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Forum Resident
Original Poster
#1 Old 22nd Jun 2018 at 11:02 PM
Default What's Your Playstyle?
We do a lot of threads like this in the TS2 section, and I thought it'd be nice for people who play 4 to chat about how they like to play.

Some examples for discussion:
Do you play rotations?
Do you like every sim to have a job?
Do you play particular families in order?
Do you have certain rules that govern how you play?
How do you use the worlds - are they different cities, one city? Different countries?

I tend to prefer to start with single adults and develop relationships over time so that all sims created will be born in game after a certain point. (I use some cheats to ensure that I can play that way). I like to play rotations, but not strictly so that I can spend as much time as I like with each family. Jobs are optional for my simmies, but if they do work they need to actually work and meet the requirements (I love the flexibility of being able to have them work from home sometimes though.) I love to plan in things like holidays (vacations for my American friends ) and birthday parties, and I like to fill up my world maps with shops and apartments to house my sims.
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Scholar
#2 Old 23rd Jun 2018 at 4:23 AM
Do you play rotations?
Yes. But there is no real pattern on how I do this. Sometimes I'll go back and forth between households to age up the kids.

Do you like every sim to have a job?
Not necessarily. Some of my sims, although Adults, are retired, because I never age them to elders or let them die. So I just retire them when they hit the maximum amount of simoleons. Some of my moms are stay-at-home moms and some of them work. Sometimes stay-at-home moms will go to work after the toddler ages to child.

Do you play particular families in order?
No particular order, but just aging up whatever kids need to be aged up first.

Do you have certain rules that govern how you play?
Uh yeah I guess so. All of my sims except one, have waited until they were married to woohoo. There is no adultery either.

How do you use the worlds - are they different cities, one city? Different countries?
I consider Windenburg to be Europe. Willow Creek to be like New Orleans. I don't really have too much thought about the other worlds. But I do consider them to be far from each other.

I dont usually do any major cheating. I never cheat money, never cheat skills. People complain there is nothing to do in the game, is that the same people cheating everything? I cheat needs a little here and there, but only say bladder or hunger if it's close to bed time. I don't really cheat any other needs. Cheating takes the challenge out of it.
Mad Poster
#3 Old 23rd Jun 2018 at 5:26 AM
I play as I feel. I don't attach much of an objective except for them to fall in love that they WooHoo and maybe marry\hate their guts to fight until eyes are blackened and noses bloodied or meet their neighbors and stop in for a drink. Interact with the objects placed in their worlds. Take part in life, essentially.

Personal Quote: "I like my men like my sodas: tall boys." (Zevia has both 12 and 16 oz options)

(P.S. I'm about 5' (150cm) in height and easily scared)
Field Researcher
#4 Old 23rd Jun 2018 at 5:32 AM
Do you play rotations? Yes usually.
Do you like every sim to have a job? Eh, I go according to their personality.
Do you play particular families in order? No, but 90% of the time upon loading the game, I create a new family in CAS to add to my current play for new neighbors/friends/lovers/etc.
Do you have certain rules that govern how you play? Yes, as much chaos as possible, mwahaha.
How do you use the worlds - are they different cities, one city? Different countries? Playing the worlds as difficult countries is GENIUS. I will do this now.

I've always wanted to play a legacy and I did pretty well when I first got the Sims 4, but the same family gets boring very fast for me, which is why I always have an insane/evil/weirdo sim, they add so much character to the household, lol. Usually I rotate though, but I'd like to do a legacy again.

There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. -Aristotle
Scholar
#5 Old 23rd Jun 2018 at 5:56 AM
While i consider San Myshuno the central of everything, Newcrest, Willow Creek, and Magnolia Promenade, are just along the outskirts, and cheap areas to live, Winderburg isn't far either in the corner, but only way to get there is over the long bridge over the bay, complete opposite direction West (probably by ferry or boat) over the bay from the Bluffs will eventually get you to Brindleton Bay, walk around the bay in a southeast direction will eventually get you back to Willow Creek, but you will hit Oasis Springs before then. You will also see a dirt road in another direction leading to Granite Falls. Forgotten Hollow is more of a secret area, not everyone knows about that can be access through bushes either from Winderberg or Willow Creek.

As for Selvadorada, i'm still trying to work that one out, iif its a jungle next some must be mountains on the outskirts, so maybe it's in the far direction past Winderberg somewhere, whatever the case it's a bit too far.

Anyway i'm raving on too much, but I just like making myself believe how closely those worlds are to each other.
Test Subject
#6 Old 23rd Jun 2018 at 11:11 AM
Do you play rotations? - Yes I do, but not in a fixed order or a fixed amount of simdays per family. That's up to what I feel like, but also what makes sense for the current family I am playing. I always use MCCC mod to control _everything_ which goes on outside of played families too. I toggle the autoaging for "npc's" on and off when it makes sense.
Do you like every sim to have a job? - Normally, but not always. Sometimes they're self employed, gardening, painting, writing, those sort of things.
Do you play particular families in order? - See first answer.
Do you have certain rules that govern how you play? - Both yes and no. I tend to stay away from using money, aspiration, career promotion etc cheats, but not always, it depends. For example, I currently play a Sunset Valley "Challenge" so naturally some of the families are supposed to be rich - considering their family history within the sims games and all that. So those I've put in big houses, given them tons of cash, promoted them to usually the top of their careers. Their kids in return, only one heir is allowed to inherit the estate. Usually the first born son as I want to keep the surname going - the other offspring, when it is time to move away from home, I use MCCC to add/deduct funds, so, how big their own starting home will be? Or rather, how costly, depends upon the family's current funds. What can they afford? If it's low? Yeah well, they're just out of luck aren't they, spoiled brats, hehe They are also not allowed to marry NPC's, only someone from another Sunset Valley family.
How do you use the worlds - are they different cities, one city? Different countries? - All are part of the same big country, just different regions and neighborhoods, but connected. I try to keep them kind of divided up between different families tho, so typically you won't find an Alto outside of Oasis Spring, and you won't find a Goth outside of Willow Creek. Just to provide an example.
I wholeheartedly despise the game spawned NPC's, so I tend to try and kill them off as efficiently as possible whenever they pop up. The use of MCCC makes them spawn rarely in my world, especially since I go through the trouble of creating NPC families and individuals for the game to use instead of spawning a shit ton of them. This tho, means that whenever I am creating a new game it takes hours to set everything up properly.

TS4 is in many ways lacking from a purely game play perspective, imo, but I got a great imagination and a pretty decent memory, so I tend to remember the small stories I create in my head while playing the different families - even after several generations. These stories connect and give meaning to my play and my specific game worlds. TS4 is a doll house world in a lot of ways, pretty shallow and not much depth, but I could spend hours as a kid playing with dolls in doll houses without getting bored. I absolutely loved it, and there you had nothing but your imagination. Apparently I am able to do the same as an adult, use my imagination to fill in the "gaps"(or what to call them), which I am truly happy about considering! So far, I've played 1543 hours of TS4, since its release.
Instructor
#7 Old 23rd Jun 2018 at 12:46 PM
Step 1. Give Sims interesting traits
Step 2. Never even touch them
Step 3. Watch them make their own often bad decisions.

So basically...Sims 4 is the worst game for doing that. Since Sims are indistinguishable and alot of the negative traits and personality traits are missing completely. Also they nerfed autonomy.
Field Researcher
#8 Old 23rd Jun 2018 at 6:56 PM
No, I'm not a rotational player. I usually stick to one family per save.

No, every sim doesn't need to have a job, as in a career they go to every day. It depends. If it's tied to their aspiration, yes. For ones who work but don't have a job they go to, as such, I like to make money by crafting or collecting. I recently got back into running retail stores so I can sell things I've collected from the jungle for extra profit. If I am playing a household with aging off, I almost always go for "Fabulously Wealthy" so they can just sit back and collect interest every week rather than work.

I guess this one doesn't apply to me as I don't play rotational.

Nope, I don't make rules. i have a few things that might cause me to have to intervene but for the most part they decide what they do autonomously. I'm an "anything goes" type but there are a few exceptions.

I do change worlds from time to time, I get tired looking at the same scenery. My least used world to live in is San Myshuno, I don't really care for apartment living.
Top Secret Researcher
#9 Old 24th Jun 2018 at 3:45 AM
I usually play on Long, with 1 main family per save. Usually once their kid is all grown up, I switch to one of my fav kid and make it my main family then.

I do rotate, but only when I am bored of my current main family. And I always go back to the main family once that boredom is gone.

I often add in random family as neighbors, mostlike characters that I like from various fictional worlds. I like running into them and befriending them and stuffs lol.
Forum Resident
#10 Old 24th Jun 2018 at 6:16 AM
Rampant profanity and barely constrained rage, a la Lewis Black. How many people does it take to put a toddler into a high chair? By the time they've stopped picking the kid up and putting her in, she'll have died.

For a more serious response, I'll have to wait a bit. I've had the game all of a week.
Field Researcher
#12 Old 27th Jun 2018 at 12:15 AM Last edited by ryuusei86 : 27th Jun 2018 at 12:16 AM. Reason: Deleted an accidental repetition of a sentence
For me, the central question is always, "How long can I keep the system running before it crashes?" So I start with a single Sim in a cheap house. Gradually he earns more money, and I can expand his house and get him nicer things. Meanwhile, I let the other Sims live out their lives as they please, while mine "observes." I'm getting better at using MCCC to ensure Sims get married and have children as I don't want to mess with all that. If the house no longer pleases me, I crunch it and get another one online. If the Sim no longer pleases me, I move mine out, marry him to an available woman, and switch his place with another. Before long I can afford to move in a roommate for him. I don't usually play more than 2-3 Sims at a time.

At some point, we're on a 40x30 lot with a veritable mansion, and it just isn't fun anymore. What's the challenge? So I start over with a new Sim in a new cheap house, and the cycle continues.

I will say this for TS4, it lasts a lot longer than TS3 on a single game iteration, at least in my experience. I didn't count, but I'm sure I saw the tenth generation of pre-made Sims such as Malcolm Landgraab and Alexander Goth before I just ragequit and started over. The challenge was greater in TS3, where any one iteration of the game seemed to have a certain maximum lifetime before becoming the infamous BFBVFS or Big Fiery Ball Visible From Space.
Test Subject
#13 Old 30th Jun 2018 at 2:55 AM
I never thought about it but I guess I don't have much of a play style.
I usually just have a serious family and a joke family that I set on fire.
Instructor
#14 Old 30th Jun 2018 at 11:50 AM
With every game, I've tended to play single Sims or single families, until I get bored and move on to another.
I like the idea of rotational play, especially in family gameplay, where children may eventually move out, but I also worry it'll be a bit too hectic to keep switching between households, lol.
Field Researcher
#15 Old 1st Jul 2018 at 12:06 AM
ts4 has slightly altered the way I play. Now that I don't have to worry about story progression - for better or for worse - I'm less anxious about switching households (although I do that partially BECAUSE there is no story progression so I feel like I have to force things along). I generally like to play one family mainly - my 'legacy' family so to speak - but I'll dabble with others. I usually just play them until I grow so tired with their genetics/history that I abandon them for a new legacy family in a whole new save. When there are too many kids, I marry them off or otherwise move them all out except one or two that get to stay in the main house. I'll occasionally check up on the outcasted children, but I stick with my favorites.
For me, TS4's 'worlds' are all just different cities. My sims have to go to a certain city to get their pet checked up, a certain city to go to a club, a certain city to go to work, etc. I tend to give all of my sims some kind of job - one will stay home if there are kids to take care of them, but they'll paint or garden or something in their spare time. I generally make everyone work until the family is so rich that I have the luxury of deciding if they should all get jobs or not. Sometimes I make them all 'become artists' but I feel like it's too easy, and aside from that then I have to deal with all of them peeing themselves all bloody day, so I'd rather get them away from me for a bit.
As for cheats, I rarely use the money cheats unless I'm trying to create a story that starts with a rich family. I typically like my sims to have to work for their luxury, but I've used money cheats to build a grand old house and then taken the excess away so it's the descendants of some rich old family trying to make ends meet generations later, etc. In TS4 I don't like that the needs cheat (or at least the most accessible one, I haven't really gone into the cheats world of ts4 yet) fixes all of the motives. In TS3, I would boost one or 2 sometimes, but with the way these Sims' bladders go in ts4 I've been maxing out their motives constantly
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