only 1 household)
Other Played Households (1 or more)
Everyone Else (NPCs, Homeless Service sims, unplayed households, rest of the world)

Normally, only your currently active family will age. When you switch from that household to another of your My Households and make that active, then that new active family is the only one that ages.

So why do we need these 3 categories? A Special Rule only applies to the slot #1 primary household..."Everyone Else" aging. As you play this #1 household, it ages AND all the sims in the "Everyone Else" category also age each day as you progress in time. This allows all the other sims to age in sync. (As usual, your other My Households that are not active do not age or progress at this time). In other words, this #1 household dictates the progression of the calendar into the future and the story progression of the Everyone Else sims.

When you switch to play My Households that are part of the "Other Played Households" category, only that active household ages as usual...no one else in the game. This is done to prevent the Everyone Else category of sims from aging up too quickly in a way that is out of sync.

For legacy players, they would only have their legacy family in slot #1 and zero households in "Other Played Households." As the slot #1 household has the special rule, it would also allow for everyone else in the world to age up with that legacy household.

Also, for those that want no aging in the world whatsoever, there should be a no aging option to support their playstyle!

21 Replies

crocobaura
Legend
3 years ago
They could just make it like TS4 aging and neighbourhood story progression. I turn it off, nobody ages or changes jobs without my consent, all is fine. TS3 pretended to simulate a story progression and aging but just did a random hack job of it like we couldn't tell the difference. TS4 story progression does the same thing. If they can't bother to program a proper simulation they they shouldn't add it. Why do sims keep having children if they don't have a wish for a large family? Maybe I'm too fussy but these changes that to me make no sense bother me, so I turned it off because I play rotationally and I go back to these households. I don't care what happens in households I don't play, but I have about 30 or so households I play, I don't want to have a save for every one of them.
Anonymous
3 years ago
The point is that in a given save, you can have many families you play - let’s say a week at a time.

You don’t want any of your played families to age or progress until you play them. So once you play every single family in your rotation, they’ve all aged up +7 days.

Sims Team needs to make a way so the rest of the world ages up +7 days, not +7 multiplied by # of households you just played through.
11a4d9d88dcc7bea
New Veteran
3 years ago
I played Sims 3 with NRAAS Story Progression mod, and I encourage anyone thinking about a Sims 5 story progression to go to them and like offer them a job. Seriously, I'm not kidding, lol. It was that much of a game changer.

I'm for anything that gives players more options in our games. Even just an option screen for each household where you can check to allow or disallow aging and other story progression for the household. And definitely allow players to turn off aging for the whole neighborhood, or just for the played houses.
Anonymous
3 years ago
Yes NRaas is great. Although it wasn’t perfect as the Sims 3 engine was built around legacy only and your currently inactive families that were part of your rotations weren’t exactly “frozen.” I often had weird accounting problems with household money when I went back to join them.

Options to freeze progression of your rotations households until you play them again AND prevent all other unplayed world and townie sims from aging and story progressing not even in double time if you play only two households but N time (N being the number of households you play with in a rotation)….they can get out of sync really easily

That’s why it’s helpful to think of a “primary” played household that drives the pace of the unplayed world aging and progressing (if you want that option)

But I’m open to other solutions
crocobaura
Legend
3 years ago
"simmerorigin;c-18284033" wrote:
The point is that in a given save, you can have many families you play - let’s say a week at a time.

You don’t want any of your played families to age or progress until you play them. So once you play every single family in your rotation, they’ve all aged up +7 days.

Sims Team needs to make a way so the rest of the world ages up +7 days, not +7 multiplied by # of households you just played through.

No, no. You assume that I want them to age automatically, but I don't. I play them for seasons, sometimes even years, at a time and don't have any particular order in which I play the different households. I don't need and don't want them to age automatically regardless of settings. Aging them manually, when I feel they are ready to age up is just the right setting for me.
Anonymous
3 years ago
"crocobaura;c-18284147" wrote:
"simmerorigin;c-18284033" wrote:
The point is that in a given save, you can have many families you play - let’s say a week at a time.

You don’t want any of your played families to age or progress until you play them. So once you play every single family in your rotation, they’ve all aged up +7 days.

Sims Team needs to make a way so the rest of the world ages up +7 days, not +7 multiplied by # of households you just played through.

No, no. You assume that I want them to age automatically, but I don't. I play them for seasons, sometimes even years, at a time and don't have any particular order in which I play the different households. I don't need and don't want them to age automatically regardless of settings. Aging them manually, when I feel they are ready to age up is just the right setting for me.

Not trying to assume anything. Just isn’t really understand your play style. I think I understand now

That’s why I think a manual aging switch would work for you? My idea was more for people who want consistent aging that stays in sync

The primary family should also have an on/off switch for if you want aging of the world to occur with it. So you could turn off aging for that primary family, turn off aging for the world, and turn of progression of the world
Anonymous
3 years ago
“Why do sims keep having children if they don't have a wish for a large family?“

Yes I agree that story progression in both Sims 3 and 4 have been pretty awful so I prefer that there are also toggles for progression as well as aging for full control
wildirishbanshee
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago
They could use Primary #1 or whatever to cue a pop up, asking you how long you wanted to age the world, too.
EnkiSchmidt
Hero
3 years ago
I like this concept, it reflects how many players progress their sims world in Sims 4.

As for not wanting the world to age at all, that could easily get incorporated into the proposed system by allowing us to leave the primary slot empty or fill it with a throaway sim. I'd just put all my households into "Other Played households" and maybe put the mayor, landlord or other public figure into the primary slot, where I'd never touch them again.
simsimsere
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago
Because I play huge irregular rotation, I feel that TS4 system where I can toggle the NPC/unplayed sim aging on works better than the aging being tied to a primary slot. I can see the benefits for those who play regular rotations though!