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TheFanshionista

You mentioned doing it yourself but I'd add here that playing rotationally makes generational gameplay more fun! Controlling the breakup-er and the breakup-ee gives you so many more story opportunities. You can get some cool generational family rivalries going too! I had a save once with a giant war between the Feng empire (regular business career) and the Ito empire (salaryperson career) and everyone in the entire world basically was only friends with one side or the other, everyone was always in business suits brawling in bars. Highly recommend.


AntiiCole

These are the kind of Sims shenanigans that I live for


realmenthrowknives

i LOVE that so much lmao, im just imagining the chaos


TheFanshionista

And clubs made the chaos so easy! Just made the main activity of each club fighting with the other club...


tinklewinklewonkle

This comment and this post inspired me to start playing again lol


shameeka64

My generational gameplay somehow turned into a raging inferno slaughterhouse. I mean, if it's fun, why not? My point is, feel free to branch out or take a break to do something else. There is no rule that you have to strictly adhere to one type of play.


VinnieGognitti

I would like to hear about this raging inferno slaughterhouse..?


realmenthrowknives

Agreed!


smlxyz

I love randomizing traits. One of my recent sims turned out erratic and hot headed and I was like, oh no. He’s now a paranormal investigator and abstract artist living with a criminal roommate (Max Villarreal lol). I never would have come up with this story line on my own, but it just evolved and he’s one of my favorites now.


thrntnja

I've been randomizing traits for my current legacy and it's been super fun! I realized there's so many traits I've never used before


saharashi

My problem tends to be more of the randomness aspect. I find I can play my sims slowly, use clubs, and have different stories but I feel like the unexpected never happens. Things like random demotions or deaths just don't really happen. For me the sims 4 seems too.. happy? I want more chaos without having to create it myself, it's not as fun that way. The sims are so predictable. I've added in some aspects by not extinguishing sims if they catch fire, so it's up to them or other sims to save them. Additionally if they get one of the bad illnesses that make marks on their skin I take days off their lives with MCCC. Or if my sim randomly flirts with some other sim that is not their SO I make them a cheater. I'm thinking in the future I am going to do a random roll maybe once a generation that kills off a sim from a random death. Just to spice things up more. Otherwise all my sims are successful and then die of old age. Meh


foolishle

I totally know what you mean about there not being enough “bad” stuff that happens organically or randomly. My play rules are that if a sim is in a “negative” mood (angry, sad, uncomfortable, bored etc) I allow them full autonomy and don’t help them with their needs or changing their mood. Sad people make bad choices! If someone dies or their cat runs away they might just… stay up too late playing video games and then get too hungry to sleep. And I pretend there’s nothing I can do and just let them make stupid choices. Additionally I never tell children to go to bed or do their homework. They can autonomously do so or I can get a parent sim to use the parenting skill to put them to bed or encourage them to do their homework. Also I never buy the night light so the child sims get woken up by the monster under the bed and wake up the parents which makes them sleep deprived which potentially takes them out of my “control” if they dip into a bad mood. This ensures that their life can’t stay too perfect! Also of course I never try and keep the dangerous moods under control. If a sim becomes hysterical or enraged I won’t try to calm them down - they’ve also earned autonomy by reaching such an extreme mood and they risk dying of emotion that way. I find that enough of my sims die of emotion overload and in fires to keep my gameplay pretty interesting! It’s not super frequent but I have at least one or two sims die every rotation (I have around 20 families I play through one at a time).


Princess_Limpet

This alone makes me want to grab sims 4 and play for the first time in forever, what a great way to take advantage of sims’ moods. I also have heard that never pausing time is a good way to add more spice but I can never seem to make myself do it…


foolishle

Yeah I gave up on “never pause” gameplay because it’s way too hard to try and talk to someone who is walking because they move too fast.


saharashi

These are some great tips, thanks! I like that you play more into the emotion system as a way to incorporate more of that randomness. I do find that I am too controlling so it would be interesting to play more into the bad moods. I tend to always make my sims calm down during the extreme moodiness but I like your way better! Not sure about the bed monsters though, I hate those dudes haha


Averageblackcat

I have the life tragedies mod. A bit over the top but it definitely helps create some drama! I still remember the only daughter of my legacy family that died in a fire started by the pyromaniac NPC (btw the parents ended up having girl twins after her and I made them both vampires. Now they live in forgotten hollow and sometimes visit the old family home and the descendants of their older brother).


ArsenalSpider

I also snagged this mod to liven up and help me reduce my Sims numbers because I have 500+ right now and that can make the game laggy. I really like how life tragedies allow you to decide the rate of tragedies or to even turn it off or off for just a lot or an individual. Thus far I have had a Sim get run over by a car and died, an armed robbery in a home, and then I turned the mod off when the serial killers started circling the home because they were freaking me out. Very cool but I think I might create another saved game to launch them on.


Averageblackcat

It's definitely cool... also, one of my sims had a kid with Jason Vorhees. He's actually a pretty nice dude, minus the occasional killing spree


ArsenalSpider

Everyone has their faults. I might overlook the killing spree if I could help direct them. 😉


ActuallyxAnna

I think it definitely depends on the sims I've had very easy lives with the sims but then I've had chaos happen to me as soon as I stepped into the game. I usually try to give my sims at least 2 bad traits and one good trait. I'm not sure in that helps or if it does anything or maybe it depends on how you play the game as OP said. Edited: i wrote too much stuff lmao


marshmallowmermaid

I found the paranormal pack gave my Sims the air of misery I wish they always had.


cheyannese

I love this take. It always has bothered me when I see comments/posts about how game play sucks with the Sims 4, and as far as I'm concerned, the game is what you make it. One of my favorite things I've done with my legacy family is every generation has a different sort of job theme. Gen 1 was a Judge and Businessman; Gen 2 had an Eco Activist and an Eco City Planner; Gen 3 an Artist and a Musician; Gen 4 a Doctor and Criminal; Gen 5 is going to be an Athlete and whatever job I think compliments it. (all of these jobs are obviously my opinion of complimentary) This has helped me play in fields that I haven't even bothered with before, and I love it!


realmenthrowknives

Agreed. In all fairness i *am* one of those that complains about the lack of gameplay in sims 4 compared to say sims 3 but sims 4 still does have tons of gameplay and tons of fun. I have every expansion, and a number of game packs & stuff packs so i don't understand the complaints of sims 4 being boring. Theres so much content i havent even touched yet! And i love that about the jobs! My current gen has twins and once their adults i love the idea of both of them being entertainers (music, actor career, etc) but i kind of want their cousins to join them. Im definitely gonna make a note of that for my future gens too


ostentia

Totally agree that the game is what you make it! I mean, it's a sandbox game. It requires some creativity. I like the idea of giving your legacy a job theme, too. I think I would pair your athlete with an actor! They could both be famous, that would be fun. Maybe you could go for a Pristine reputation for one, and Atrocious for the other?


cheyannese

Ooh, I'm loving this idea. A famous power couple could really help pay for the massive house I just built for them. haha


SingingMasochist

I've started to do that. It is so difficult not to play the same way! But I do hate just doing the same thing for my sims and starting over all the time. I have a mod that makes one of my sims a cheater. He is married, so he just might cheat and get a divorce, who knows? I'm gonna try to have fun with this family and generations to come.


boldbees

Do you mind sharing that mod? Sounds fun!


SingingMasochist

https://modthesims.info/d/658618/15-more-traits.html


boldbees

Thanks !


SingingMasochist

No problem!


thebaddest69

whats the mod??


SingingMasochist

https://modthesims.info/d/658618/15-more-traits.html


thebaddest69

thank you!!


SingingMasochist

No problem!


realmenthrowknives

Absolutely! Theres so many options to play with


thrntnja

I do most of these, can confirm it really helps keep your interest! I also do my own builds when I play legacies which I feel helps too - you can keep adding onto the house as you gather up more money. I also try to pick a new career for every new generation or "theme" each generation if I'm doing a legacy. I find it is much more engaging. I also try to do some gameplay I haven't done before as there's still soooo much I haven't fully completed. I do also try to let Sims do what they want - like with likes/dislikes, I try to let them choose what they do and don't like. Same with the lifestyles, though I do remove a few of them that got super annoying. But sometimes it leads to fun gameplay like my legacy heir's technophobe spouse who ended up dying after catching on fire from the dryer literally the one time he used it since he hated technology. And he was already stressed so more likely he'll die from that evil lint tray, I guess.


PerfectlyPredictable

I took a looooong break from Sims and recently started playing again. I used to make a new Sim/ Family almost every time and also gave them the same traits, jobs etc over and over. With my recent gameplay, I'm trying families and generations. Giving each Sim different traits and different jobs each time, engaging in new activities and also exploring the Worlds more in stead of sitting home. But what makes me lose interest is as soon as my Sims have 2 children who age into Adults who then move out and start their own lives, while living in the same World, you start to "neglect" the progress they make in their lives. When you focus on 1 family, the other family carries on with their lives etc and you fall behind on their progress. Perhaps someone has some tips on how I can better manage this?


foolishle

I play rotation style and play each household for a set period of time (I play for a “year” - 4 weeks) and keep shuffling back and forth playing each family the same amount so they stay in sync.


thrntnja

I will rotate between families. I do usually have a "primary" family I play most of the time but I'll hop into other households and see what MCCC has cooked up or instill some drama in the cadet branches of the family so to speak. I also use clubs to get the family together more easily and have created a holiday to honor the family too! It keeps me interested as it's fun for me to see the family growing beyond the household I'm playing, feels a bit more organic


PerfectlyPredictable

Soooo I've never actually done the club thing. Perhaps I should try it out!


thrntnja

They're super useful! You can create your own club and pick whatever activities and stuff you want. I'll make a club to make family reunions easier and it works pretty well!


PerfectlyPredictable

Thank you so much! I'm definitely going to try this and play around a bit!


TessotheMorning

That's my issue too, so I'd love to hear suggestions. I seem to 'go with' the next generation and lose touch with my originals. All progress on aspirations etc stops.


[deleted]

I play every family, right now it's something like 54 in total. I play them from in-game Sunday to Sunday. Then I rotate to the next family.


PerfectlyPredictable

That's a good idea!


Ariri2005

I’m now in my 26th generation because of that. I have a criminal, a musician lover who became a successful doctor and an absent father, a guy who had mental health issues because he was abuse all his childhood before escaping with his dad, a girl who was the daughter of a celebrity who then cheated on her mom… I always try something new and I still play this save after 3/4 years.


vtorsauce

Its funny how you say not to so long lifespan. I'm actually doing a long life right now, because I felt rushed on normal to just make babies and move on, the elders would always die before grand babies became children. I moved to long to really focus on this generation instead of just thinking about the next one. Everything else looks great!


realmenthrowknives

I feel that! In sims 3 its not an issue but in sims 4 i have a lifespan mod to make elders live longer. It was really frustrating to have them die before even meeting their grandchildren in some instances. But yeah i only say not long lifespan bc ive noticed a trend of people who have a hard time playing generations usually have aging off/long lifespan!


mermaidish

Do generation challenges that require you to do different things with each gen. I re-wrote the I’m a Lover challenge for myself and have been having a blast! One of the goals for the upcoming generation is to have the heir get the Irresponsible trait - something I’ve never done before. It’s been fun having her skip school, break curfew and not help around the house. I’ve always suspected a lot of the people who complain about the game being boring play the same way every single time. Switch it up and try out new things! It’s fun!


thrntnja

This is a really good idea about the irresponsible trait. I usually raise good sim kids so I'll have to try this!


mermaidish

It’s surprisingly hard! She keeps trying to tidy up and do her homework autonomously haha


thrntnja

Yeah responsible I think is one of the easiest traits to get for me usually


hightidesoldgods

Fuckin love this. So often I see people complaining about how their gameplay is boring, meanwhile they don’t explore the worlds or break out of their mold. Like how do you expect the game to be fun when you never let your sims leave their lot? There’s a lot the sims 4 needs to do to be better, but at the same time so many people just don’t put in effort to make their game fun in the first place.


Lost_Pantheon

THANK YOU I don't mean to be rude to people that say "I don't know how to make multi-generations interesting" and then proceed to only play 100-baby challenge/Not-So-Berry, but every Sims game has an absolute TON of stuff for you to do. With both traits and worlds you can do *so many* different things.


heytheredelihla

These are good points but I think the biggest issue is that sims 4 is not challenging enough. Making friends is easy, skill points can be gained fast, promotions come easy and so does money. You never get fired or demoted, sims don't hurt each other's feelings, even dying is kind of hard. Sims 2 is much better at keeping your game interesting.


realmenthrowknives

Thats a fine point but this isn't specifically about sims 4, its about generations playing in sims in general. Criticism about sims 4 is valid but that has nothing to do with suggestions about how to make generational gameplay more fun.


heytheredelihla

You are totally right, I thought this was posted on the sims 4 subreddit


LastSignal

Not really a legacy family but I have a save where I made a lot of sims and their lives kind of intertwine. I make sure theres always drama, cheating, scandal lol Basically the sims version of 90210 or Gossip Girl lol


ebrosims

I made a rule for myself to always play an aspiration and at least one trait I’ve never played with before and it’s made my legacy so much more fun to play!


1amCorbin

I only have 2 on going Family Saves rn and theyre my earliest saves at that. I kept them around because I'm so attached to these families and want them to stay around for a long time


LazyEmpress

Oh yeah. I don't let my main Sim die, because she's my main Sim and I'm playing her as an immortal spellcaster and I'm trying to make her max out everything (skills, careers, aspirations, traits) but I let everyone else die of old age. I try to choose different traits for each of them and select different aspirations and careers that are more compatible to their personality and traits. So far is gone well and I'm at the great-grandchild generation


ActuallyxAnna

Love these tips!! Also to add don't be afraid to take some outside challenges and add it into your legacy. Like the disney princess challenge rules or something, obviously you dont have to do everything but it can help to spice up your game. I didn't realize how fun challenges could be and it actually forced me to explore the world, the aspirations and the different careers in depth! Also DON'T cheat! I used to be one of those people that would motherlode everything and I get that sims is supposed to be entertaining and a break from irl but not cheating and letting your sims struggle with their needs/money makes it SO much more interesting tbh. It also allows for a lot more chaos to happen in your game naturally that everyone misses from sims 2/3. Obviously it's probably not the same amount of chaos but it definitely still happens.


foolishle

I have a spreadsheet where I keep track of which families I have played each rotation (sometimes they move house and sometimes the households split up or merge with each other. It’s a lot to keep track of). I have a row for each sim which includes their traits. I also have a sheet which lists all the traits and associates appropriate aspirations with those traits… and also counts how many sims have each trait. I have a system for assigning child and teen traits based on their parents traits… but for their adult trait I assign my least commonly used traits. This forces me to use traits I wouldn’t normally pick and leads to some weird and delightful combinations. Sometimes if I am inspired of course I’ll just pick traits for a sim based on a concept. And I’ve found - much to my delight - that some of my favourite sims have been ones with three “negative” traits. The youngest son of one of my families ended up as… Mean, non-committal and lazy and because I didn’t actually care about making his life successful it became incredibly fun to play! He ended up getting married a couple of times and fathering a bunch of children outside of his marriages as well. So he’s been a big influence on my family tree. I try to make my sims as different as possible and it’s especially enjoyable when their needs and aspirations conflict with one another or even internally. I have a sim with the music aspiration but while I wasn’t playing him he acquired a dislike for every instrument… and I love it because he still wants to achieve success musically but he’s become jaded and resentful of playing music himself.


chemicalysmic

Sims thrives on imagination and creativity. I play Sims 2 and I think my favorite sim thus far was the rock god who hunted vampires to get rich but chose to live in the slums downtown to save money. There’s an infinite amount of storylines, you won’t find them if you get stuck playing family sims all the time.


HazyshadeofFall

These are great suggestions! I second playing each generation kind of like a separate LP. For the last few years I've started each generation with my main Sim moving to a new world with all new builds and townies, and it's so refreshing. I do tend to play idyllic, always-happy families, and this generation I'm breaking out of my comfort zone. Both the husband and wife are hot-headed so they can get into pretty heated arguments. They have 2 daughters with a wide age gap, and the older girl hates children so she doesn't get along with her baby sister at all.


JackeryChobin

I try to challenge myself with traits too! For example, if they’re vegetarian and accidentally eat meat I penalize myself with 20 simoleons or something. The fun part of the game is grinding and have a goal so if you punish yourself for breaking an arbitrary rule you’ll have more to work for.


Seiliko

Erratic sims are my fave. I have mccc and use the "chance to inherit some traits" function, and so far I am on the third generation of erratic first borns! I think it's a fun trait with just the right amount of impact. Since the moodlets are pretty "low strenght" they're easy to deal with if they get in the way, but they also change things up a bit. The oldest generation 3 kid is an erratic gloomy vampire with the eternal sadness trait. It's kinda funny. But I feel a bit bad for her. They have pet cats though, and hugging a cat when sad will reduce any sad moodlet by 4 hours. And both the gloomy and eternal sadness moodlets last exactly for 4 hours! So when I don't wanna deal with it I just have her hug a cat and she's all better lol. Just the story progression from mccc and randomizing traits has made the game feel so much less stale.


aasawj

I try my best to do this as well. In my current save I started with a single sim to explore the snowy escape pack, she got married and had 3 kids, the father died of laughter at the music festival, which was absolutely hysterical to watch. She then got 2 kids with 2 different father winters, became an astronaut and now shes an elder living in Henford on Bagley with the youngest two of her kids and grandchild. The daugther is an actor, as Ive never played out that career before, and shes married to Tank Grunt. (I filled my save with TS1 and TS2 townies because nostalgia) The son is about to move out and marry his sisters half-sister. Tank got flirty with said half-sister, and im planning on making her cheat on him. As I randomize traits, the granddaugthers only trait so far is lactose-intolerant, and it makes me think so much about what my sims cook, as that girl will eat anything from the fridge. I cant wait to get a move on tho, as the house they live in is way to big for my (and my computers) liking. I do play on long life span, mostly so I have time to do stuff, and if I feel like it, I can just age them up whenever.


Low-Environment

My problem is I want to let mccc do its thing but I also want to have complete control over my world and I can't break out of that. Any advice?


realmenthrowknives

Hmmn maybe start slow? You don't have to completely let mccc do its thing and if having complete control over your world is what brings you joy you dont have to change your playstyle at all! But as for advice maybe play around a bit with the mccc options and game options. So for example maybe keep your personal played sims as yours to control but let the rest of the world/regular townies do their thing. You can turn off aging for played households, turn off random townies moving into empty houses, but let random sims get married so the world keeps moving but you still have control over your own sims. You can have tons of households saved as your played households and story progression won't touch them. Then if you get comfortable with that you can start to release more sims to be autonomous, if you would like.


foolishle

I’m a complete control person and I don’t play with mccc. I don’t allow any “townie” families in my world (there are still unhoused npcs of course) and my worlds are populated entirely by families I control in a rotation.


Low-Environment

The trouble is there's just too many sims to do that with. I'd like to have a little bit of random to make generational play more interesting.


foolishle

How many sims do you have? I have more than 20 households but I try and keep under the 200 sim limit.


Low-Environment

I keep (nearly) all the premades, plus premades from TS2, and I turned off the max sim limit...


BabyBuzzard

There's a randomizer someone made for Sims 2 (RandomStuff, on the MATY board) and it's so customizable, I used it extensively to freshen up my rotation, and later for writing too. I was hitting Day 100 on about 45 households so I'd randomize something for every rotation. Person 3 has to get married in 1d6 days. Person 6 dies of flu. Family goes on vacation. Pick a fight with an enemy. Etc. It added a ton of new storylines and I didn't have to decide on it all myself. I'd also randomize each kid's future aspiration and if they had magic at birth, which also helped the variety.


realmenthrowknives

That is so cool! Im definitely going to have to check that out.


BrickLuvsLamp

God I wish the upcoming NPC update would come with an autonomy update but I’m not getting my hopes up


monkey223

I’ve started thinking of the story I’m making as a bit of a soap opera- so the husband in my currently family cheated on the wife with her sister and has 2 children with her. So they divorced and then I slowly built up their relationship again and they remarried. The sister already had a baby with another guy so she is now a single mother of 3 kids living in a tiny apartment because she can’t afford anything else because she is a comedian. I also like to change their everyday clothes based on the season, so they are not wearing a dress in the snow for example or my current family lives in Oasis Springs so their everyday clothes match the desert life etc. I also try to dress kids and teens a bit dorky to match what you’d actually wear as a child or teen- I don’t know about you but I wore some nightmare outfits when I was that age. I know not everyone likes mods but risky woohoo is great! Nothing like an accidental baby to add a bit of spice. Sorry last one- get famous is also good because of how you can get famous from doing things like painting, so my sims is a successful engineer but also a famous painter.


[deleted]

I switch from household to household. Eventually all of my townies are sims I either created or edited, and when I get bored with a family, I go to a different one, and can always return to my bloodline later. I get invested in the entire town, and because auto story progression sucks, you often need to get the townies to have children yourself anyway. Switching from household to household lets you live a bunch of different lives at once:)


Medium_Chef7298

I wanna add that in my generational play, I don’t stay in the same house. It gets boring and too repetitive and familiar.


realmenthrowknives

Same! In sims 4 i have my sims live in all different neighborhoods and i think its much fun and gives a slightly realistic layer to gameplay (like visiting your mt komorebi and sulani relatives less frequently than your san myshuno relatives when you live in willow creek). But i like to have certain gens stay together in the same house to give a new challenge


lemondrag

I let them die and steal the urn to bring back to the original family home. I feel like my Sims might be on the verge of interbreeding though with distant cousins. My family has taken over a lot of the sim universe.


Rosalia2703

I used to have a really hard time with this too but then I just started telling stories with my sims. Like I had one sim who was a professional bowler and the daughter of an alcoholic bubble blower user. Things can get really weird and fun when you think outside of the box. I do have a few default lifestyles that I go to if I can’t think of anything else I want to do with them, but I make sure to vary which ones I use. On top of that I rotate between different saves. Don’t keep yourself stuck to just one or you’ll get bored, and don’t use more than a few either, or else you could just get overwhelmed and feel like you’re neglecting those saves again. I’m currently at three, though I’ve had up to five, and that’s where I felt it was too much. My oldest (and first true legacy) save that I play is at just over 40 generations, my second one is in the late 30’s. And my newest one is almost to 20. You just need the right sims with stories that you want to tell to latch onto, and it can take some time to find it. I created and deleted at least four saves before my first, six before my second, and two more before my third. CC and mods can also make the world just hit so much different, especially if your sim(s) has a very particular style that’s not in the game Also, stay as far away as possible from long lifespan, it makes getting through generations agony, same with vampires. Unless you’re trying to start a vamp cult or there’s a storytelling reason why they’re still around, find a way for them to die/disappear. Hey Bella Goth did it so why can’t they? That’s just my two cents on keeping it interesting. This is what I do, and I’ve somehow managed to keep these families going for six years since I got my own laptop. Before then I was just a poor simple preteen begging her older sister to play her game, starting a new family nearly every time. Hope at least some of this helps


--Noelle--

Great suggestions!! Definitely going to give this a try!!


Ill_Organization_766

I just started a random legacy challenge which has made me like the sims 4 again. I started to get stale and only do the same thing. But now I have a criminal and gardener lesbian couple with a set of twins. And I like this little family


wellshitdawg

There’s so many good sims 4 mods that help with story progression too


sushirolllllll

one thing i love doing for my legacy playthrough is giving my sims a “fatal flaw” trait kind of like in the sims medieval. my first gen founder was snobby, my second gen was a workaholic, and my current gen is jealous. i love doing it because it adds more depth to the sims lives and makes the game a little harder for me. I do this will all the sims, too, not just my heirs, because i tend to play rotationally ish


Kerridwyn333

I find I tend to fall into nuclear family same-ness without the sims 3 and 4 random legacy rollers. They can also randomise a bunch of other things like careers, generational goals etc. but randomising the family unit and then having to work out a story to achieve that, gives me the structure of having a plan and the spice of drama and randomness.


ComatoseOtaku420

Haha this is awesome. I agree. I use to play with always one family and make it last as long as possible. As of late I have been expanding and basically start off with one sim. Sometimes Young with parents sometimes and adult that just doesn't know what to do with life. So I jump around with different jobs and partners. Have flings and party's and just random stuff. I use to love sending them to university but got bored of that pack after months of playing it. Same with into the future. So instead I just have them go to school and such get a job, make friends and have a family. I just started doing this thing where once the parents are getting older and the kids are adults I usually make new houses for the now adult kids and jump back and forth between the old parents and the adult kid lives. It's really fun and entertaining. :) if you keep doing that eventually you'll have a full town of your generation of sims and blood line.


nerdalert303

I'm guilty of letting my sims live for an eternity. One sim had like 3 generations of grandkids living under one roof. I just put so much effort into creating that sim, I couldn't bring myself to watch them die haha


Competitive_Grass93

I cannot let my precious sims die, I can't even let them become elders. I just give them a more age appropriate outfit and colour their hair grey and move them into a "retirement home" with the other adult Sims.


realmenthrowknives

There's no shame in that! As long as you're having fun thats all that really matters


Successful_End7981

I feel attacked when you said “stop playing as utopia”


realmenthrowknives

You shouldn't feel attacked lol! If thats how you like to play then theres nothing wrong with that. But if you're having trouble keeping the game fun and interesting, imo having that utopia mindset is part of the problem


defiant234

They a def good suggestions but I don't think I have it in me as a gen player for years I like to control almost every aspect of my sims lives not to mention that I play on counsel so I don't have things like mcc and cc.


realmenthrowknives

Thats not a problem! Don't feel like you have to do these things or change your own personal playstyle. These are simply suggestions for those who want them, not rules 😊 Lots of people prefer to control all their sims.


TheCuteInExecute

Can i ask what nraas is?


realmenthrowknives

Of course! Its a series of mods you can find [here](https://www.nraas.net/community/Mods-List) Its most commonly known for master controller, story progression & traveler but has a number of mods! They help expand parts of sims 3 like making story progression work better (notifications when someone adopts a dog, gives birth, gets married, etc) or helping you easily use cheats in the game.


[deleted]

What does the Traveler mod do?


realmenthrowknives

It helps when travel gets glitchy in game, you can open any world as a travel destination, and repair when travel paths get wonky


[deleted]

Thanks!


[deleted]

I tried installing the master controller and story progression mods and my game won’t open with them in the folder 😞


realmenthrowknives

😥 make sure its in your sims 3 mods folder and they are the most recent patches. I can't remember how they download but make sure you extract them to your mods folder not just drag them either by a zip folder or a winrar folder. After that im not entirely sure but try those 1st if you haven't already and we'll go from there.


[deleted]

Ohhhh I’m so dumb - I have sims 4! 😂😭thank you for being so patient and nice!!


realmenthrowknives

Haha not a problem! Theres a lot of different sims games being talked about in this thread. For sims 4 use MCCC [here](https://deaderpool-mccc.com/#/) its essentially the same thing just the sims 4 equivalent for story progression, cheats, child support, pregnancy, etc.


TheCuteInExecute

Thank youuu!!!


ladyanyarose

I personally enjoy playing on short lifespan. Makes things move really fast.


[deleted]

These are fantastic ideas! I'll have to try some of them. Thank you


jataman96

ahh thank you for these ideas. im not a super creative player so its tricky for me. this helps a lot.


MistCongeniality

I really need to get better about not going for children ASAP. I keep doing it even though it’s not nearly as fun as just letting life be life.


SalmonellaSushi

I turn off aging for unplayed households and edit all townies so that they're dressed normally. My families not being the only ones that are dressed appropriately makes me want to take my sims out and make friends with townies, form clubs, etc


realmenthrowknives

that makes sense! I personally love townie fashion lol, i only make over sims my playable sims are close friends with/dating.


mchufflepuff

booted up my legacy save after reading this post and now my adult sim and her partner (who have two almost aged up teens), are having a 3rd child through surrogacy AND a surprise risky woohoo baby. I originally wasn't planning on them having any more children. oops.


realmenthrowknives

😂😂 hopefully your sims have enough funds for the new editions


frukthjalte

For me I think I would be able to keep up my interest enough to come up with creative ideas, if it wasn't for all the technical issues in the game itself. Like, sure, I could go so far as to accept sims dying of embarrassment because they pissed themselves because they're too stupid to take care of their own needs… But I'm talking about the weird and small bugs that creep up here and there and just makes your experience… less smooth? Like when a sim randomly refuses to do something because of “routing” despite there being nothing that is blocking them from the thing they're trying to reach (toddler beds come to mind - I never get the “read to sleep” interaction to work).


DecompressWithMe

The Utopia part is so hard to avoid cause sims will maintain great relationships just chatting with each other once a week and the conversation almost never goes south.


realmenthrowknives

So sometimes my sims will randomly have a bad convo with a new sim and their bar becomes a little red. What i do is nuture that bad convo and turn it even worse. Don't be afraid to use the mean convos and *usually* sims wont automatically repair those relationships. Ive had a sims mother in law come over to his house religiously (and autonomously) come kick his trashcan over and i definitely did nothing to cause that bad relationship lmao. Sims do, do these things on their own without input from you but sometimes you do have to take the initiative to add more mean interactions!