Gameplay: How do YOU keep track of sim lifes?

[J. M. Pescado]

Since Awesomeland is based on the Peasantry, I parody or punish what the real source material does.

[witch]

I pretty much just play. I've started one or two records but never got round to updating them. I don't get much time to play anyway, so I'd rather not waste playtime by record-keeping. Too much like work. I have started to keep rough directional notes in the family bio bit, someone here suggested that. I also play either 3 or 4 days in rotation, so all sims age the same.

I'll marry someone's childhood sweetheart off to another, if the inkling takes me during game. Poor old Sophia Joque ended up looking so ageing-drama-showbiz-queen, she became a vampire. Marcel Joque couldn't take it and moved out. He was in love with Hannah Bell and I was going to move her in with Marcel. She refused to cheat however.  Poor Marcel.

[Gelina]

Access?

MICROSOFT Access?

You must be a masochist.

I am.  I'm forced to use it at work and it's on my computer, so it works.  I'm not advocating it, but it's better than Excel for what I need.

[Grugly]

I use Excel to map houses, as I use Excel at work. There's some strange urge for self-punishment that drives people to use Office and Office-related products.

[Zazazu]

MICROSOFT Access?

You must be a masochist.

Actually, I've been thinking about using Access. Better than some other preset database that will never track what I want how I want.

When my game was working properly, I would just choose a family that hadn't been played in a while, mouse over each one's head to make sure i remembered their named properly, and let them do their things.

I booboo'ed trying to keep with Italian-sounding names and made a Ramone Vitelli and a Roman Vitelli. They are cousins, but ended up in college at the same time. My inner commentary is full of  "Ramone...no. Ramon. No, no. ROMAN. Yeah. That guy." Didn't help that Ramone's girlfriend actually had more of an attraction to Roman, or that everyone involved (excepting Roman's brother Leonardo's girlfriend) has black hair and either is black or a dark mediterranean.

[kaitco]

MICROSOFT Access?

You must be a masochist.

I am about to start using Access because the Excel file I have is getting too cumbersome and I would like to add thumbnails of my sims eventually. As much as it pains me to say it, OOBase just does not cut it when compared to Access.

I used the neighborhood export tool from SimPe and then added and deleted the tables to suit my needs. I mostly use the file to play matchmaker with my sims and to make sure none of the sims are procreating with their second cousins. Even though the game does not keep track of that, I still find it kind of icky...

[ingeli]

I would have used Access if I didnt have got Sharepoint Server, which uses lots of stuff from Access. When you are used to a tool its always easier to not getting a different one. It's easy to import the csv-file from simpe to access/sharepoint.

[Sandilou]

I set my neighbourhood up so that the houses are laid out beside each other so that I can play them in rotation, always clicking the next house on the right and playing each house for just one sim day that might include one visit to a sub neighbourhood; playing one house usually lasts about 60mins real time for me and is about as much time as I can spare when I play.  There are currently 20 houses, and one Uni frat house in play in my custom neighbourhood.

Effectively, 1 sim year endures for the rotation of the 21 homes in the neighbourhood, starting with the Uni frat house, then house 1, then house 2 and so on, ending with house 20.  During playing a rotation, any significant events are photographed and entered in the family album, with the entry starting with the rotation (year) number.  I am currently playing the 71st rotation which is of course, the 71st year. 

I started this custom neighbourhood with just one house and expanded as the offspring and their friends graduated out of uni and set up home in the neighbourhood.  I use the lot synctimer to guide me.  I don't do any other notetaking, as I enjoy playing more than recording details. and time constraints don't permit me to do both.  I thought about using a program to log the family tree, but heck I rarely ever play beyond a 3rd generation.  By the time I get there, its time for a new EP and for me that usually equates to starting a new neighbourhood.

I do enjoy looking through the founding family's photo album to see how much or how little things have changed in the neighbourhood, who's still alive and who didn't make it.  It's also interesting to see how the family members have grown up and moved on;  I really like that aspect of TS2, which echoes much of what happens in real life.  Using the rotated year system helps to place events on a timeline, and makes the passage of time seem more real, especially as I tend to use the album to record facts rather than to tell a story.

I keep the recording simple to reduce paperwork and allow more gameplay, but I recognise that some players get just as much enjoyment recording the details as others do from playing the game.

[Zazazu]

Gelina, do you keep track of relationships in the Access database? I have a rough outline of how I want mine, but that's the only thing I'm stuck on the setup of. I'm only concerned with nuclear relations.

[Gelina]

Gelina, do you keep track of relationships in the Access database? I have a rough outline of how I want mine, but that's the only thing I'm stuck on the setup of. I'm only concerned with nuclear relations.

Some of them - basically I don't let people that are 2nd cousins kiss and I keep track of the future loves/arch nemisi for most of my sims.  I also keep a running list of make-outs and woohoos for romance sims usually.   I don't keep track of every relationship though.  I also track marriages/divorces.

[pieisnice]

I started a legacy that I never finished, and I just limited the number of children to 2, and the better looking one was the one that got to reproduce.  The other child just lived with its sibling until it died, watching from the sidelines while the more attractive raised a family and had grandkids and whatnot. 

I'm about to marry two sims from families with 5+ kids each.  I think I'm just going to kill off everyone except the newlyweds.  Tragic fire or something.  Much easier than rotating. 

[Zazazu]

The Oversoul currently endorses electrocution as the punishment method of choice. Playables with low mechanical points will feel the urge to repair broken machinery after misbehaving, while those more gifted may like to stargaze during a lightning storm. Non-playables who dare to touch the newspaper or attempt a trashcan kicking will be chased off-lot and shocked by one of the many sentrybots the founder, Natalee Vitelli, created. Repeated and aggregious offenders might find themselves suddenly in the middle of a corral and smited into oblivion. As always, those who have more children than the pre-ordained limit for their family will be punished in like measure. Also as always, Romance sims are encouraged to keep it in their pants, as cheating on one of the chosen few is a sure way to piss me the Oversoul off.

[Iridium]

I don't track most of the sims I play. I just remember what was going on. If I haven't played a family for a while, I might look at their house in neighborhood view, scratch my head a little, and enter the lot anyway. At that point, I usually remember whatever I needed to know. If there's something really important I don't want to risk forgetting, I can note it in the family bio and erase the note when it's no longer relevant.

For the handful of sims I feel like cloning, I take screenshots of their personality spread. I couldn't care less about interests.

I had one Poverty challenge family where the relationships got really tangled. Two half-brothers who were also first cousins at the same time was one of the easier relationships. Heh. So I made a family tree for them. There is one other family I've played for 14 generations. They have a simple family tree too. I used a drawing program; that's how undetailed the family trees are. :\

There's a custom neighborhood still in the planning stage. I've made notes of the names and attributes of the sims I'm going to use to start off that neighborhood Prosperity Challenge-style. Once I get that going, I don't know if I'm going to bother keeping notes on them or not. Probably not, but I won't rule the possibility out.

[Zaleth]

Since I have my lap top next to my big computer I use it to keep track via excel using varied spreed sheets that track everything about the individual sim and or its family. 

[Li'l Brudder]

Hmmm.  I think I will have to talk to jfade about reading sim character files.

[jolrei]

I use the lot sync timer in the MATY hood, just to plan rotations, but in other hoods I play until I'm bored with one house and then move on to the next.  I don't plan sim lives.  They do what they want, according to their wants and freewill (i.e. contrary to all her interests, Eevilcat likes to toss footballs), or what I whimsically decide they want (i.e. I decide that Jelenedra likes fish, and Reggikko wants to grow tomatoes).

The database/spreadsheet idea sounds too much like work, or keeping a journal.

[simsfreq]

I have various notepad files on my laptop, and a random number generator site open at all times.

The notepad files are:
* A "neighbourhood tracker" - every sim from toddler to adult is listed in order of what day (measured by the synctimer) they are due to grow up. This serves 2 purposes - it reminds me what day to age up CAS sims, lets me see how old they are (I have another file which tells me how many years old they are based on days left in age stage) which dictates what they are allowed to do (e.g. teens can't get jobs until they are 16.) and who they are allowed to bring home from school as kids/teens. (I use a TJ hack for this).

At the end of the tracker I have a list of every sim which has the plague, (useful for my apocalypse hood to prevent them from reinfecting each other and wiping out the entire hood AGAIN.) every sim who is gay or bi, and in my apocalypse hood where the criminal family rule, who is mean enough to be friends/breed with them.

* A file for my "special" lots. Currently since my main hood is in its infancy this is just my asylum lot. Sims get sent here when they hit red aspiration failure and see the shrink, and have to stay a minimum of 3 days, or until their aspiration goes green. The file lists mealtimes, and what kind of therapy each aspiration requires. I keep want panels closed on this lot so it's a little mini challenge to get them into green.

When the hood gets more built up I plan on having a prison, orphanage, old peoples' home and possibly a hospital, and a military career lot. These will have their own files indicating things like sentence length, timetable for orphanage (bedtimes, homework, etc).

* A file listing how days left until transition translates into actual age, and markers when specific things happen (e.g. when male sims with the correct genetics start to lose their hair, when the chance of multiples increases for pregnancy, when they have to go to college, when they are allowed to drive, etc.)

* A file which lists what interests and personality combinations I require for each career track. (Because a sim should have to pass an interview, too.) I use this more for my apocalypse hood as it makes it harder, but I might start using it in my other hood too.

* A rich text file with all the apocalypse rules on, colour coded by career track, so I can group them together in sections for easier reference, but they are easy to look up and delete when I unlock a restriction, too.

Some things I keep meaning to implement but am too lazy to:
* Genetics, noted in a sim's bio or perhaps a separate document/spreadsheet about whether they need to wear glasses, go bald at a certain age, go grey young or not at all, cock size, possibly even secondary aspiration etc. I would need expressed and recessive genes for each subject though and a long detailed list so I haven't bothered yet.

* Something to track storylines for each character, note little things about them etc. I don't fancy having a huge notepad file for all my sims so I will probably get the wiki thing someone else mentioned as it should make it easier to keep track. Quite often at the moment I will have a long period where I don't play and it's quite hard to get back into it because I've forgotten all the little characters I have developed - for this reason I like playing with sims of real people. I have most of my family and a couple of my friends in my main hood. I am too lazy though to remember to take photos and/or write detailed stories about all of my characters, though I'd like to for my own entertainment if nothing else.

I use a random number generator a lot - I'd quite like to implement a system where I roll for everything from career to whether they ought to marry this sim, but it seems too rigid. At the moment I mainly use it for decorating/building, because all my houses were starting to look the same and there is furniture etc which I never used to use but now have discovered actually have some fairly nice recolours.

[Zazazu]

The database/spreadsheet idea sounds too much like work, or keeping a journal.

Access and I are having fights now. I am not liking 2007, and apparently forgot half of database creation. But it's a fun challenge, and once I have this database set up I'll be able to use the format for future 'hoods.

[cathybb]

I thought I was the only OCD player.  Most of you have me looking so unorganized.

I just HAVE to make sure that everyone ages correctly.  I hate when a younger brother gets to elder stage before his older sister so I force myself to play several houses and sometimes it is a month before I get back around to a house again.  Notes are essential.   I can tell from SimPE when I didn't spend enough time on a family. 

All my townies are remade with sim surgery so I have no ugly people.  I work 'em like dogs to keep fit.  If only I did the same for me...   I really need to get on the treadmill more.  But it is so easy to avoid like I'm doing RIGHT NOW.

[AuKestrel]

The Oversoul currently endorses electrocution as the punishment method of choice. Playables with low mechanical points will feel the urge to repair broken machinery after misbehaving, while those more gifted may like to stargaze during a lightning storm. Non-playables who dare to touch the newspaper or attempt a trashcan kicking will be chased off-lot and shocked by one of the many sentrybots the founder, Natalee Vitelli, created. Repeated and aggregious offenders might find themselves suddenly in the middle of a corral and smited into oblivion. As always, those who have more children than the pre-ordained limit for their family will be punished in like measure. Also as always, Romance sims are encouraged to keep it in their pants, as cheating on one of the chosen few is a sure way to piss me the Oversoul off.

...I wish you were MY Oversoul.

[Gelina]

Access and I are having fights now. I am not liking 2007, and apparently forgot half of database creation. But it's a fun challenge, and once I have this database set up I'll be able to use the format for future 'hoods.

If you want, I could post an empty version of mine this weekend.  I'm in 2007 as well, so it should work.

[Zazazu]

Access and I are having fights now. I am not liking 2007, and apparently forgot half of database creation. But it's a fun challenge, and once I have this database set up I'll be able to use the format for future 'hoods.

If you want, I could post an empty version of mine this weekend.  I'm in 2007 as well, so it should work.

It's fine, I have it most of the way fixed. I had lost the ability to create new records from form view because of an issue with relationship setup, which was caused by duplicate Career Level entries (doi! EAxis had two careers with record store clerk levels and intern levels) preventing the field from being properly indexed. One of those random issues that's caused by something three steps back.  All I have to figure out is how to make the main form automatically populate the house # field when I choose the address.

[skandelouslala]

I used to keep track of it but no longer do.
If I start losing track of sims I just check their family trees.

In my one hood I have had some unintentional incest with cousins thanks to the game not recognizing them as such, losing track of sims, and TJ's casual romance.

[blackcat]

Access and I are having fights now. I am not liking 2007, and apparently forgot half of database creation. But it's a fun challenge, and once I have this database set up I'll be able to use the format for future 'hoods.

If you want, I could post an empty version of mine this weekend.  I'm in 2007 as well, so it should work.

I would certainly love that. I remember doing projects in school on access, but alas, now I have no idea how to start 

[notveryawesome]

I'm a bit of a control freak, so I like to document my sims' information, but I don't really track their every move - just milestones like uni, marriage, moving house, etc. I do keep a notepad in which I record the names, aspirations, zodiac signs, turn ons/offs, etc for each sim on a lot, plus notes on whether, or not, to send a sim-teen to uni (I don't lock the go-to-uni want, so only those who keep the want throughout the teen stage go to uni). On a separate page, I match couples based on what sort of dynamic I want their relationship to have (not always a pleasant one), what jobs they will have, and where various sims/families will live once they graduate from uni, save money, etc. I rotate by season, because it bugs me when one lot is in spring, but another is in winter. Other than that, I don't really keep track, and don't mind too much when 'accidents' happen (affairs, twins, etc).

Edited to remove unnecessary extra word.