Too many sims with too many beefy stories.
current relationship wish tallies:
engaged:
highest health strike count:
Also, so much going on in my family and life, including that I had a whole new baby that has since grown into a whole giant preschooler.
Also, Covid happened.
So, anyway, with the completion of this “round” I’m having to think hard about what my gameplay style actually is these days. With about 80 played households—soon to be more, once some of my combined households are split up into separate apartment units—I don’t think I can claim that I spend even remotely equal time on each household. And I don’t really aspire to anymore, having forced myself to realize that it isn’t realistic.
So then I built this huge spreadsheet, ranking my households by legacy status, with the idea that maybe sims of TS2 founding family heritage should get more screen time than other sims. The ranking went something like this:
- Sims of TS2 founder heritage
- Honorary TS2 legacy sims
- Honorary TS3/SFP legacy sims
- TS4 origin story-connected sims
- TS4 background played sims
Then, immediately after, I wrote a ten-part story centered around a group of former TS4 townie bin characters. I am a sucker for good drama, and that, folks, is how you end up with 257 played sims.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about the idea that each game week could belong to a grouping of families, where I’ll explore the major story-driven households, and pay a quicker visit to the related parents/siblings/friends of the main characters.
Because, here’s the thing for me, I have more fun with this game when I’m invested in a story. And having fun is the main point. But also, I’m sure a round doesn’t need to take 6.5 years to get through, lol! I can probably learn to space out my main stories so that I’m not trying to tell them all at the same time and bogging down my timeline. It’s a work in progress.
Okay, onto the details for round 2086-2088.
current relationship wish tallies:
I think my whims are broken. My sims have stopped rolling any engagement/marriage wishes, or at least I haven’t seen any lately. And it’s noticeable since my sims were used to rolling them five a minute. But here’s what we had the last time they were working:
Vale to Vicky: 8 // Vicky to Vale: 6 – and these two are well on their way to the wedding arch
Odin to Evie: 3 // Evie to Odin: 3 – I envisioned a Christmas proposal for Odin and Evie, and if my whims hadn’t broken, I think they definitely would have both gotten to 5 before Christmas. I’ll probably have them go ahead with this anyway.
Gwen to Andreas: 5 // Andreas to Gwen: 1 – Ooof, Gwen, lol! Yikes. I’m not done with these two, by the way. Just a little pause while I finish other things, and we’ll hear more from them soon.
Robbie to Liza: 2 // Liza to Robbie: 1 – aww, my babies. These two are only just legal to marry, so let’s let them simmer for a while.
Poppy to Asher: 2 // Asher to Poppy: 1 – (Vale’s friends, btw.)
Drake to Josie: 3 // Josie to Drake: 1 – Grandpa Drake is the sappiest anti-romantic in my game, he defies his unflirty trait!
Laney to Wesley: 1 // Wesley to Laney: 1 – Interesting idea.
Colette to Jordan: 2 // Jordan to Colette: 0 – aww, Colette, that’s not happening honey.
Tyler to Maya: 2b // Maya to Tyler: 0b – I think Tyler might be waiting a little while on that baby. Every time I play Maya, who is busy with her career and her climbing adventures, I just hear, “No, no, no.” They’re still young.
Selena to Andre: 1 // Andre to Selena: 0 – as I expected from these two.
new romances:
Vale to Vicky: 8 // Vicky to Vale: 6 – and these two are well on their way to the wedding arch
Odin to Evie: 3 // Evie to Odin: 3 – I envisioned a Christmas proposal for Odin and Evie, and if my whims hadn’t broken, I think they definitely would have both gotten to 5 before Christmas. I’ll probably have them go ahead with this anyway.
Gwen to Andreas: 5 // Andreas to Gwen: 1 – Ooof, Gwen, lol! Yikes. I’m not done with these two, by the way. Just a little pause while I finish other things, and we’ll hear more from them soon.
Robbie to Liza: 2 // Liza to Robbie: 1 – aww, my babies. These two are only just legal to marry, so let’s let them simmer for a while.
Poppy to Asher: 2 // Asher to Poppy: 1 – (Vale’s friends, btw.)
Drake to Josie: 3 // Josie to Drake: 1 – Grandpa Drake is the sappiest anti-romantic in my game, he defies his unflirty trait!
Laney to Wesley: 1 // Wesley to Laney: 1 – Interesting idea.
Colette to Jordan: 2 // Jordan to Colette: 0 – aww, Colette, that’s not happening honey.
Tyler to Maya: 2b // Maya to Tyler: 0b – I think Tyler might be waiting a little while on that baby. Every time I play Maya, who is busy with her career and her climbing adventures, I just hear, “No, no, no.” They’re still young.
Selena to Andre: 1 // Andre to Selena: 0 – as I expected from these two.
new romances:
what a busy year for new romances! That's probably why it took me so long to write!
Devon & Aldous, October 2086
Marlie & Daniel, December 2086
Drake & Josie, April 2087
Evie & Odin, May 2087
Laney & Wesley, also Ian & Jessica, September 2087
Selena & Andre, November 2087
Vale & Vicky, December 2087
Melissa & Hudson, January 2088
Dakota & Shannon, March 2088
Maria & Jordan, August 2088
breakups:
Wesley & Cleo, July 2087
Selena & Luis, August 2087
Melissa & Hudson, February 2088
Andreas & Gwen, April 2088
Shannon & Jake, June 2088
engaged:
Tyler & Maya, April 2087
Tyler & Maya, April 2087
Dallas & Lucy, May 2087
Carly & Kyle, May 2088
divorced:
Clementine Halston, December 2086
Abraham McCarthy, February 2087
Sienna Sylvester, June 2087
Sebastien Sanchez, September 2087
Eris Deppiesse, January 2088
McCarthy baby, due November 2088
deaths:
Avila baby, due December 2088
Jackson baby, due July 2089
deaths:
Robert Kim, July 2088
highest health strike count:
Micah Phoenix, age 65, 4*
^ (spoiler alert: Micah draws his #5 lethal strike in September 2088, just as the next round begins)
Matthias Collins, age 68, 3*
Sophie Phoenix, age 65, 2*
Alice Nova, age 67, 2*
healthiest elder:
Madison Riley, age 65, 3+
total population:
resident tracked sims: 256
total population:
resident tracked sims: 256
townies: ha, who even knows anymore?
number of played households: 80
number of played households: 80
^ soon to be more once we get the new apartments pack! 😵
richest sims:
richest sims:
#1: Bryson & Madison Riley (real estate), net worth: $744,000 between four properties
-- Gael Espinoza, net worth (antiquities dealer): $491,000 between two properties
#2: Erin Close & Marc Hall (banking/nightclubs), net worth: $399,000 between three properties
#3: Ashley Deppiesse (restaurant resorts), net worth $244,000 between two properties
#4: Janie Trudgen (retail catering/grocery), net worth: $203,000 between two properties
#5: Aura Jackson, c/o Beau Jackson (entertainment venues), net worth: $183,000 between three properties
^ not counting Gael in the running because he was created rich for story purposes and never had to work for it like my real sims have.
poorest sims:
- as head of their own household now, in their skanky apartment with nothing to their names, it has to be Robbie and Liza. It’s hard to measure net worth when they’re renting space from another sim, but I know they don’t have much in the way of cash or belongings. Even vagabond Jordan has a higher net worth than them.
Are you sure you dont need any new Sims? 🙂 Fresh blood, new genepool and all that? From your readers I mean.
ReplyDeleteOh no, don’t tempt me, lol! I love love love adding new sims, but it becomes a problem, because then I want to track all of their stories and give them time in my rotation, and then my timeline slows to a crawl because I simply can’t visit everyone.
DeleteBut what has worked the best in the past, I’ve found, is when my sims encounter townies naturally around town. It might be dating, or co-workers, or friends. Sometimes those townies marry into the founding families, but just as often they don’t. But after they don’t, I’ve become so attached to them already–like Tyler, Vicky, Evie. They’re better than random game-spawn townies, because they come with a personality and history from those relationships they had. Some of them from previous generations have now gone on to have children and even grandchildren of their own. (Like Ingrid/Laney/Ian’s parents, or the Lind elders.)
And *that* is how I end up with 256 played sims, lol!
So it turns out that my founding bloodlines only make up about 25% of that 256, so they are really in no danger of mixing genepools or anything. I have their family trees well documented! 🤓
Wow, I don't feel so bad about my 5 year hiatus now! :)
ReplyDeleteI've come to the same conclusion about not being able to play each household equally, while I was figuring out how to make playing/blogging more sustainable before I started up again. I ended up just throwing away a lot of my 'rules'. I'll play most households for three days like before, but some - empty nesters, couples +/- a baby or toddler - might only get one or two days. And the number of days I schedule them on my plan might change as I play them, depending on how things go. I feel better giving some sims less of my time in TS3 with story progression because I don't feel like I'm cheating them of time if they keep on living when I'm not playing them, lol.
I also stopped trying to fit all my households into strictly one or two sim-years - it will just take however long it takes to get around them (its currently about 16 sim months). An advantage of that is that the households will move through the seasons, too. I think the main thing is, I'm enjoying myself and not getting tied up on playing households I'm not enjoying just because I think I have to.
Absolutely on not playing certain households because you think you have to! And I’ll add, also not writing stories or even updates for them all because you think you have to! That’s where my timeline goes to die! 🤣
DeleteLike, for me, blogging the stories is what really murders my progress. Because I love them all, and I want to tell all their stories, but also I’m such a slow writer with very limited time. And I’m also a very wordy writer, so they get long very easily. So I JUST CAN’T write stories for them all. So I have made a new rule for myself that there can only be one major storyline going on, with no more than 5-6 parts (okay, 10, Jordan and Maria, lol!), while any others need to be paused or completed. Anyone else gets a little “postcards” mention once a quarter, or at most, a minor one-part short story update.
And there have been a few stories come up where I’ve had to tell myself, “Nope, that’s too big, that’s a novel, and we’re not doing a novel on a sims blog.” After having basically done a whole novel on my sims blog (Justin & Stephanie) and it took two years of my life. <-- I don’t regret writing that story or how big it was, but nope, not doing that again, lol!
Because I do love sharing the stories and updates, but I also like to see time progress. It’s so tricky to balance both. If I wasn’t blogging, I could blow through a year of gameplay in probably a RL month. I keep telling myself, “This time, we’re doing a time skip. A whole year, no stories.” And then my sims spring up all this drama that I want to write stories about, lol! I’m such a sucker.
Thanks for coming over to chat nerdy sims stuff with me! :)
Yeah, I haven't spent equal time with all my households for a loooong time! With aging off, you don't have to. I don't have them ranked like you do - it's just vibes for me, really! But your stories have much more structure than mine do, so it totally makes sense that you tried to do it. And it's very on brand for you that you immediately ignored the ranking and wrote a story about some townies! Jumping around like that can be fun, for you and the reader.
ReplyDeleteBTW, do you use MissyHissy's mods? She has a great one for Wants and Fears that might help your whims issue? But my sims have never rolled them all that frequently in 4, unfortunately, so I can't say if it definitely improves that.
Gwen! Settle down, lady! Oops, no pun intended! I guess she actually wants to do that but she'd need Andreas on board. ;)
Ha ha, so everybody gave up equal rotations a long long time ago and I’m just sitting here tormenting myself about it still, lol!
DeleteI do use Missy’s mods, and they are great! I suppose it turns out my marriage whims aren’t actually broken, just rolling extra infrequently, I guess. Because I finally had a sim pop one up just the other day. It was Vale for Vicky, of course, because that boy is infatuated. 🤣
I love it when the whims roll unevenly like that. It’s so interesting to make relationship dynamics out of.
Thank you for reading!
Wow, so much has happened! I’m glad you did this summary. I’m motivated to go back an reread everything to get a fresh perspective on the story.
ReplyDeleteFeel free to read more if you want! Vale and Vicky’s stories are super fun and won’t disappoint! And the “my sweetheart” set will provide a lot of depth to the current “boxes and squares” stories.
Delete