Is there a micromanagers anonymous?

[rohina]

I think personality emerges when you torture them, or when things don't go so well. I have a sim with 10 outgoing points who is not currently allowed to meet anyone. He has taken to drink. I've never had an alcoholic sim before. That's personality.

[Meska]

Hello my name is Meska and I am a micromanger.

Seriously. *laughs* My toddlers are constantly in front of a learning toy. My children get off the bus do their homework and then skill until bedtime with time taken somewhere along the line for parents to encourage the personality traits I find them lacking. No lazy or sloppy sims allowed! Upon reaching teen they are always given the Knowledge aspiration and nine times out of ten it rolls up the 'max out 7 skills' LTW. Which means they are perma-plat within a few days of turning teen and can then concentrate on achieving all the college scholorships. College is essentially friend-making camp since the sims already have all their skills. Changing aspiration to Popularity halfway through often rolls up another LTW based on number of friends which is so easily accomplished. Graduating with honors and about 25 bestfriends and sometimes a love-interest is standard. Etc etc etc. Even using the expensiveNPC and no20khandouts and harderjobs hacks and ignoring the use of aspiration rewards except for smartmilk there isn't much challenge left. There's been some interesting suggestions though in this thread maybe you won't be the only one to "get help" with their "problem" *laughs*

[JadeEliott]

This style of play sounds incredibly boring. Seriously, what satisfaction does one get from it? *curious, not accusing*

[buddha pest]

This style of play sounds incredibly boring. Seriously, what satisfaction does one get from it? *curious, not accusing*

It's a compulsion of sorts. All the MATY efficiency hacks don't help matters.

I'm trying to get away from it myself.

I was never like this with TS1. Then again, back then sims had all the time in the world, an eternity, to accomplish whatever. Now they don't. And since I like the aging cycle and hate elixir, there's an element of panic. THERE'S NO TIME, MAN! But really, there's plenty. That's OCD and/or perfectionism for you.

[Sagana]

I really think the best way not to get caught in the "all my sims are the best" trap is to not do anything much unless they roll up wants for it (and if you don't have room to lock it and the want goes away, well the sim lost interest).

There was a thread on here awhile back with "rules you play by to make it harder" kinds of things and using those has added a lot to my gameplay.

Now I rarely click on toddlers - only fulfilling their wants if the parents have a desire to do so or for some gameplay reason it seems appropriate to me (this way some sims are not good parents). They guess at needs or do them autonomously, don't always get them potty trained or teach them to walk. I put down all kinds of toys (not just the skill ones) for families I see as "well-to-do" (or if the parents bring them home) and very few for poor families. The toddlers do whatever they want.

For kids, if they roll up a want for something - to earn a skill point or do homework or make a friend, they do it. And if they don't, they don't. Anything they do autonomously also counts as a want (dancing with their parents) and I might run with that as long as it seems like they want to. I let them bring home whatever friends they just do, or invite over anyone they want to and they play or don't as they please. If either a child or the parent has a want for them to go to private school, I'll send them. Otherwise I don't. If I think a parent cares, they'll make the kids do homework, but if the parent doesn't care and neither does the kid, they won't and if they get taken away 'oh well'. I grow the townie kids they know up with them.

When they hit teen, I'll either randomly roll for aspiration or choose it based on the things they liked doing as kids if it seems appropriate. I'm going to add some of that "good kid/black sheep" stuff too - that's a great idea :)

On dates, I only look at the wants for the date and fulfill those (was it Ste who said "afterall dating is about making sure your date has a good time? :) They only ask people out if they have the want, and they sometimes stand them up because they lost the desire meanwhile.

As all teens want to go to college :p (I hate this), I make them or the parents (if the parents care) pay for it and if they can't afford it, they don't go. If they don't have enough money for the next semester, they drop out too. They only do homework, go to class, term papers, etc. if they have wants for them. Oh and I use the influence mod thing so they don't constantly roll up wants to influence someone else to do their work (just sometimes).

Etc. etc. through their lives, they marry if *both* sims have the want, have kids if they both do, get jobs based on that (whether they're aspiration appropirate or not) etc.

All when I'm free-playing, of course. If I'm storytelling, they do what *I* want :) Otherwise though, I'm trying to divorce myself from the sim in question - not to think if they're a bad parent, I'm a bad parent or a bad god. I think that's how I got in trouble - I saw their accomplishments as mine. They're more like kids. I give them options, but they choose what they're going to do (and I don't care how the code decides what they choose :)

Works for me anyways.

[JadeEliott]

Sagana, that was an excellent post. Truly excellent.

[gethane]

Sagana, that was an excellent post. Truly excellent.

Agreed. Some excellent ideas/tips.

[Avalikia]

Thanks Sagana, that actually helps a lot!

[Sagana]

Thank you :)

It all comes from someone else originally, a bit here and there. I'm glad there was something in there useful to you :)

[ElfPuddle]

*playing devil's advocate*

Hi, I'm ElfPuddle. I'm a compulsive micromanager...AND I LIKE IT.

Maybe it makes up for a lack of control in my real life?

[Avalikia]

Hi, I'm ElfPuddle. I'm a compulsive micromanager...AND I LIKE IT.

Compulsive is one thing.  Obsessive compulsive is another, much less likable thing.

[ChibyMethos]

http://www.sims2community.com/showthread.php?t=13587&page=1

I've been doing the Asylum challange. I'm a micromanager too, but it was sadly halarious to watch 7 sims burn the kitchen down.

[starrling]

Mine all died within the second hour of play (real-time).  I think I spent more time setting it all up than actually watching them die.

[ChibyMethos]

  Mine waited 4 whole Sim days

[Orikes]

I micromanage to a certain degree, but I've been pulling back some. When I had some of my favorite sims graduate from college and get their LTW within a day, I got a bit depressed at being bored with them.

There are a couple of things I 'manage' my sims into doing:
 - No potty accidents. If they're low, I tell them to go if they haven't already.
 - No passing out and sleep in your own goddamn bed. If they're about to pass out, I make them go to their bed rather than nap or climb into someone else's bed (usually mom and dad's)
 - Family Dinners. I usually have one sim serve a meal and let the rest of the family come to it. I like the socialization it gives.

I originally had started planning out their mates and relationships until two of my early sims threw a wrench in my works. Aiden and Joey were best friends. Both knowledge Sims, they went to college together. First night of college, one of them flirted with the other and WHAM. They became the most romantic couple I've got. They didn't even have any lightning bolts before the flirt.

[Avalikia]

What, you mean you actually left their queue empty long enough for them to do that themselves?

[ElfPuddle]

I'm "backing off" micromanaging if each sim has less than six actions in queue.

[witch]

Ha ha, this is what happened on my asylum challenge.
http://laverwinklesims.com/index.php?topic=445.0

I play more like Sagana's description in this thread. I let toddlers and children do pretty much what they want and don't bother skilling if the sim doesn't have a want. I don't play the game to watch sims endlessly skilling, I play to watch what happens and to make up stories.

I don't try to keep sims in platinum. I get them jobs from the newspaper or through simpe at the lowest level. If I want them to stay as a dishwasher because of their story, then that's the way it is. If bad things happen, I let them.

I did originally play where every sim had a perfect life - how boring that became. My play has really changed over the last several months. Talking of boring, I've stopped even sending sims to Uni. I use the FFS debugger to give them six wants slots and a major - because I like playing with six wants slots - but the Uni EP is just a boring grind for me and that's not why I play the sims. It shouldn't be like work. My adults usually flat for a while and have a good time, if I'm enjoying the sim I'll maybe give them a week back with elixir before they settle down to adult life.

Testing 2Jeffs autonomous mod has been a bit of an exercise in getting my inner control freak to behave, learning to let the sims go, to see if anything happens.