Sim Strategy Discussion

[Zazazu]

Because I was hijacking someone else's thread again, 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.

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?  Show them, show them! //Jumping up and down.

[cenoura]

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.

[Liz]

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... 

[Zazazu]

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.

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."

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.

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.

[cenoura]

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.

[Kazzandra]

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! 

[Lion]

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.]

[mitchellcjs]

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.

[Kyna]

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.

[Zazazu]

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.

[CAFlanny]

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.

[J. M. Pescado]

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.

[CAFlanny]

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. 

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.

[gethane]

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.

[Zazazu]

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.

[kutto]

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.

[Kazzandra]

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.

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.

[Lion]

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.

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 ) 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.

[gethane]

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.

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?

[Lion]

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.

[Roux]

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.

[Zazazu]

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.

[cenoura]

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?

[Lion]

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.

[Zazazu]

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. 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.