Game Play Questions, How do YOU play?

[pixiejuice]

Screen captures of my dice roll sheets:
Teens- http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y19/Ravenwaift/?action=view&current=TeenRolls.jpg
YAs- http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y19/Ravenwaift/?action=view&current=CollegeRolls.jpg
Adults- http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y19/Ravenwaift/?action=view&current=AdultRolls.jpg

*I may have stolen more ideas than I remember, but this is the one I'm sure I took from someone else

Those are really interesting. 

I do the same thing for niceness as a turn-on, and I have a bunch of teeth/freckles/scars/beauty spots as face masks to use.  I was always so disappointed that they didn't put niceness and other personality features as turn-ons and turn-offs.  Especially since being attracted to niceness or playfulness makes so much more sense than being attracted to glasses or full-face makeup???  I use hats for a turn-on for playfulness.

[Sarahsuke]

I'm a control freak with my Sims, though I've made efforts to cut the apron strings. I roll for aspirations, turn-ons/turn-offs, and sexual orientation. Mates are decided on a combination of chemistry and shared interests, fugliness be damned. (After all, a pair of Sims may be hot for each other, but if they can't hold a conversation without big red minuses popping up and fingers going in ears, forget it.)

[maxon]

I have a huge Excel file for all of my dice rolls. College attendance is affected by family worth, and sexuality is affected by gender. I researched dropout rates and sexuality and fudged the numbers for my purposes, but most stuff was made up off the top of the head. The only thing I didn't make* was the list of the different types of businesses for the adult page.

Screen captures of my dice roll sheets:
Teens- http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y19/Ravenwaift/?action=view&current=TeenRolls.jpg
YAs- http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y19/Ravenwaift/?action=view&current=CollegeRolls.jpg
Adults- http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y19/Ravenwaift/?action=view&current=AdultRolls.jpg

Ah, that's what I like: a sim player with OCD.  Me too, me too.

[J. M. Pescado]

I'm a control freak with my Sims, though I've made efforts to cut the apron strings.

I am such a control freak that I have controls for controlling the controls.

I roll for aspirations, turn-ons/turn-offs, and sexual orientation.

I don't purely roll for these because the results would be totally random and out of character. Instead, I have a set of deterministic criteria I use. The final outcome is thus nonrandom, controlled by me, and yet not controlled by me.

[Sarahsuke]

I roll for aspirations, turn-ons/turn-offs, and sexual orientation.

I don't purely roll for these because the results would be totally random and out of character. Instead, I have a set of deterministic criteria I use. The final outcome is thus nonrandom, controlled by me, and yet not controlled by me.

What criteria would those be, if you don't mind me asking? I'm curious.

[pixiejuice]

I don't purely roll for these because the results would be totally random and out of character. Instead, I have a set of deterministic criteria I use. The final outcome is thus nonrandom, controlled by me, and yet not controlled by me.

Same here.  My criteria: family sims have to be at least a little bit nice; popularity sims have to be outgoing and playful; fortune sims are serious, outgoing, and not lazy; pleasure sims have to be playful and not too nice; romance have to be mid-range nice/mean, outgoing, and not too serious; knowledge sims have to be serious, neat, and not too outgoing.  Secondary aspirations are entirely character based too, and are chosen according to personality, how they were raised, and what kind of wants they roll.  Most of my sims don't choose a secondary aspiration until college or adulthood.

[DrNerd]

I don't purely roll for these because the results would be totally random and out of character. Instead, I have a set of deterministic criteria I use. The final outcome is thus nonrandom, controlled by me, and yet not controlled by me.

Same here.  My criteria: family sims have to be at least a little bit nice; popularity sims have to be outgoing and playful; fortune sims are serious, outgoing, and not lazy; pleasure sims have to be playful and not too nice; romance have to be mid-range nice/mean, outgoing, and not too serious; knowledge sims have to be serious, neat, and not too outgoing.  Secondary aspirations are entirely character based too, and are chosen according to personality, how they were raised, and what kind of wants they roll.  Most of my sims don't choose a secondary aspiration until college or adulthood.

For me, that would get boring fairly early on, having all the Sims from the same Aspiration having the same general personality.  I never rolled for Aspiration before I started my Legacy, and since I've had to roll, combinations have come up that are unexpected but that totally work.

One of my favorite Sims ever is my Gen 2 Uglacy heir: a Family Sim with one nice point.  Try it some time; it shouldn't work, but it totally can.

All of my Knowledge Sims have been outgoing, because most of my Sims are.  I don't see shyness as being an advantage to a Knowledge Sim.

The only thing I change at this point, is Pleasure Sims who aren't Playful.  I've had 6 Pleasure rolls, 5 of whom had or have 3 playful points.  The sixth had 10 playful points, and he was a happy little goofball.  The most recent serious Pleasure Sim was made a Grilled Cheese Sim because I refuse to deal with anymore serious Pleasure Sims.  Even wfsanity can't help them.

[J. M. Pescado]

Same here.  My criteria: family sims have to be at least a little bit nice; popularity sims have to be outgoing and playful; fortune sims are serious, outgoing, and not lazy; pleasure sims have to be playful and not too nice; romance have to be mid-range nice/mean, outgoing, and not too serious; knowledge sims have to be serious, neat, and not too outgoing.  Secondary aspirations are entirely character based too, and are chosen according to personality, how they were raised, and what kind of wants they roll.  Most of my sims don't choose a secondary aspiration until college or adulthood.

For me, that would get boring fairly early on, having all the Sims from the same Aspiration having the same general personality.  I never rolled for Aspiration before I started my Legacy, and since I've had to roll, combinations have come up that are unexpected but that totally work.

See, this is precisely why I DON'T use a singular criteria like that. I have a whole bunch of OTHER criteria I use, which are NOT directly correlated to personality: Interests, family background, number of family and friends, relations, all these are tallied up to create a final result.

One of my favorite Sims ever is my Gen 2 Uglacy heir: a Family Sim with one nice point.  Try it some time; it shouldn't work, but it totally can.

All of my Knowledge Sims have been outgoing, because most of my Sims are.  I don't see shyness as being an advantage to a Knowledge Sim.

Well, outgoingness works against Knowledge because outgoing sims have high social decay, and most knowledge-based pursuits are primarily solitary in nature. Outgoing knowledge sims thus tend to wind up a bit crackers.

The only thing I change at this point, is Pleasure Sims who aren't Playful.  I've had 6 Pleasure rolls, 5 of whom had or have 3 playful points.  The sixth had 10 playful points, and he was a happy little goofball.  The most recent serious Pleasure Sim was made a Grilled Cheese Sim because I refuse to deal with anymore serious Pleasure Sims.  Even wfsanity can't help them.

Pleasure sims that aren't playful is practically a contradiction in my criteria. The aspiration is basically entire silly and not at ALL suitable for Serious Cats.

[HeyYeah]

I also base aspirations on interests, friends, family, and stuff like that. A sim spends his entire toddlerhood glued to the logic building toy? He'll be a knowledge sim, unless he's really outgoing, then he'll be fortune. Youngest in a family of seven kids who hate each other? Probably not going to be a family sim.
I also determine what jobs they'll have (and what LTW I'll force them to have, messing with aspirations, interest levels and personality points until I roll it, then fixing everything) according to past experiences and what jobs family members have had. Burglar broke in while the kid was playing with his toddler toys? He'll grow up to be Captain Hero. Both parents are visionaries and they own an art gallery? The kid is probably going to want to do something different with his life..

[Zazazu]

For me, that would get boring fairly early on, having all the Sims from the same Aspiration having the same general personality.  I never rolled for Aspiration before I started my Legacy, and since I've had to roll, combinations have come up that are unexpected but that totally work.

Popularity teens with one or no nice points. They want desperately to make friends but are incredibly socially inept.

[DrNerd]

Well, outgoingness works against Knowledge because outgoing sims have high social decay, and most knowledge-based pursuits are primarily solitary in nature. Outgoing knowledge sims thus tend to wind up a bit crackers.

I haven't found that at all, and I've had six Sims in the last 5 generations who have 7-10 Outgoing and rolled Knowledge, and they've been perfectly happy.  They easily max Charisma as toddlers; they'll sit at the rabbit head until they're ready to drop.  Across the board, they autonomously max Logic on the chessboard, and family meals tend to be enough to keep their Social high enough that they're willing to skill non-social skills.  Of course, my Sims are also overwhelmingly Serious, which helps.  I have a reasonably Playful Knowledge Sim at college right now, and he Maxed 7 Skills mainly by draining Dormies and Mascots for the Level 9-10 skills, because his Fun tanked so quickly.

Popularity teens with one or no nice points. They want desperately to make friends but are incredibly socially inept.

I haven't had any mean Pop Sims (only 3 Pop Sims total, and they've all had 6 or more Nice points), but I HAVE had 2 Romance Sims with 1 and 2 nice points, and they were fun.  "Flirt with me!" *rejection* *flamey thought balloon* *angryface* *noogie*  "Kiss?"

[BastDawn]

For me, that would get boring fairly early on, having all the Sims from the same Aspiration having the same general personality.  I never rolled for Aspiration before I started my Legacy, and since I've had to roll, combinations have come up that are unexpected but that totally work.

Popularity teens with one or no nice points. They want desperately to make friends but are incredibly socially inept.

I have a strange affection for that combination.  It doesn't matter as much as it should, though, because it's so easy to make friends in the game.

Popularity teens with one or no nice points. They want desperately to make friends but are incredibly socially inept.

I haven't had any mean Pop Sims (only 3 Pop Sims total, and they've all had 6 or more Nice points), but I HAVE had 2 Romance Sims with 1 and 2 nice points, and they were fun.  "Flirt with me!" *rejection* *flamey thought balloon* *angryface* *noogie*  "Kiss?"

Heh, my favorite romance sim is the same way.  I love her angry ways.   

[Zaleth]

I do not worry about whether they are compatible but rather on what they are like when they around each other, I tend to pair the most unlikely couple just to see if it will work.  I do have 2 families in the 5th gen.

I do find that while in college if you do not actively try and fail in things for a short period it can get boring unless I use the extra time to get into a frat/fraternity.  However, in college I have made a person to be "owner" and use Paladins check book to give that person the tuition and make it higher than they get in scholarships so they have to work or their parents send them money to make the payment. ( I believe it was Darcee that gave me this idea in a past post.  Each university has been renamed and has an "owner".)  I also use Monique's computer undated to FT (by Charvaik) for giving some children money for college when thier parents have it.  But this only works as children when they turn to teens the option is not available. 

I also made one of my sims as a teen fall in love with Marsha Mellow (TSR Challenge) and get her knocked up as a teen so while he is in college he has to make a "child support" Payment each semester until hes out and they get married for they are engaged. I have put them on hold till APT comes out so Marsha can be in an apt while waiting on him to get back.  He has twins with her one girl and one boy.  He is also in college in the same dorm as his twin sister.  So this pair has next to no money between tuition and child support to spend on anything extra.

I do watch my sims to see what their personalities are like so I can use insim or paladin's items to fix their wants/life time/aspirations and hobby to match.  I use Inteen so the teens have to actually spend time as a teen before they can go to college and for knocking some up which happens.  That way some dreams of college may not happen.  I have even left the child with the teens parents while she was in school then resumed her duty as mom when she got back.  It was almost heartbreaking to watch them not want to leave grandma/pa

I come up with all kinds of things like this to make their lives more interesting.

[Zazazu]

I also made one of my sims as a teen fall in love with Marsha Mellow (TSR Challenge) and get her knocked up as a teen so while he is in college he has to make a "child support" Payment each semester until hes out and they get married for they are engaged.

[Lum]

Wow, most of the people here seem to love being very hands-on with their sims...

I'm so shallow. In my neighborhood, only the pretties get to breed with other pretties. When it comes to Uni, I generally pool all the sim teens of a generation in a dorm and more or less see what happens. Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised when three bolters that met five seconds ago retreat to a bedroom and whoo-hoo, other times I change a sim's personality so that it fits with the spouse I have chosen for them in my infinite wisdom. Sims who annoy me ---dormies most of the time, but sometimes playables too--- have a close encounter with a cow plant. Uni is very useful for me, as it allows me a time to cull the sheep.

Maybe the only special feature is that all my sims are related to each other somehow. I've had aunts marry their nephews because they were of the same age and their families got unlinked back in the beginning of the game 3 years ago. Then there's all the infidelity and bastard children of several sims to mix up the family tree. My favorite sims are a pair of twins conceived during a one-night stand with a townie. I ended up moving the townie in, then I had her picking up a newspaper to start a new life as a full-fledge playable elsewhere, since the male sim was already married.

Another favorite is the elder knowledge sim that lost his whole family in his old age. According to the plot in my head, that's when he went crazy, made himself a plantsim and had a spore child. Spore child turned himself into a human teenager with strange voodoo powers he picked up through the special doll, and he's currently wooing the daughter of one of the twins from before.

Currently, some households are in a fourth, and others in a fifth generation. I try to keep both gens in sych, but I don't worry about it too much.

[HeyYeah]

The second generation of my hood is just starting to turn to teens, and I'm having the problem of none of them being particularly attracted to each other  . With generation 1 (and most other hoods I've played) they choose their mates with very little direction, so this is new for me. On the bright side, maybe a lack of bolts will mean that they'll be able to keep their hands off each other and won't end up with so many children. I've got a bit of a population problem (Two families are regular clown cars and only one family has less than two children), so I'm going to have to do a Trial By Fire to determine who makes it out of Uni alive because I'm not playing all those lots.

Popularity teens with one or no nice points. They want desperately to make friends but are incredibly socially inept.

I haven't had any mean Pop Sims (only 3 Pop Sims total, and they've all had 6 or more Nice points), but I HAVE had 2 Romance Sims with 1 and 2 nice points, and they were fun.  "Flirt with me!" *rejection* *flamey thought balloon* *angryface* *noogie*  "Kiss?"

My hood's one romance sim that bothered to show up on any community lots never did anything half amusing. He and my selfsim met and proceeded to roll wants involving each other nonstop.

[J. M. Pescado]

Popularity teens with one or no nice points. They want desperately to make friends but are incredibly socially inept.

I have popularity sims without nice points. They're not socially inept, they're just completely ASSHOLES. They're the best. It's actually the nice-10 sims that are socially inept. The mean ones aren't inept, when they choose to piss someone off, they did it deliberately. I mean, who's more inept, the person who chooses "Insult" and gets a negative reaction, or the ones that keep chosing "Hug" and getting the same negative reaction? At least you know the mean ones did it on purpose!

Also, mean sims are awesome. I mean, how do you beat this picture?

[Zazazu]

See, I always picture it as "I want to be friends with you! Yay! I shall noogie you, that would be fun!"




"Huh? How come you didn't like that? I liked it."

[DrNerd]

The mean ones aren't inept, when they choose to piss someone off, they did it deliberately. I mean, who's more inept, the person who chooses "Insult" and gets a negative reaction, or the ones that keep chosing "Hug" and getting the same negative reaction? At least you know the mean ones did it on purpose!

Mean Sims who are Outgoing frequently get negative reactions with hugs...

This is approximately three seconds after hitting "play" on my Asylum.  They each have one nice point, but the blonde also has ten Outgoing.  The brunette... eh, not so much.  They did eventually become friends, which is somehow more disturbing.

See, I always picture it as "I want to be friends with you! Yay! I shall noogie you, that would be fun!"
"Huh? How come you didn't like that? I liked it."

I once had a Mean Sim who liked to use Argue as a Flirt.  He could never figure out why his moderately Nice girlfriend always double-minused it.  I've noticed that for two Mean Sims, if they're friends, Argue is actually a positive interaction on both sides.

[sloppyhousewife]

I once had a Mean Sim who liked to use Argue as a Flirt.  He could never figure out why his moderately Nice girlfriend always double-minused it.  I've noticed that for two Mean Sims, if they're friends, Argue is actually a positive interaction on both sides.

Mine do that, too, it seems to be the mean sims' equivalent to a mating ritual. I once had two of them meet on a community lot, and they fell for each other immediately. It went argue - swoon - annoy - hit on - poke - friendly hug(!) - shove - heartfart all the time. When they parted, they had a relationship of -100/-84 but still swooned over each other. Quite heartwarming, these 3-bolt enmities .

ETA to add my current game play:

As everyone's wants panel is clogged with 500 asp. hobby shit now regardless of their aspiration, I play my current hood "TS1 style" which basically means there are no wants (I keep the panels hidden all the time). Of course for that, I can only use sims where I just don't care if they are miserable (or enjoy it), so there's only EAxis made ex-townies in the hood. It turned out pretty entertainining, e.g. when I let Marisa Bendett sell a picture so she could earn some money (I had an altruistic moment) and she lost it because of a "sell crappy picture" fear. Too bad she's dead now - she had a "smite" accident because her non-stop "panhandling for simoleans" annoyed me. I miss her aspiration failures now.

[HomeschooledByTards]

Normally my sims are all the same, nice, clean, active. They normally look similar and all have only positive relationships with each other, blah blah blah. It's no wonder I get tired of a family before the 2nd generation is fully grown.

After wasting my entire work day reading Awesomeland yesterday, I decided to play with a mean sim or two. Fighting and enemies are so much more fun than everyone getting along. In real life I don't like everyone I know, so why should my sims?

As for deciding who marries which sim, if it's a created sim it's normally the first person they think is hot that they can build a positive relationship with. For their children, it's usually just someone random. If they bring someone home from school, that's usually who they grow up to marry. Sometimes I use the crystal ball, set it to desperate and pick whoever I think is the most attractive sim.

[jolrei]

I have 2 hoods that I play reasonably regularly.  My personal hood was founded by my self-sim and a bunch of self-generated townies.  Personalities are whatever the game generated and I do not change them.  Sometimes I get a parent to encouragificate a child, if the child has a particularly annoying tendency, but usually I just leave it alone.  Sims have better things to do.

In my MATY hood, sims get whatever the person said their selfsim was supposed to be like.  If unspecified, I try to make them slightly different from the majority (most MATY folk claim to be knowledge sims - I personally am a great fan of knowledge, but figure I will learn things anyway and so aspire to other things).

I choose mates/woohoo partners for sims in a number of ways.  Some sims "scope" for a date, while others get whoevever is ready to hand, walking by, etc.  Some sims get to date, while others ease into a relationship through casual interaction, ACR, or something else.  Sims do not marry in my hood unless they are really in love, and roll a want for it.  I also hook up MATY sims if a MATY person has lobbied me for a particular relationship and it sounds lulzy to me (Invisigoth).  My two hard rules are 1) that Emma will not woohoo/marry/date Pescado, and 2) There is no Goopy!

For friendships, I generally follow what happens in the first few "chat" interactions.  If a sim gets consistent red minuses, I may move straight into a macro-socialize-unfriendly routine.  If they seem to have everything in common, I will macro them to friendship (if a friend is wanted or needed).  The way this works out, by way of example, is that the one spouse may like Frankenbeasley a lot (Assmitten), while the other spouse may consistently fight with him (Kutto).  Makes for interesting social gatherings.

As to the rest, I play on rotation.  If I have not tried gardening or want to build a greenhouse, the next house on the rotation usually gets this.  If I want a Vampire, I will pick a likely sim and work on that.  I have recently loaded PETZ and now want a werewolf - the family in this rotation can haz one.  This way, my sims all have different activities and develop individual traits which keeps things interesting.

[Zazazu]

I have 2 hoods that I play reasonably regularly.  My personal hood was founded by my self-sim and a bunch of self-generated townies.  Personalities are whatever the game generated and I do not change them.  Sometimes I get a parent to encouragificate a child, if the child has a particularly annoying tendency, but usually I just leave it alone.  Sims have better things to do.

I choose astrological sign with RandomStuff. I don't care about tweaking. Playables in Silent Crossing also had skill points randomized by TJ's college adjuster. No encouraging is done. They are what they are.

I choose mates/woohoo partners for sims in a number of ways.  Some sims "scope" for a date, while others get whoevever is ready to hand, walking by, etc.  Some sims get to date, while others ease into a relationship through casual interaction, ACR, or something else.

I don't have that many townies in any particular age group (just upped to 10 kids in the last townie aging round; before it was 5) so the same teens always show up at the teen club, and the same YA's at college, etc. By adulthood only the most shy playables haven't met every eligible townie. So it's easy to know who they have the most chemistry with. Then I decide who marries without wants, etc, by the rules I talked about before. (This is all TI...Silent Crossing is a whole other animal, and romantic actions with townies are not allowed and gross. I have to figure something out with their turn-ons to make sure there isn't accidental fraternization).

For friendships, I generally follow what happens in the first few "chat" interactions.  If a sim gets consistent red minuses, I may move straight into a macro-socialize-unfriendly routine.

I don't do anything with friendships, unless a sim rolls a want to befriend Sim X. Most everyone ends up being friends if left to their own devices, with a few exceptions. I've had the odd sibling who didn't get along with anyone else, or a marry-in who wanted to kick the ass of every townie she met. Actually, I've had that twice.

[buddha pest]

Not that anyone cares, but I have just started a new neighborhood with one founding family whose members will breed with the entire standard Pleasantview townie cast, and no one else, for a few generations until I run out of them or become bored.

I mostly did this because I haven't played Pleasantview in awhile, and I miss those quasi-celeb townies. Mark me down as unashamed. "Sandy Bruty's gaping maw!"

I do not plan to add any further CAS families to this hood.

p.s. Notable NPC's are also going to be allowed to be breeding material. So big-mawed-maid Lucy and Erica Japalapalawhatsits are in too.

[Count Four]

I have 2 hoods that I play reasonably regularly.  My personal hood was founded by my self-sim and a bunch of self-generated townies.  Personalities are whatever the game generated and I do not change them.  Sometimes I get a parent to encouragificate a child, if the child has a particularly annoying tendency, but usually I just leave it alone.  Sims have better things to do.

I usually take what the game sticks them with, too, except for Active; I encouragificate for more active all the time. I hate those damned slowpoke sims.