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Title: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Zazazu on 2008 May 23, 18:46:36 Because I was hijacking someone else's thread again (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,11537.50.html), and because we haven't had a good playstyle bragging discussion in months, feel free to post what you're doing and why you are more awesome than I. We can then steal each others' ideas.
Quote from: Me I don't mind that the money comes from nowhere. It's going to be paid back, afterall. In my 'hood, everyone has access to a mainland bank for loans, but not for deposits. The bank won't provide that level of service for a function that doesn't gain them money. Not until a bank branch is built on the island, which could be never with my randomization scheme, do the riffraff get interest on their earnings. Only the mayor can have a savings account, and that is only used for community funds. Tax payments are too fluid to do an automatic payment for. Most of the households are around the $3k/season mark, but one is around $8k/season and a couple are around $5k/season. But if they remodel in the middle of a rotation, their taxes are going to change. My sims get a few breaks...land is free (kaching), so they can buy whatever size lot they want wherever they want and don't have to worry about the cost, though as things are filling up they are restricted by what's open. They don't have to pay property taxes until the end of the first full season they've lived in their home. Sims who moved in on the first day or second day of the season do really well from the beginning, while those who move in on the fifth day are going to get hit before they have too many promotions (if they do get multiple promotions, I roll for career level). My full-service massage parlor lot is a good example of keeping sims down and what they shouldn't be doing yet...it's a 2x2 lot where the house and biz takes up almost every available square (excepting a small walkway). Two stories, extravagantly decorated, and valued at a property value of a bit over 62k. Bonnie has the ticket massage & tickle biz going 24/7 at a rate of $20/hr and level 10. Shelbie is some low-level in the Adventure career and her husband Julius is a Senior Officer in the military. Four kids amongst the three of them are in private school, paying about $200-$300/day each. Property taxes are $6,200/season as the house is done being decorated. Mortgage is finally paid off, but they are bleeding money. Pretty soon, Bonnie's going to have to turn the whoring up and the kids are going to all have to get teen jobs. No one owns an off-lot biz yet. I kept wondering why no sims were rolling "Entrepreneur - Xtype" until I realized I hadn't added it to Random Stuff. Oops. I have a ready-to-own car lot and restaurant, but they are unplayed until someone buys the lot. Any lot that requires employees to function is dead in the water until owned. Commercial investment being what it is, they basically drained off the tax fund for no point whatsoever until someone deems to purchase them and half the lot cost goes back into the tax fund (half cost as an incentive to starting a business). That being said, I haven't decided what kind of tax they'll pay. Probably a flat fee-per-business each time they pay property taxes. Since the tax system has nothing to do with income, what level they are or how much they make wouldn't affect anything. Property taxes on lots with home businesses don't differ from lots without businesses. Yeah, they potentially have the opportunity to make a lot of money. I negate a bit of this by not allowing your basic retail biz on residential lots (farm stands are fine) and not taking the money incentives, ever. I check the lot value and just transfer 10% to the mayor. I do this right when the season gauge fills full, or at 6:00 am if it fills in the middle of the night (don't want to mess with sleep patterns). Since that's when I rotate, it works. Load house, play for days, season bar fills, pay taxes, switch houses. Houses are numbered in the description and I have a couple of maps to help since they were placed randomly. One map is of the empty terrain with a numbering guide and street names. The other is gridded, with numbered and color-coded occupied spaces. At least one person in every family knows the mayor. This is going to change when Penelope Bleu takes over...she was a marry-in who just happened to be a Senator already and would have the necessary skillpoints for mayordom right before the Mayor kicks it. So I'll have to transfer to household funds instead and have the mayor transfer it all in one hit into their savings account. No biggie. One more line on my spreadsheet...I already keep one for townie aging tracking. Every time it's time to start playing the mansion I roll the randomizer to see if a community lot will be built and of which type. Then, I build a lot within the account parameters and transfer/donate moneys out of the bank account. If I don't have enough to build a respectable lot, they get something crappy. Case-in-point: Atomic Arcade. I have no pics on me, but the thing is butt-ugly, tiny, and has almost nothing in it. After Six, the teen hangout, was built after I had skipped a round as far as building goes and is much nicer. Still kind of empty, but that's what later community improvement initiatives are for when land is too full to build anymore community lots and I'm occupied switching from single-family residences to duplexes and lowrises. Another thing: residents can't just start off-lot businesses whenever they want to. They can only take over pre-built lots. Right now, if someone wanted to own 5 level ten businesses, they'd be screwed. This amuses me. Thanks for sharing. I have extensive spreadsheets, and I thought I was anal. But color-coded maps? ;D Show them, show them! //Jumping up and down. (http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee18/ZazazuAbubu/TeardropMap.jpg) (http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee18/ZazazuAbubu/TeardropMap-1.jpg)Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: cenoura on 2008 May 24, 10:40:39 How did you start your neighbourhood? With one family? Do you use a randomness generator, like the one linked to in the Peasentry? How did you decide what optioins to put on it? What else do you roll for?
I want to do something like this myself over the summer vacation so that The Sims still holds interest for me - Even though I've just installed Free Time, I'm finding myself getting bored with the game rather quickly now. I've just installed clean templates (wow - loading times are great!) and have one family which started off with two adults. There's a few townies I've made, but I'm not sure what to do with the neighbourhood yet. I have little patience with the business side of OFB and so I'm not too sure I want to play my neighbourhood with owned businesses. So I'm interested in what other people are doing with their neighbourhoods and particularly how they manage the money sides of things. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Liz on 2008 May 24, 16:15:42 Unfortunately, I tend to favour the ADHD School of Sim Strategery. I'll start a new neighbourhood, custom up a new batch o' townies/downtownies, give Crypt o' Night yet another facelift (one of these days I'll remember to just save the damned lot somewhere before I zorch its 'hood), CAS up a sim to start the 'hood with, and leap right in there. Little to no thought put into it, really. Then I'll usually play that first sim pretty intensely until they're all LTWPlatted, marry 'em off, knock 'em up, look it's a toddler, and then wander back into CAS to make a new hamster to play with. Only *very rarely* does one of my 'hoods manage to see the birth of a 3rd generation before I go swanning off in search of something new and shiny.
I've tried the Apocalypse Challenge a couple of times but got bored with it. All the restrictions kept me on my toes and so forth, but it just got so tedious - especially once the rules about taking jobs changed and it was more a crapshoot than something I could really plan and implement. Whole thing felt more like an endurance challenge than an entertaining game, so I quit. Legacy challenges can keep me entertained for a generation or two, but I still lose the fight to keep my brain from wandering off. I actually just finished my first Asylum Challenge and am quite miffed to report that I had no aspiration failures, no deaths, not even a single damned kitchen fire. Sure, they tried to starve to death, but on the verge of starvation, then the buggers just magically figured out how to feed themselves. At least I had one particularly lulzworthy bitch (10 Body and, like, 2 nice) who spent her days in search of housemates to whomp. Literally, she would spring out of bed and head straight for her first target of the day... But I digress. I quite envy those of you who so meticulously craft and follow your neighbourhoods' lives. I've never even had a Servo in my game, as I can't be buggered to play a family long enough for anyone to badge up to that level. ::) I do love playing this game, but my poor sims wind up leading the most boring little lives... :'( Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Zazazu on 2008 May 24, 17:09:53 How did you start your neighbourhood? With one family? One sim, Mystery Bleu. She's long dead now. She started the farm lot and married one of her customers. He's the narrator on my blog.Quote Do you use a randomness generator, like the one linked to in the Peasentry? How did you decide what optioins to put on it? What else do you roll for? I use Random Stuff, in the Peasantry. Love that program. If I didn't use it, all my sims would end up being Family and Knowledge. I have two scripts. The one I use the most gives me three male names, three female names, aspiration type, 2nd aspiration Y/N, 2nd aspiration type, college (Y/N, dropout year, weighted towards Y), LTW granted (if not excluded by college) Y/N, Career (if they don't have a career LTW that's getting granted), Career Level, Family donation (although this hasn't been used yet...none of my families really have enough to throw money at their kids), To Build or Not to Build Y/N(for the mayor), Build what?. My other one is a townie creation script that I only use for things I have to do in CAS, like vacationers and dormies. Gender, Life Stage, Astrological Sign, Aspiration, Turn-ons/-offs, First Name Male, First Name Female, Last Name, # in family (for vacationers).I write the results in the sim description for my playables. A typical sim's notes look like "Family - Pleasure...Junior drop-out...No LTW...Journalism - 4 - Fact Checker." Quote There's a few townies I've made, but I'm not sure what to do with the neighbourhood yet. I generated the first batch of townies en masse with the mailbox. Lazy. Every townie aging run I generate some children. Up to now, it's been five kids per round, but with my playables exploding and it feeling a bit too early to have them intermarry, I did ten kids this round. I'm Deleted 2'ing my dead elder townies to keep my character files a little cleaner. Kids are done with the townie gun. Quote I have little patience with the business side of OFB and so I'm not too sure I want to play my neighbourhood with owned businesses. BRY makes things much easier. As it is, though, I much prefer home businesses to off-site. Terrence (the immortal with a deal with Death) does most of the crop raising on the farm lot. He also runs the stand on harvest day, though I generally have the other residents harvest the plants and pack them up with Paladin's packing station. They're kind of rolling in it as his son and daughter-in-law have top level jobs. "Kids" are about to kick it, though, and he'll be left raising his youngest grandson. In another house, Connor is working towards being a cult leader and his wife Caroline is running a salon with just herself doing the makeovers from 7 to noon. They are doing decently, but the house is still pretty empty. The slap & tickle biz is a ticket biz. Those are really easy. I just threw down a hot tub on the porch, a dart board, couple bathroom stalls, and put Bonnie's room off of it with her bed and a massage table. Rest of the lot is the residence for her sister, brother-in-law, twins, and sister's two kids. I don't do sales socials (except selling a massage periodically) and set the ticket rate at only $20. It was at level 10 about 15 days in. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: cenoura on 2008 May 27, 09:38:56 I was hoping more people would reply to this thread. I love reading about other peoples Simming strategies. Zazazu, the amount of variables in the game that you randomise must make your gaming a lot more interesting - I often have certian paths I unknowningly go down time and time again with my Sims. This is why I'm setting up my new neighbourhood.
I now have three families. The second and third family were given a random amount of cash to get started, and now pay back that money to the first family as a form of mortgage. They will be paying a lump sum at the end of each season for two seasons, thus paying back the whole amount plus an arbitrary 6% interest. The second family own a clothes store which will only be played by visiting families so they can change the awful clothes their children grew up into. The head of the third family is waiting to get into the architecture job track - these new families need somewhere to live! - and in the mean time is selling deco from a home business. The clothes store pays a tax, a percentage of the lot value, while the home business pays a tax related to the level of the business - currently set at 5 x the level, payable at the end of each season. I currently pay these by using the familyfunds cheat - but once I have the children move out and there are multiple households with the same name I'm not sure what I will do. The taxes and mortagages will be used by the first family to buy, build and maintain community lots that will make free destinations, such as a park and church. These will be built at the beginning of the third year. I may make a couple more families then too, perhaps a nunnery to go along with the church. I've really enjoyed playing in this style, and I hope it will continue to hold my interest. I was going to start out with just the one family, but got bored with them after one year (four seasons), which is why I've introduced two more families. I love the flexibility, a reason why I didn't get along too well with many challenges. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Kazzandra on 2008 May 27, 10:02:31 Well, the reason I say very little about how I personally play my game is that I use it as a character development tool for my novels. That's hardly a useful strategy to anyone but a handful of people! :)
Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Lion on 2008 May 27, 14:06:39 Quote I currently pay these by using the familyfunds cheat - but once I have the children move out and there are multiple households with the same name I'm not sure what I will do. I solve this by changing the moving-out child's (teen or adult) last name to familyname2 (and more numbers when you have branched even more) using Simblender (change first name, copy to last name, change first name back). Then they will all have unique family names. You have to do it before moving them out, then a unique family name will be established. [More discussion to come.] Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: mitchellcjs on 2008 May 27, 14:07:10 I've managed to complete the Apocalypse challenge, twice, but other than that I have no real "strategy". I keep trying to emulate some other strategies, but usually mess it up quickly. It's probably because getting the neighborhood set up is so time-consuming that I get bored before I get finished doing so. So, I'll end up with a half-finished setup, and play my sims anyway, confusing everything up.
Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Kyna on 2008 May 27, 14:14:48 Quote I currently pay these by using the familyfunds cheat - but once I have the children move out and there are multiple households with the same name I'm not sure what I will do. I solve this by changing the moving-out child's (teen or adult) last name to familyname2 (and more numbers when you have branched even more) using Simblender (change first name, copy to last name, change first name back). Then they will all have unique family names. You have to do it before moving them out, then a unique family name will be established. [More discussion to come.] I use SimPE to change the household name, usually at the end of my rotation while they're sitting in the SimBin after graduating from uni. Then I don't have to mess around with changing their first name, copying it to last, changing their first name back, and then repeating the process once they are in their new household. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Zazazu on 2008 May 27, 14:34:08 As of last night, I have 11 households going. Two sets of twins, back from college, were waiting in a holding lot until it was their turn to be added to the rotation. None of them could move back home for various reasons, and the twin girls had to get married pronto to fulfill their dad's LTW before he kicks it. My second generation is almost gone :'( . So they needed separate households. The twin boys made sense to live together...bi Romance sim and gay Family sim. The gay one is currently my cutest male sim, so it's sad he won't be making babies...may have to arrange for someone to be sterile and him to do some insemination or somesort.
Anyways, all households are named "Bleu". I'm going to go back into SimPE and rename the ones where the family's last name doesn't actually match anymore, but that's only 4 of 11. I don't familyfund, though. Monique's Computer is used for transfers and loans, and I give them back the bare land cost with kaching + donate overage. Just had my first couple be able to afford a home (extremely sparsely furnished) without a mortgage, so that's a big deal. When the mayor dies, his money will be distributed amongst his kids, but that's $30k+ split 7 ways. Not much. I haven't decided yet about Pierre & Frances's moneys...since that's the immortal Terrence's house and individual banking isn't yet available, it's hard to know what money is actually theirs to give out to their three kids. Probably nothing...since their twins are living together and the 'rents paid for their college, they aren't too broke. It amazes me how much more friendly 'hoods seem now with FreeTime. Walk-ins are near constant. I played all my families this weekend, and the mayor's house one day had three of the kids just come in to visit. Several times household kids would bring a cousin/2nd cousin home from school and the school friend's mom or dad would come walking along almost immediately and they'd stay until 8:00 or so. And, apparently everyone was sucking up to the mayor-in-waiting as there were at least 12 of the other playables who came over to visit during Spring. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: CAFlanny on 2008 May 27, 16:14:40 Quote I currently pay these by using the familyfunds cheat - but once I have the children move out and there are multiple households with the same name I'm not sure what I will do. You could use Pescado's money order. I keep one on every lot so they can receive them when I play other lots. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: J. M. Pescado on 2008 May 27, 16:55:45 You could use Pescado's money order. I keep one on every lot so they can receive them when I play other lots. This is no longer necessary for versions of game Uni and up. That was an artifact of preUni when it was necessary to have a receiving controller to process the token. Uni allowed direct frobnication, making this unnecessary.Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: CAFlanny on 2008 May 27, 19:16:54 Quote This is no longer necessary for versions of game Uni and up. That was an artifact of preUni when it was necessary to have a receiving controller to process the token. Uni allowed direct frobnication, making this unnecessary. Ah, good to know. ;D Back on topic: I've gotten a lot of inspiration from JadeElliot's Isle of Thyme, but I simplify things. Her system is very complicated! Right now, I'm setting up my neighborhood as I go. The sims who will own businesses borrow from the "banker" sim if they don't have enough money to buy it outright. Everyone will own businesses or work for someone else. I haven't really used the business side of OFB much, so this will be interesting. Sims pay taxes to the mayor at the end of every season, which will be 10% of their net worth. Some of my sims are renting since they don't have enough to buy a house. I'm using a combination of Monique's Tenant/Landlord mod and her automatic payment mod. I can't get the landlord mod to make the payments, so the APM fills in there. I plan on using the regular college, but adding requirements, such as badges that need to be earned before graduation, etc. My ultimate goal is to make my sims more unique and not get bored playing the same types over and over again. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: gethane on 2008 May 27, 19:40:45 I used to play ADHD with Legacy style playing. Eventually, I'd get tired, or they'd get bugged and bam, I'd start a new neighborhood.
Then 2 things happened. -I entered a contest 2 years ago where I downloaded a couple (yeah, on a lot even, *gasp) and I ended up playing them more than anyone. I adored their daughter, and then her son became my favoritist sim ever! - A few months after this I got tired of all my cc and (saving that neighborhood) I wiped my install so I could start fresh. I was going to build a house as I played the 10 baby challenge, with no cc in my game. My 10 baby challenge family grew on me. I eventually put them all through college, married them off, bred them, sent their offspring to uni, and their offspring are currently dropping babies like bunnies. LOL. Somewhere in the middle of this I decided that the Walkers (from the contest neighborhood) had to move to my 10 baby neighborhood, and against all advice, I carefully packaged, cleaned, packaged, cleaned, scrubbed memories, etc.. and did the dirty deed about 18 months ago. With no problems as of yet. I play prosperity=type style, going from house to house on 3-5 day rotations, keeping everyone on the same day of the week (though not the same seasons). I also use the Random Stuff exe to generate aspirations, turnons/offs, gender pref (though now acr should be doing that), whether they become grilled cheese, do they have facial hair or glasses, etc. I also have whether they will marry, and if so, cheat, though I just try to implement that in my head through story telling and if its not coming together, I don't force it. Teens I play until 1-8 days left as teens, then they go to uni. I do wish I understood the Lot Timer functions. I've installed it a couple of times but never really understood 1) how to get it setup correctly in each house and 2) how to use it to time my rounds, i.e. how to setup the events so I know to change houses. I use the Lot Description box on my neighborhood to keep notes about my sims, i.e. who's pregnant, when they'll deliver, who needs what job, who likes who, who's working on what skill, etc. It might be real life weeks or even months before I get back to them, so its important I keep these notes. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Zazazu on 2008 May 27, 20:45:50 TJ's Sim Blender lets you change aspiration at a click. This is good, because my Random Stuff does have the option for Grilled Cheese primary. Though so far I'm just getting a plethora of Grilled Cheese secondary sims (did you know they have a secret greeting of sorts?). I think I said this before, but I use Paladin's season-changer pottery thingy from SimWardrobe to set them to the right season. Important if I bork my notes. Plus, I was always screwing up and playing past switching time when going by the day of the week.
I use TJ's age duration hack. My adults get a bit longer to live (and this is how the mayor and his wife actually have grandchildren who are children and are just barely shy of being teens when they will pass). My teens get 7 days in the stage, or 4 + college (college is an equivalent of 3 days to me). Everyone will own businesses or work for someone else. I haven't really used the business side of OFB much, so this will be interesting. I've tried that before, in the first incarnation of Queen's Cove. It was fun for a bit, but then I got sick of running businesses every single time I was playing. I just needed a hiatus. Right now, I have five types of entrepreneurism mixed in as choices along with the normal EAxis careers, all with equal weight. I've gotten harvesting/fishing twice recently, and one sim is growing plants and fishing just for food (Entrepreneur - Harvesting/Fishing - No Sale) while the wife works with rat doodie in the Natural Science career track. The other (his nephew, actually) is a teen now, but rolled Entrepreneur - Harvesting/Fishing - Market. Since I already have a veggie market, I think he'll focus on fish. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: kutto on 2008 May 27, 20:53:35 I did/am doing the someone grows food for everyone thing. I find it pleasing. The most fun part is making sure everyone has enough food to last the winter. I've had a few close calls. :P
Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Kazzandra on 2008 May 27, 21:30:36 I did/am doing the someone grows food for everyone thing. I find it pleasing. The most fun part is making sure everyone has enough food to last the winter. I've had a few close calls. :P I use this strategy, too. Very fun and somehow fulfilling. I have a home business that provides food for all. Indeed, I have almost lost several to hunger at the end of winter. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Lion on 2008 May 28, 12:35:37 Quote Do you use a randomness generator, like the one linked to in the Peasentry? How did you decide what optioins to put on it? What else do you roll for? I roll random stuff for every age group. For newborns, I roll name, and how they will be cared (Being cared by everyone, by parent,by siblings, by nanny, or Left to complete autonomy). For children, I roll some goals for them (Study hard, Help family with chores, Try to make money, or Left to complete autonomy), also whether go to school and which school (private, public). I don't use Maxis schools, I run my own schools. Public school is free but offer little more than supervised schoolwork (Inge's school system), while prive school have skill objects/classes. I also roll School grade target (A+, etc.) and encouragement for them. For teens, I roll aspiration, secondary aspiration, Sexual orientation (or using ACR's "randomize me". Now I set everyone up and do not use "ask...do you like what you see" anymore), some goals for them too (with one more goal than children, Find sweetheart), whether to get teen job, whether go to school and which school, whether go to college and where (Community college or university). Community collges are in the main neighborhood with skilling and badging opportunities. If they go to univerisity, I roll which uni (Sim State, etc.), what Residence (dorm, greek house, or rent), what major, study method (Own work, Influence others to work,Never go to class, Study groups,Romance professors - multiple choices), and goal (Prepare for career - i.e., Learn skills/badges, Honor graduate, Quickest through, Party, Make money, Underworld - i.e., Secret society). At this point, I also roll Be vampire? Be werewolf? Be resurrected? Be abducted? with "no" being heavily weighted (20 vs. 1). Another thing I roll is "When to move out? - When graduate from college, When find a job, When in crush, When in love, When become an adult, When married, When have a child, Runaway teen, and never. Quote How did you start your neighbourhood? With one family? In this current hood, I have 8 CAS sims (plane crash survivors on a tropical island) to start. I do not allow/zap anyone other than the 8 sims. But I have vacation locals and tourist families (deleted-2 the fugly originals and filled with uni characters so it will feel like a spring break 8)) in preparation for the future when the island becomes a tourist destination. The goal I set for myself is to build a self-sufficient hood from NOTHING. Every consumption or purchase is actually provided by someone in the neighborhood, including food, housing and furnitures. I don't just go to build and buy catalog for my sims. They have to buy OFB crafts that are made by other sims before they can exchange those crafts to simoleans and then use those simoleans to build or buy. The digging is used to collect raw materials. When treasure chests are found, their values are only used as currency. Money itself can't buy you food or house, unless someone has grown some or build the house for you. Another set-up I have is a medieval prince (and wife) with three peasant couples following them to the wilderness to start from nothing. I have set it all up, but haven't played. It's complicated and I have to keep constant track of money and transactions in spreadsheets. But it feels more real for me. I also use Sims2 Database. Although it is not updated with every EP, it has fields that you can just enter texts to make it customized. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: gethane on 2008 May 28, 13:58:17 I did/am doing the someone grows food for everyone thing. I find it pleasing. The most fun part is making sure everyone has enough food to last the winter. I've had a few close calls. :P I use this strategy, too. Very fun and somehow fulfilling. I have a home business that provides food for all. Indeed, I have almost lost several to hunger at the end of winter. I've seen people discuss this before but I'm not sure exactly how this works. How do you get everyone in the neighborhood to buy your food at your business? Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Lion on 2008 May 28, 14:39:33 Quote I've seen people discuss this before but I'm not sure exactly how this works. How do you get everyone in the neighborhood to buy your food at your business? Just the usual OFB setup. You start a home business or community business, start to sell vegies/fruits/fish, either one by one, or by crates using Paladin's (www.Simwardrobe.com) packing stations. Make sure only playables come to buy (using Pescado's customer selector, or twojeff's visitor controller). When I play a house, and the family is out of food, I would call/teleport the grocery owner to come, make selectable, take crates of vegie out of the inventory, then send over money using money order or familyfund cheat. I add $100 (or 15%, whichever one larger) over the selling price because it is home delivery. In addition to those, I also have wholesaler-retailer system, where a farmer grows vegies, and a grocery business owner has a small home business selling the vegies. The prices are auto set, which is about 4% no matter how high the supplier discount is. What's up with that? >:(. But it is ok now that I have real suppliers. The retailer pays the farmer for the prices at the actual supplier discount level. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Roux on 2008 May 28, 15:04:21 I do wish I understood the Lot Timer functions. I've installed it a couple of times but never really understood 1) how to get it setup correctly in each house and 2) how to use it to time my rounds, i.e. how to setup the events so I know to change houses. 1 is very easily answered. Put Lot Timer on lot. Click timer and select 'Install for Family'. :) It will start at Day 0 and add 1 at 6PM every day. You can add to or subtract days from the total. Adding is useful if you're putting a brand-new CAS family in who don't need to start at Day 0 and catch up. There's also a feature ('Display'?) that will give you a pie menu showing all the other lots and what day they are on, with Event Days in parentheses. 2 is more variable and will depend on your play style and how much or little you want your families to be synchronized. Once you set an event on one lot, say for Day 23, if you leave that lot and play another lot, a little reminder will popup at 5PM on Day 22 saying, "Event Day 23 scheduled at Jones lot," or words to that effect. That way you know it's time to get back to the Event lot so memories/aging will be synchronized. There's also the 'Skip to Day X' feature. If you've got a family that you don't feel like playing (retirement home for elders, perhaps), shift-click while in debug mode and indicate to which day you want to fast-forward. Personally, I set Event Days whenever there will be an event that triggers a memory in family members living in different lots. Births, birthdays (child thru elder), weddings, deaths, Uni semesters/graduation are the main ones I target for synchronization. For example, I can see when a toddler is aging to child, and set that as an Event. If there aren't Events going on at other related lots, I can play everything as I wish until that Event arrives. At that point, I would need to go back to the lot for the aging-to-child birthday. Then the next Event on the lot would be +8 for the aging-to-teen birthday. In this way, I don't have to stick to a straight X days per household rotation, unless they have relatives in Uni and Events are going on at the home lot (I send teens to Uni with 8 days until adulthood and play 1 semester = 1 day. Stupid Dean's list memory spam.). I don't install the timer on Uni lots, but keep track of their 'Day' in the family notes, adding 1 every time they finish a semester. I also keep track of the each lot's 'Day' in the family notes, as well as details on upcoming Events. As a neighborhood gets larger and more interrelated, though, it gets to the point where there's pretty much an Event almost every day in at least one household somewhere. That's when I have to refer back to the family tree, and it gets annoying. Still, better than trying to keep track of everything manually. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Zazazu on 2008 May 28, 15:23:50 When I play a house, and the family is out of food, I would call/teleport the grocery owner to come, make selectable, take crates of vegie out of the inventory, then send over money using money order or familyfund cheat. I add $100 (or 15%, whichever one larger) over the selling price because it is home delivery. If you're just trying to supply the playables, it's really better to set up the grocers as a community lot. That way, other residents can be directed to visit and pick up their groceries when needed. Less shuffling around with the owner. My farm lot only caters to townies/tourists, but may switch over soon and branch out if I ever get some commercial space open. It's kind of sad that the only sims who get sparklies are the ones who married a townie with produce in their inventories or the two who have gardens.Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: cenoura on 2008 May 28, 15:32:30 Do community lot farms work? I'm thinking of a kind of allotment that your playable Sims can visit to harvest some food. I suppose there's problems with the community lot resetting each time you visit. It could be an owned business I guess, depending on whether customers can "pick your own". Has anybody tried doing this?
Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Lion on 2008 May 28, 16:10:50 Quote If you're just trying to supply the playables, it's really better to set up the grocers as a community lot. That way, other residents can be directed to visit and pick up their groceries when needed. Yeah, I know. I did it before. But for two reasons, I have reservation. One is the loading back and forth. Another is, unless you wait for the owner/employee to restock (which actually takes the produce from the owner's inventory), the produce you wiped off the shelves get reset the next time the owner or other playables visit the community lot, which can also be the problem with jemjie's "community lot farms", unless endlessly pickable vegie IS the idea. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Zazazu on 2008 May 28, 17:05:59 Do community lot farms work? I'm thinking of a kind of allotment that your playable Sims can visit to harvest some food. I suppose there's problems with the community lot resetting each time you visit. It could be an owned business I guess, depending on whether customers can "pick your own". Has anybody tried doing this? I have community gardens (not in Teardrop Isle, but I used it in Prospect Beach and there's one at Tou Laine Tech). You have to purchase the community lot to plant. You may be able to raise them up by hand there, but I suspect you'd have to stay there the whole time...I'm not sure. Haven't tried it that way. I had a sim plant the plots, then activated boolprop, SHIFT-clicked, and chose "Make Harvestable" on all of them. Instant perfect produce. Then have the owner leave and sell the lot back to the community. Theoretically, you don't have to sell it back to the community for it to be visitable by other residents. I just did because generally those $s above lots annoy me. I know I shared one of my community gardens here ages and ages ago. Link to post. (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,9796.msg267118.html#msg267118) Requires Seasons on back. Doesn't require BV or FT or any SP. The hacked garden plot is a lifesaver, but make sure to place from Buy/Misc-Misc and not from Build/Plants/Gardening. BV broke it from the Build section. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Avalikia on 2008 June 04, 04:15:00 Would it weird you out if I randomly asked you to pretty please let me see a copy of your RandomStuff.txt Zazazu? I keep bumping into posts where you mention bits of it and it sounds much better thought out and detailed than anything I've been able to come up with. I'm sure that if I could see what you have I'd finally be able to make one for myself that I actually like. And I could use a break from the perfect utopias I keep creating. (Even my stone age neighborhood has been boring lately.)
Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Zazazu on 2008 June 04, 05:31:04 Nope. I just got done editing it, actually. Changed the career/career level to one query and to list the text description of the job. I'll be assed if I can remember what level 6 Slacker is off the top of my head.
Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: cenoura on 2008 June 04, 14:00:21 Wow, just had a ganders at your file Zazazu, and look at all of those names! Was that some copy+pasta I saw there from several different sites? Did you vet them before you put them into play?
Also, thanks for the tips about the community gardens. I figured it would work something like that, however I wasn't aware of the cheat to get the food ready to harvest, and didn't want to go through five/six straight days of growing only to find that they didn't "stick". The idea there was that my Sims would have a community garden that they'd only visit in the Summer and Autumn to harvest their food. Some of the ideas in this thread are great. I just wish now that someone would start the "universities in a normal hood" thread, I'm very interested in that too but have no idea how to go about doing it. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Zazazu on 2008 June 04, 15:29:36 Names are US Census data, stolen from other's lists in the Random Stuff thread, taken from baby name sites, etc. I may have a few duplicates in there, but I figure that if they are duplicated that means they are more standard names you'd see more often anyways. None of my current sims have the same name yet. I have Rose and her daughter Rosalie, but that's as close as it gets. There are a couple of townies with the same name (I have three Amy ...), and I have a townie named Tucker and a playable child named Tucker. With 37 living playables (2 more currently incubating) and about seventy townies/NPCs, that's not too bad.
I'm fenced regarding community gardens in this 'hood. They did get a fishing hole (literally, lot's on a big slope and there are stairs running down from street level to the pond and bridge; it's about a story and a half down) so everyone can snag their own fish. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: pixiejuice on 2008 June 04, 17:40:10 You guys all have some great ideas! I use Random Stuff too, and a deck of cards when needed. I play to my Sims wants and fears and personalities as closely as I can, and try not to have my own ideas about what I want them to end up doing.
My ‘hood is huge. I have 79 playables and a chart where they're all listed by age. This is how I keep everybody in sync, and I can mark by their names things like who has bad credit, who's currently pregnant, who owes what money, or whatever. I play everybody 2 days at a time, and I use Inge's agecons, modified so that one day represents one year. By the time I get through, it really does feel like it's been two years in the hood. Nobody gets any free money. They take out loans with Inge's shrubs for their homes and businesses. Kids pay a ton of money if they want to go to college. They can take out student loans if they can't afford it. My sims have to pay back their loans at 10% of the loan every play-session, which is 2 sim-days. I'm very strict about this, and if they can't make their payment, after three strikes, I declare them bankrupt for 10 sim-days. This hardly ever happens though. It's so hard to keep these sims poor, without going the all OFB route, which I don't have the patience for. I only allow skill building if they have a want for it, so that keeps about half of them in pretty low-level jobs. The only thing I have to add that hasn't been mentioned is that I like to play with random disastrous events in my random file. Some of them are kind of morbid, but realistic. Things like people dying, losing jobs, being forced to move out of the neighborhood, midlife crisis where they change their aspiration - and some good things too, like inspired to take up a new hobby. I think someone shared a similar random events file once. It's really the thing that's kept my game the most interesting for as long as I've been playing. And the rule is I have to follow through, no matter what. Even if it's one of my favorites. And a lot of these things also help me keep the population manageable, because after all, not everybody lives to die at old age, and not everybody lives their whole life in the same town they were born in, you know? Even so, my population is just about as big as it can be while still being manageable. Then there are rules like, any time someone is in a bad mood, they MUST argue with the person closest to them, be it parent, spouse, sibling. It really should be built into the game that you fight with your spouse when you're in a bad mood. I mean, hello, that's what spouses do! No exiting without saving rule. Whatever happens happens, even if I don't like it at the time. It almost always makes the game more interesting. Any time someone gets depressed, they MUST roll the random file, and they have a 1 in 20 chance of offing themselves. Morbid, I know, but it happens, doesn't it? They have 10 in 20 chance of doing something, anything, to make themselves happy, regardless of the consequences. And 9 in 20 chance of just moping around. They have to roll again for every day they're depressed. So, basically, I like to keep the game surprising me. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Roux on 2008 June 04, 18:23:04 darcee, what is your process for rolling random events? I have pondered incorporating this somehow, but could never decide whether to roll per neighborhood, per household, or per sim. Not to mention how often the roll occurs. Every day seemed too much, once a week seemed too little.
Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: pixiejuice on 2008 June 04, 18:44:40 darcee, what is your process for rolling random events? I have pondered incorporating this somehow, but could never decide whether to roll per neighborhood, per household, or per sim. Not to mention how often the roll occurs. Every day seemed too much, once a week seemed too little. I roll four events at the start of every round (who the event happens to is random as well). But remember I have a huge population, so four events per about 80 sims/ 25-30 households. That takes me usually a little more than a month to get through. So I guess that works out to about one event per real-life week. I don't think my Sims could handle much more devastation than that :) Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Avalikia on 2008 June 04, 21:29:53 Mashes the "thank you" button for Zazazu.
Nearly 50 (at the time I'm posting) people have deemed that file worthy of at least a look-see. Doesn't that make you feel special? I quite like the "Build what?" list in particular. I'm going to have to add some random carnage like darcee though. If the random neighborhood I'm considering doesn't end up somewhat like the Ghetto challenge in most lots then I'm not doing my job right. And now for some questions: I noticed you have every level of every career listed, and I assume that the idea is that they stop at that career level. How do you keep them from getting promoted past that level? (Especially in those lowest jobs where no skills and no friends are required?) What do you do if they're fated to have their LTW fulfilled but their career conflicts with that? What if their LTW is to get 5 level 10 businesses? What is "Family donation"? Exactly what is a newstand in a world where everyone gets a paper everyday for free? Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Zazazu on 2008 June 05, 00:59:18 LTW supersedes the career roll. So if their LTW is to be Captain Hero and I roll for that to be fulfilled, I don't really worry about the career roll. How it has been working out, though, is that the majority of my sims who get their LTW don't have a career LTW.
As for keeping them at the level, I can usually do so by denying them a skill point needed. Charisma and mechanical points are especially easy to prevent. Now, I do always make a choice for chance cards so they might still luck out. I keep marry-ins who are in a career path in the career they are in (unless I roll to fulfill LTW and it's a career one) and don't try to get them any promotions. However, Julius Lowe was a Senior Officer on marry-in. He had enough skill points to be promoted to Commander. Then he got two promotions to General through chance cards. Lucky bastard. My sims don't study for skill points without a reason to. Toddlers might pick up a few on their toys, or they might spend all their time beating the stuffing out of the teddy bear and stalking their parents. Kids might get a couple logic points from the chess set if they decide to play it, but most of my sim kids are outside playing catch all the time. Teens might study if they want college and their parents can't pay for it...Renwarr is still $20k/student or $5k/year, and Tou Laine is $10k/student or $2.5k/year with a restricted number of available majors and only the one dorm. Other than that, they only get skill points if they need them for promotion to their ordained level. What if their LTW is to get 5 level 10 businesses? If they roll to fulfill that one, that's their job. No career. I have them meditate at home to make up for the time they spent at the biz...so let's say they have a bakery open from 10am to 6pm. They leave right before 10am, come back technically at 10am again, but I shove them out of sight meditating until 6pm. So there really isn't any way for them to do the 5 biz want and hold down a normal job.Quote What is "Family donation"? Relic from an old 'hood. Theoretically, if a family has enough money saved back, I would roll to see how much money they will give their kids to start out on their own. If the amount rolled is more than what they have, they give all their money to their kids. I haven't really been using that one yet, as I only have one household that could do it financially. Maybe two.Quote Exactly what is a newstand in a world where everyone gets a paper everyday for free? It's been a bit since I had a newstand, but when I did, it was a tiny little 1x1 lot with an open-air look selling magazines. I'd probably add Numenor & MaryLou's postcard racks from MTS2. I think I saw that someone had unlocked the FT magazines to be buyable now as well. Those would work well. Darcee, that's a good idea regarding random events. I have a separate text file for those, but I hadn't found a good way to incorporate them. [/quote] Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Roux on 2008 June 05, 14:38:49 darcee, what is your process for rolling random events? I have pondered incorporating this somehow, but could never decide whether to roll per neighborhood, per household, or per sim. Not to mention how often the roll occurs. Every day seemed too much, once a week seemed too little. I roll four events at the start of every round (who the event happens to is random as well). But remember I have a huge population, so four events per about 80 sims/ 25-30 households. That takes me usually a little more than a month to get through. So I guess that works out to about one event per real-life week. I don't think my Sims could handle much more devastation than that :) Thanks - that's really helpful. I think my hood is even larger than yours (100+ playables), and I just had two families give birth to triplets because I didn't realize TwoJeffs changed the method for adjusting Trip/Quad random odds. :P What I am thinking about right now is to have different random event lists for each life stage (each would have a combo of positive and negative events), and then an age-sorted list of playables. Then have the randomizer roll events for each life stage, such as 1 child, 1 teen, 1 YA, 2 adult, and 1 elder. As sims age up, their names get shuffled to the next life stage in the text file and then removed when they die. I don't have your strict method of playing 2-day rounds, so I maybe I'll just roll it once/season. Time to play! Oh that's right, I'm at work... Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: pixiejuice on 2008 June 05, 17:32:44 What I am thinking about right now is to have different random event lists for each life stage (each would have a combo of positive and negative events), and then an age-sorted list of playables. Then have the randomizer roll events for each life stage, such as 1 child, 1 teen, 1 YA, 2 adult, and 1 elder. As sims age up, their names get shuffled to the next life stage in the text file and then removed when they die. I don't have your strict method of playing 2-day rounds, so I maybe I'll just roll it once/season. That's a great idea! I don't think I have many events that apply to the younger life stages. I'll have to think of some more. If you have any in mind, I'd love to hear them. I never thought about putting their names in the random file. I just roll a random number between 1 and 80, and since I already have a list of them in order by age, I just count. And then if the Sim chosen doesn't make sense for the event, I reroll. Hmmm, both ways seem equally complicated :) Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Avalikia on 2008 June 06, 06:43:25 If you have any in mind, I'd love to hear them. Hmm, off the top of my head: Skip school and/or homework Get very-own pet Shiny new useless toy Death Victim of sibling rivalry (especially if damage to toys is involved) Social Worker: 'nuff said Grounded: No TV, no friends, etc. 1 day running on freewill Party for no reason A trip to a kid-friendly community lot (i.e. the park) Death of beloved pet Personally I plan to add random events to my list once my neighborhood gets big enough, but they'll be events affecting an entire household instead of an individual. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Lion on 2008 June 06, 12:35:01 Quote Kids pay a ton of money if they want to go to college. They can take out student loans if they can't afford it. How much is your college tuition? I set $200/day for private gradeschool, $300 for private high school, $500/day for community college, and $7500 total for a university. Quote Then there are rules like, any time someone is in a bad mood, they MUST argue with the person closest to them, be it parent, spouse, sibling. It really should be built into the game that you fight with your spouse when you're in a bad mood. I mean, hello, that's what spouses do! Actually in my game lately, I was surprised to see sims in very low asp. would provoke (poke, slap, fight) another sim, even BFF and 100/100 relationship. It might be thefightclub. I wonder what it would be like with moarfight in. I also have Squinge's fight anyone anytime. It is good for FT. I haven't really needed to use it yet, but it's nice to have it in. You can provoke in all 4 ways any time you want. Quote I have them meditate at home to make up for the time they spent at the biz...so let's say they have a bakery open from 10am to 6pm. They leave right before 10am, come back technically at 10am again, but I shove them out of sight meditating until 6pm. Zazazu, you can use Crammyboy's community time project. They came back from a community lot the time they actually went home. It's working well for FT. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: pixiejuice on 2008 June 06, 12:52:12 Hmm, off the top of my head: Skip school and/or homework Get very-own pet Shiny new useless toy Death Victim of sibling rivalry (especially if damage to toys is involved) Social Worker: 'nuff said Grounded: No TV, no friends, etc. 1 day running on freewill Party for no reason A trip to a kid-friendly community lot (i.e. the park) Death of beloved pet Good ideas! I'll be stealing a couple of those :) How much is your college tuition? I set $200/day for private gradeschool, $300 for private high school, $500/day for community college, and $7500 total for a university. About the same as yours. They pay $1000 a semester, for a total of $8000 if they complete their degree. They also pay rent in the student housing which ranges from $200-$1000 a semester depending on which dorm they want to live in. I don't have any kind of community college set up, but my uni is in my downtown, so anyone can go there to study. Quote Actually in my game lately, I was surprised to see sims in very low asp. would provoke (poke, slap, fight) another sim, even BFF and 100/100 relationship. It might be thefightclub. I wonder what it would be like with moarfight in. I also have Squinge's fight anyone anytime. It is good for FT. I haven't really needed to use it yet, but it's nice to have it in. You can provoke in all 4 ways any time you want. I have Squinge's fight anytime too. Love that one! I would love to see some fighting between sims in 100/100 relationships. There's just too many happy families going on in my hood. After all these years, I still have yet to have a teenager run away from home because I've never been able to get the relationships down that low without just completely arranging it myself. Ha, there's a new random event for us - teenager runs away from home! :) Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Roux on 2008 June 06, 14:16:41 Hmm, off the top of my head: Skip school and/or homework Get very-own pet Shiny new useless toy Death Victim of sibling rivalry (especially if damage to toys is involved) Social Worker: 'nuff said Grounded: No TV, no friends, etc. 1 day running on freewill Party for no reason A trip to a kid-friendly community lot (i.e. the park) Death of beloved pet Good ideas! I'll be stealing a couple of those :) Ditto. Except, I can't stomach the random death of a child. I am a stupid F. Some other ideas: Make new friend Turn on a friend and make him/her an enemy (Yesterday we were BFFs, today we are enemies. AKA, I hate you now!) Fight with a family member Satisfy 3 fears in 24 sim hours (even/especially if they are all 'death of family member' fears) I'll be working on this over the weekend. It may end up being more complicated than I was hoping, but I'll just have to see how it goes. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Lion on 2008 June 06, 15:21:10 Quote Ha, there's a new random event for us - teenager runs away from home! I roll a "when to move out" for teens at their transition, including "Runaway teen". Others are When graduates from college, When finds a job, When in crush, When in love, When becomes an adult, When gets married, When has a child, Runaway teen, When starts a business, When becomes a managers, and Never. I haven't had a runaway teen yet. I'm thinking either slide down the relationships with family memeber (not preferring), or move the teen into one of the "On the street" lots where only other runaway teens, hobos, bullies, criminals, etc., can visit. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Zazazu on 2008 June 06, 15:54:27 Quote Kids pay a ton of money if they want to go to college. They can take out student loans if they can't afford it. How much is your college tuition? I set $200/day for private gradeschool, $300 for private high school, $500/day for community college, and $7500 total for a university.
Quote Quote I have them meditate at home to make up for the time they spent at the biz...so let's say they have a bakery open from 10am to 6pm. They leave right before 10am, come back technically at 10am again, but I shove them out of sight meditating until 6pm. Zazazu, you can use Crammyboy's community time project. They came back from a community lot the time they actually went home. It's working well for FT. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: pixiejuice on 2008 June 06, 17:47:56 In the spirit of sharing, I thought I'd throw my random file out there too, since you all are sharing such great ideas. I've already added in a couple I stole from this thread, and there are probably a couple more I stole a long time ago from wherever... so have fun! :)
Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: J. M. Pescado on 2008 June 06, 18:01:54 Heh, my only university is STFU.
Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Zaleth on 2008 June 14, 14:08:56 I haven't run a business away from the sims home yet, only did Home Business which work well if you build the business and stock it before you call and make it a home business. That way you are not losing money from the start. I had to also make sure my home was the way I want it because after you make a home a business as well everything you purchase is an expense from the business and will make your profit go down.
I moved all the people out of pleasentville and moved them to the one that came with seasons and moved some of the people in strangetown to the one that came with Freetime. I play only those two hoods now, I set each one up with all three colleges, and BV spots along with Downtown and Bluewater. Then I took the time out to redo all the hoods the way I wanted. Rich section with big expensive houses a shopping area low income ect. It looks like a real town now and also renamed all houses for the streets they are on. I did this with college, basic hood, Downtown and Blue water so no matter where they go it looks more real like. I even made a custom cemetery and moved all the goths and the other graves from Downtown to it. So when my sims die I send them there. If sims want to see a ghost at night I go there or if they want to mourn their loved ones. I saved all the commuinty stuff I did so I could pop it in each hood as needed without having to redo it time and time again. The sims live in the hood or Bluewater and Downtown depending on the sim and where I think they would like to live. Goth Family is working on 4th generation, the longest family so far is 6th generation. I do sent most kids to college even make some flunk out ;D because not everyone is good at everything! The biggest challenge for me is running a house with 8 people ususally two adults and the rest kids without using Max motives. Mind you I do not use Motherlode and only use kaching for each family to have 2k to purchase clothing only on start up because people have more than one outfit!. I also play the challenges from TSR though I have not finsished many of them of late. I do agree that some of them are not worth the time. I use Monique's computer for my sims to be able to "get a loan" when they need money rather than use the cheats. This way they have to pay it back and that can get out of hand if they borrow to much. I also use the bank for making sure those that can afford it give thier children a "college fund" and use it to sent them to Private school where it actually takes money out of the funds for them to go. I also use it for emailing of friends. So each house hold has one of Monique's and the rest are normal from the game so I do not lose the Freetime functions. Also if your sims have amassed way to much money you can use it to give it away to charity as well. I really like the funcition to purchase things online so I don't have to keep leaving the lot just to get a dress or a pair of pants! Of course if you have maxed out your sewing to gold badge you can sew clothing so that does tend to help as well, but that is a long process! A last thought about this item, if you run a business it helps if you use it to study stocking, cash registar, and sales before you open up the business. I will have to try a business away from home and do the life time "own 5 top business" next to see if I can actually pull it off! One question how do you set your college costs to a higher amount? And do the other things you talk about Darcee? While I am not new to the game, I am new to editing and creating things for it. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: blackvelvet on 2008 June 14, 16:02:52 So each house hold has one of Monique's and the rest are normal from the game so I do not lose the Freetime functions. MQ's computer has been updated for FT by modders here.Chaavik (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,11537.0.html) and Alex (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,11590.0.html) Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: pixiejuice on 2008 June 14, 17:25:27 One question how do you set your college costs to a higher amount? And do the other things you talk about Darcee? While I am not new to the game, I am new to editing and creating things for it. As far as I know, no one has made a mod to charge for college costs (though that would be a really cool mod!). So I use Monique's computer, and you can either donate the money (it just vanishes into space), or my uni has a President who owns all of the campus lots, and through Monique's computer, they can pay their tuition to her so that she can go around building up the campus. What other things did you want to know about? There are a ton of different mods and cheats I use for my random events, none of which I made myself ;) Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Zaleth on 2008 June 14, 23:13:13 I will download the updated computer tonight! and thanks for what you do for the cost of college I can do that as well! great idea.
Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Avalikia on 2008 June 15, 04:10:52 There are a ton of different mods and cheats I use for my random events, none of which I made myself ;) I'd be absolutely interested in a list when it comes to that.Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: pixiejuice on 2008 July 09, 18:59:50 Well, as this thread isn't TOO old yet, I thought I'd add that I'm trying something new with my hood. Real-time seasons in each round - each household will be played representing a particular month of the year, so that I can see the seasons progress twice through the year in each round (two-year rounds). Since my 'hood is so huge, I feel like I've been stuck in the same season forever and I can't wait to get out of fall! :)
I don't know if anyone's tried something like this before, but if you want to give it a try in your own neighborhood, I've written up a more detailed post about it in my blog: http://lakesideheights.blogspot.com/2008/07/real-seasons-in-each-round-and-of.html I also just drew four new random events for the new round I'm playing. I'd be absolutely interested in a list when it comes to that. Eeek! That would take forever! :) But I'll tell you about the ones I drew for my most recent round. - a teenager runs away from home -- I actually have never tried this one before. I think the relationships just need to be back and then it happens automatically, right? So I have a fight anytime mod (or something like that) by Squinge (?) which would do the trick. - a forced chance card pass! -- testing cheats, the chance card tester thing. - a deadline to write an article -- Monique's computer has an option to write articles for money. - DUI! pay a $1000 fine and cannot drive for 10 years! -- I'll use familyfunds for the fine, and as far as not being able to drive, that will just be up to me to enforce. I'll make a little note by her name on my chart so I remember. Feel free to ask about any particular events you'd like to know about. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Zazazu on 2008 July 09, 19:23:23 There's always JadeEliott's ROS. It has been posted recently in the Peasantry. I'm working on converting it to RandomStuff-readiness. It references a lot of hacks that are no longer supported, and most of the event descriptions are so long they get cut off.
Would have gotten it done last night, but I got distracted by Nanny FIGHT!!! Three + hours of nanny-pummeling fun! Real-time seasons is cool. I think it's probably a lot more feasible if you have a 1-day or 2-day rotation, like yours. Mine is at 5ish days, and for me I need that visual reminder of the Season progress to time everything. Too much is scheduled by the season points. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: J. M. Pescado on 2008 July 10, 02:00:28 The only thing I have to add that hasn't been mentioned is that I like to play with random disastrous events in my random file. Some of them are kind of morbid, but realistic. Things like people dying, losing jobs, being forced to move out of the neighborhood, midlife crisis where they change their aspiration - and some good things too, like inspired to take up a new hobby. Well, what exactly would HAPPEN when a sim "moves out"? Moving out merely means you sit in the family bin until you play that sim, or you drop the sim into another subhood, or whatever. You can't DELETE them because that fucks up your game and continuity.So, basically, I like to keep the game surprising me. I just use the actual people as my entropy generator. MOAR FIGHT!Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Lum on 2008 July 10, 02:46:46 I've been reading up on the randomness thing, and I would really like to know if there's something similar that works in-game. In fact, I would be satisfied with some sort of hack that adds randomness without me noticing. Sort of like, me, minding my own business when suddenly WHAM! A sim dies of a heart attack or a fire or a similar grisly fate. Heck, I'd settle with the work chance cards happening more often.
Can anyone suggest to me some sort of in-game random generator, or at least any existing mod that includes randomness. Like, ACR has that whole pregnancy dice going on that's kinda cool. Maybe some mod that makes vampires show up more often? Because I have to actively look for my vampires, which kinda defeats the point. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: pixiejuice on 2008 July 10, 02:59:47 Well, what exactly would HAPPEN when a sim "moves out"? Moving out merely means you sit in the family bin until you play that sim, or you drop the sim into another subhood, or whatever. You can't DELETE them because that fucks up your game and continuity. The last couple I had draw the "move away" event, I sent them to Twikkii Island to become locals there. That's kind of neat because they're "away," but the woman has a sister that I still play and she can invite her to visit if she wants. I have their ages marked on my chart so I know when it's time to let them die of old age. Otherwise, another subhood works too, and Inge has those prison token things so they aren't caught wandering around community lots. The sim bin would work just the same, but it irritates me to have Sims sitting in my Sim bin. :D Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Zazazu on 2008 July 10, 05:21:02 The sim bin would work just the same, but it irritates me to have Sims sitting in my Sim bin. :D Me too. My sims who are back from college or moved out and waiting to be put into the end of the rotation go to a holding lot. It's called 'Holding Lot'. Obvious title is obvious. It's a tiny 1x1 that's actually covered by trees right up against the hill, but it does its job. Then I don't have to give them cell phones and everyone can stay in contact with them.Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Roux on 2008 July 10, 16:34:16 I've been reading up on the randomness thing, and I would really like to know if there's something similar that works in-game. In fact, I would be satisfied with some sort of hack that adds randomness without me noticing. Sort of like, me, minding my own business when suddenly WHAM! A sim dies of a heart attack or a fire or a similar grisly fate. Heck, I'd settle with the work chance cards happening more often. Can anyone suggest to me some sort of in-game random generator, or at least any existing mod that includes randomness. Like, ACR has that whole pregnancy dice going on that's kinda cool. Maybe some mod that makes vampires show up more often? Because I have to actively look for my vampires, which kinda defeats the point. Well, there was the experimental 'realistic sickness' mod that was posted for testing in Peasantry some time ago. Caused a lot of deaths, from what I read. ACR can cause a lot of random cheating, too, especially when playable sims appear on community lots while you're playing other sims... Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: VacantBlue on 2008 July 10, 19:57:29 darcee, what is your process for rolling random events? I have pondered incorporating this somehow, but could never decide whether to roll per neighborhood, per household, or per sim. Not to mention how often the roll occurs. Every day seemed too much, once a week seemed too little. I roll four events at the start of every round (who the event happens to is random as well). But remember I have a huge population, so four events per about 80 sims/ 25-30 households. That takes me usually a little more than a month to get through. So I guess that works out to about one event per real-life week. I don't think my Sims could handle much more devastation than that :) Thanks - that's really helpful. I think my hood is even larger than yours (100+ playables), and I just had two families give birth to triplets because I didn't realize TwoJeffs changed the method for adjusting Trip/Quad random odds. :P What I am thinking about right now is to have different random event lists for each life stage (each would have a combo of positive and negative events), and then an age-sorted list of playables. Then have the randomizer roll events for each life stage, such as 1 child, 1 teen, 1 YA, 2 adult, and 1 elder. As sims age up, their names get shuffled to the next life stage in the text file and then removed when they die. I don't have your strict method of playing 2-day rounds, so I maybe I'll just roll it once/season. Time to play! Oh that's right, I'm at work... I do something very similar except I only have negative events. I figure that I sufficiently keep my Sims happy; so, they really don't need any random positive events excluding the game given ones already. My negative events are pretty life-altering and include death, adulterous spouse, loss of a job, death of a child and death of a close family member. I use each type of death as a separate event for the chosen Sim, but death of a child and death of a family member are each only considered 1 event (I determine which child/family member and how they die randomly afterwards). So, it is likely that the chosen Sim will die somehow. For YA, I add fail a semester of school to the events. After the random event, I go a step further and roll a dice to see if the Sim will triumph over their negative event or go into a depression. If they triumph, I may change their aspiration (re-evaluate their life goals based on the event), give them a genie lamp or fulfill their wants for a Sim week as best I can regardless of my plan. If they slip into a depression, I fulfill their fears as best I can regardless of my plan for a Sim week. While depressed, they will also provoke other Sims to fight. If the random event was an adulterous spouse, I roll the dice to determine if they will divorce or not. I use almost the same frequency of events as you except for elders. Half of my elders are randomly chosen for accidental death simply because in reality the accidental death rate for elders is quite high compared to the other age groups (typically 3-10 times higher). If I have a small YA group, I may exclude the death to that Sim options. I always group my Sims based on when they were born into a generation (well, kind of a generation for lack of a better word). Each generation ages together. So, after aging each group appropriately, I determine the random events and they must be fulfilled before the generation ages. Title: Re: Sim Strategy Discussion Post by: Ryslin on 2008 July 13, 20:49:29 Lately , and mostly due to this thread, I have been using two random files. (plop a copy of randomstuff in a seperate folder give it a new txt file good to go)
First deals with names, aspirations, college, ltw, job if not decided by the former entries. Then I added in lifestyle. Currently it is supernatural with plant, werewolf, vamp (no zombies..just no) then gay(otherwise they are allowed to decide for themselves but this makes sure I have a few same gender couples), traditional (marriage and wife doesn't work) , religious (no work for anyone , farm, try for baby is set to always, marriage isn't mandatory generally depends on the preference of the sim. I am going for multiple types of religions under one heading.)then Modern which is standard simming. After this comes a yes/no for the random life event file. I roll the random event at teen (along with everything else). Killing kids is annoying, easier to do it at teen onward. Some things are timed. If they roll a mid life crisis that takes effect when the age bar during adult is halfway. So they go along having this normal life , but they have a waiting time bomb in their "fate". Some of them are instant. (house destroyed, murder) I decided to play this on that megahood (all the maxis hoods together). Currently The travellers are vampires, Don is a religious nut married to Nina. The Dreamers are a gay family. I haven't had so much fun with this game in ages. |