Do You Fast Forward?

[Liss]

Before OFB I HATED playing elders.  I would have them meditate and fast forward through their whole session.  Since OFB though, I make them craft constantly til they die. lol...somebody's gotta make all those snapdragons!

[Sleepycat]

aging on, speed 1 most of the time (unless their at work/school or sleeping) I rarely pause unless I have to go do something.

If they are all busy skilling then I'll hit speed 3 but I rarely bother having them skill unless they actually need it - I don't want them all maxed and in the tops of their careers.

I don't play like alot of people though, my sims are usually doing something more interesting then taking care of needs (takes to long) Mine are usually hungry/tired/dirty and whatnot when I want them to be  *hugs InSIM* 

Lately I've started being more hands off with toddlers and letting them pick what they are going to do/play with, when they age to children I use InSim to randomize their skills to ones I feel reflect their personalitys or possible storylines (this kid is very good at cleaning but sucks at cooking, that kid can fix anything but is stupid (low logic)) After that though they have to earn any more skill points themselves.

I'm finding large busy households are alot of fun thanks to Brynne and the no family size limit hack by Doc Doofus    My whorehouse is a mad house and it's getting even crazier! I decided the whores must raise the oopsie babys *loves risky woohoo and Lizzies waterbed* rather then having them get teleported off to the orphange. I think when the currently pregnant whores give birth there will be around 20 sims on the Lot, only 8 are adults. I've been avoiding looking at the kids family trees so I don't know who fathered who but I did discover the oldest kid was fathered by the Hoods Mayor    Shame on him!

I haven't sped up any of the pregnancies in hopes of reducing the amount of oopsie babys 

edit - I play will Free Will ON

[JadeEliott]

Okay, you guys might think I'm nuts, but not only do I play on 1 most of the time,  but I have even slowed the time down to 70-50% of the normal clock using merola's time control clock. The clock moved too fast for me before!

Heh, well, in most cases, I would call you nuts, but I can see why you would want to slow it down in some cases.

Mwah. I love you too, sweetie punkin. Now get back to work. *cracks whip*

[dusty]

My hand is perpetually on the 1 & 3 buttons. When they're doing something boring, I hit 3. When they do something I want to observe, I hit 1. Back and forth, back and forth.

It's gotten to the pt. where I'll be doing something else, like loading a program, and my hand'll automatically shift up to the 3 and 1, only to realize that, sadly, it doesn't work for everything else.

  This is exactly what I do ... I often find myself tapping the 3 button when I'm waiting for the game to load. Sad, I know.

[Ellie]

My hand is perpetually on the 1 & 3 buttons. When they're doing something boring, I hit 3. When they do something I want to observe, I hit 1. Back and forth, back and forth.

It's gotten to the pt. where I'll be doing something else, like loading a program, and my hand'll automatically shift up to the 3 and 1, only to realize that, sadly, it doesn't work for everything else.

I do that too

And what's most annoying since OFB, all my crafted items get called 1 or 3 or 31 because the focus is automatically on changing the name. That way, I can't tell which robot or toy I am making 

[J. M. Pescado]

I could remove the ability to customize craftables. I can't imagine why you'd really want to do that anyway.

[Ellie]

oh yes, please do!
they probably did that so people would be satisfied with that they could actually make choices about what the items are like or something  so that they wouldn't complain. not that it made sense.

[DrBeast]

Aging on, Free will...eh? What free will?! You're 3D-rendered pixels! You DON'T have a will! Uh, what was I saying? Oh yes, free will OFF, bucketloads of Elixir of Life (all those aspiration points HAVE to go somewhere!), left hand hovering between the dash symbol and the 1 and 3 keys. Pause, issue commands, unpause, speed up if they're doing something time-consuming, pause, issue commands, etc. Macro is my best friend! I do tend to have small families though, 1-4 sims max, usually 2. I once played a 6-sim household and my head almost exploded after the 3rd hour of playing, while I usually play from 16:00 to 2:00 (or 6:00 on weekends) with one or two sims (with a 2-3 hour break to spend time with my g/f).

[Paperbladder]

To answer the question, I play with Aging off.  I hate the time it takes to sync more than 10 families and how Maxis does genetics.  I swear that after I saw a child obtain the skintone of a distant relative or get that same damn flat nose their grandmother had I just don't want to deal with it anymore.  I also want to enjoy the fricking thing and not just speed through it.  However, I do use the Elixer of Life to keep my sims young instead of just using the cheat.  If I didn't, they'd have too many aspiration points and I wouldn't have a point of fufilling wants.  Plus, someone doesn't stay an adult for only 30 days.

As for the speed, I usually have it on 3 when I'm having my sim skilling, or at work.  Also, I tend to use it more when there's one sim in a house rather than a house with four sims.  I barely ever use 2.

I don't get why Maxis even made anything other than the color customizable.  Still, I'm not sure I'd want a hack to remove it completely... Then again I don't use most of J.M.'s new hacks because they affect my gameplay style.

[laeshanin]

I fast forward all the time but I play with aging on.  I hate pregnancies, babies, and toddlers and I am more than sick of most sims by the time they reach elder.  Ironically, the only ones I don't fast forward are the sims I don't like that I am letting do their own thing.  I like to see just how stupid they can be and cheer when they set themselves on fire or realize they are starving and too tired to eat.

I do slow down time if there is something going on that I need to micromanage like making a parent help with homework or getting someone platinum before work for a promotion though.

Heh, me too. All that boring crap neds to be rushed through as fast as possible and skilling is such a pain, so are meals, bathing, and on and on and on... Remind me, what am I doing?

[gethane]

I played Sims 1 with queues and speed 3. However, I usually play such large families in Sims 2 that speed 1 is perfect. I just keep switching between sims and reassigning them.

And free will ON. My sims have lives! I just let one of my sims pick her future mate from a choice of 2. 2 bolts with each guys, invite both over at a party. See what happens. One guy had more hots for another girl at the party. The second guy was totally focused on my sim. Then they autonomously flirted several times. Match made.

This is something that I found quite entertaining yesterday. Two sim brothers were chatting at breakfast. And I hear the "hearts and flowers" thing so I paused it. Brother B had a bubble with a sim and the hearts and flowers, but I didn't know who she was. So i checked his relationship panel and he had never met her. I'm pretty sure Brother A (who does have her in his relationship panel) was talking about her, and Brother B, said, "Oh, she sounds HAWT!"

I find the little things like that to be what's enjoyable. My sims never max their skills. They are too busy having LIVES

[webwench]

Since the maxMotives cheat, my sims never sleep anymore (thank goodness!), so I have more time to let them play with their relationships and enjoy their jobs and skills - it's much more fun for me to play if I don't always have to feed the ants

But sometimes, the game just drags, and if I'm waiting for that tenth baby to pop out or something, I'll set to 3 and watch my momma get fatter and fatter! I tend to fastfoward through homework, too, because when you have six kids on a lot, and they're all doing homework, it gets super boring.

[idtaminger]

And what's most annoying since OFB, all my crafted items get called 1 or 3 or 31 because the focus is automatically on changing the name. That way, I can't tell which robot or toy I am making 

Ahh!! Me too! I had my sim start and stop to make different colors and configurations, and goodness, that was so annoying. I kept getting 3131 in the text box, which I then had to delete manually.

I find the little things like that to be what's enjoyable. My sims never max their skills. They are too busy having LIVES

Me too! I always get confuzzled when pple say that it's one of the easiest LTWs, but for me, there's no chance that any one of my sims will ever reach it. Mortimer Goth's the oldest sim in my neighborhood, been there since I first played the game, and a knowledge sim to boot, and still he has yet to max all skills.

[JadeEliott]

I find the little things like that to be what's enjoyable. My sims never max their skills. They are too busy having LIVES

I love that. So true. Most of us do not max out on all our "skills" in life, so why should sims? What is the point? I have a sim, Dash Delmar, who owns the gym...she studies mechanical a lot, autonomously sometimes, because that is where her interests lie. She is a tad of the manly, errr...empowered female side. Ex-marine. But will she be taking up the paintbrush anytime soon and maxing her girly creative side? Think not.

[anelca]

i cheat half the skills so i don't have to have them do it the boring way, especially bloody charisma, and it saves having easels and telescopes and other assorted crap on the lot unless i want them to do something specific.
i fast forward if i do have one or two sims only in a household and i want them to get a move on. never fast forwarded a pregnancy though sometimes i age transition babies and toddlers earlier than they are scheduled to
aging off i rarely use. only when i first started the game back at the beginning before i knew what the hell i was doing (some might say i still don't, but there you go)
OfB changes my gameplay a little. i too used to dislike elders but the thought of them having a regular job while they are still adults and then retiring and opening their own business is sort of appealing. i might be tempted to play certain elders with aging off for a while, but i haven't got to that stage yet

i do actually like the conversations they have when sitting down for a meal or watching telly. i rarely fast forward those

[jack_d_spratt]

Me too! I always get confuzzled when pple say that it's one of the easiest LTWs, but for me, there's no chance that any one of my sims will ever reach it. Mortimer Goth's the oldest sim in my neighborhood, been there since I first played the game, and a knowledge sim to boot, and still he has yet to max all skills.

Maybe I'm too hard on my Sims, I like to see how early in their teen days I can max them all out.  Best so far: 5 days as a teen.  And that's after I encourage all their attributes (except playful, I hate playful Sims) to 10.

I do have to admit my children and teens don't have a lot of time for fun...

[Metalkatt]

I totally agree witht he 31313111111111111ONEDAMMIT,ONE! thing on the craftables.  I wish it were just random out of those as to what "flavour" of craftable comes out, and not all the same kind.  Grar.

I do let my sims age...   ...  ...  All but two, but Morgan and Rainey are my babies, and I can't bear for them to die.  And yes, I ffw a lot when they're being boring.

[Jelenedra]

Aging on, FF  A LOT, and the Elixier of Life. I have never let my simmies die. Permanent adults. Children get sent off to college and never return because I hate playing UNI.

[PlaidSquirrel]

I play on 3 and 2 a lot but since I also pause a lot I guess it evens out right? I only slow down to 1 for parties, play/romantic dates and other relationship building "events".
In fact I've recently discovered that huge un-official "block" parties with most of the hood in attendance are my very favorite things to do. I just kind of let things happen at these parties. It puts a little spice into the sims lives I think.

I have aging and freewill on but I use the InSim to add or remove days as I see fit. Little kids/todlers/babies suck so I just do a few things with them and then skip ahead. All those stages are really good for is a makeover, "aww how cute" and a few pics. Well, with the kids I do a little social to set up for future frienships and such. I usually remove a couple days from their parents and siblings lives also just to keep things together. Not usually as many as I've removed from the kids though since teen and adult are my fave stages. Also on occasion I have added a few (7 at most. well i don't know... nevermind) days to a sims life for varying reasons.

I am still playing sims from when I first started. Only a few people have died. Usually because I killed them.