@SneakyWingPhoenix Truth lol. Unless you've become the ultimate master who can get paid to play games like the Sims for a living lol! Then really... are you a Sim or are the Sims a Sim?

By the way, there's a new mod that makes paying for tuition more on the student than the haphazard style of Monique's computer or the game version of grants. It should make playing any Uni student a real challenge. I downloaded it the second I saw it:
http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=613939

Man, I have ton of stuff built out in evernote.

I allow sims to earn skill points based on their educational attainment and their class, and their wants as well. It makes the game challenging, and makes each new family really interesting as the wants combine with their class and educational background. That also helps me determine which sims will have what jobs as I play an integrated hood as well.

I also have a pretty fun system for 'electing' a mayor and a whole education system that runs on taxes and is fully playable thanks to the Simlogical school set up. I use meeting controller to have toddlers attend preschool, and then build primary and secondary schools. I worked in the university system, and extended the tax system to encompass owned businesses so that eventually new buildings are funded by tax money.

I dunno, I like developing things like banking, court, and prison systems. It makes my game fun and relevant. I've recently worked out how to use the adventurer career in my set-up, with the attached destination subhoods. I build military bases and aquariums to work in the oceanography and military careers so that ultimately, every career has a building where I can have the sim 'work'. It's an elaborate set-up, but I couldn't enjoy the game without it. I rarely use RNGs but I do for things like deciding the outcome of cases in the courts (there's no way to ensure that every sim doesn't win otherwise lol).

I play as realistically as I can, and then I do weird stuff like working in an entire storyline around the witches, aliens and vampires in my hood. Even the genie has descendants that are a purple-skinned class of sims.

There's definitely unrealistic things like that, and despite my systems and restrictions, I play for autonomy, so my sims are never forced to skill, or to grind for promotions, or anything. Every skill point they earn is because they rolled a want or autonomously decided to earn it. I only intervene to stop them when they should eat or sleep. I use ACR as well so all babies born in game are the fault <cough> of my sims deciding to have them. I do do things like giving romance sims birth control when they roll a fear of having more kids... however, as we all know, birth control is only 99.9% effective <evil laugh>. Mostly I love watching them interact with each other and figure stuff out on their own.

I think my main rule is I have to enjoy it. So I'll play challenges, yes, but if I get bored, I'm done. Most of the rules I apply to different neighborhoods are based on making them interesting, and what's interesting is conflict--just like in books and movies. Doesn't have to be interpersonal (intersiminal?) conflict, it could be conflict between two wants that belong to the same sim.

In my megahoods, I always have rules about which careers are available where--a sim can't become a famous ballet dancer in Strangetown, and there's no military base downtown. But police are everywhere, with restrictions on levels in some neighborhoods. Most of my sims meet their spouses at college, if they go, so college has rules about who goes where and how they qualify. (The new college loan hack linked above, I think, will be hugely helpful, rather than my old 'must have so many scholarships' rule for non-elite family teens to attend ALT--either they have the family wealth or they have the scholarships.)

But mostly I play to wants. Alan is a Romance/Family sim, who decided he wanted to marry Chloe Gonzaga on the first day of college. But he also wants to have twenty lovers. Chloe is a family sim (later added secondary of pleasure) with a want for six grandkids, and she does NOT appreciate Alan's desire to fall in love with, or the fact that he is in love with, many other women. She gets hurt that he cheats, he wants to make up and does, then he cheats again, she gets hurt again, he makes up, and repeats. She wants to be with him, he wants to be with her and everyone else, and she's furious with nearly every woman (except his mother and sister, she's not sure about his sister-in-laws) in the neighborhood. By contrast, Alan's baby-momma, Marsha Bruenig, knowledge/romance thinks fondly of him, but doesn't call him, doesn't roll much in the way of wants for him, but always shows up when he calls her and sometimes stops by unplayable, uninvited. The lack of interest in calling him over I interpret as wanting to keep little Alana out of the conflict. She dislikes Chloe, but it's clearly an "I can't believe she's so deluded as to think it's not him, it's everyone else" sort of way even though the two have come to blows, initiated by Chloe, before. She rolls no wants, even while furious, to see Chloe's ghost, unlike Chloe, who usually wants to see two to three specific ghosts.

I have some things in common with terula8 and I'm a big fan of iCad's style, too, in that I play primarily for autonomy. Lately, I'm exploring integrated play inspired by joandsarah. I rarely play anymore as what I think of as a game. I used to play the wants and all that, and since I almost never age my sims, many of them are on their second or third "careers". I have a retired Rock God who lives off investments and now is raising seven teens from his different lovers in his wilder days. One of my nannies was aged down and has been a world class ballerina, then a gold badge gardener, now she's studying to be a witch.... They evolve, like a soap opera does over the years, sometimes the focus on one story, then the arc will be over and another story starts.

I have a few different hoods, but I think of them as related and I use Maxis bin families to tie them together as if they move from one to another. I even moved a few into Widespot so there'd be some ties there to Pleasantview for stories. There aren't any rules really - I'm not that organized. It's more world-building and my world is designed to get the sims to act as autonomously as possible. I love setting things up and watching them develop and surprise me.

Like, terula8, I also play realistically, but every now and then, there's a departure into magic or zombies or... whatever. I, too, have genies in my game. I cloned the genie and made him a character that's led to all sorts of interesting stories. The idea is that the world is a realistic sim-world, and in that world, magic lurks. I often think of it something like the HBO series Carnivale, but not so dark.

Sometimes I go back and forth in time, too, like I had a drama that unfolded spontaneously from an interesting passerby and the backstory I came up with was so interesting that I wanted to play that, too. So I created what I thought of as the prequel. There ended up being a baby born from it who is the younger version of a "now" older playable. I struggled with that for a while because it sort of meant there was a duplicate, but then I decided the baby was a child actress playing "Young...." She went off to live downtown with her *real* family after the "show" was over so there aren't *really* two of her.

In truth, though, I go through long periods where I spend much more time tweaking my world for autonomy and whatever my vision is than I do playing. I've got a number of sticky mod and design issues I'm working on these days. And that's fun, too.

I use to (and sometimes still do) have a sim choose a career based on want, or If they have specific LTW for topping a career - they'll apply to that. If none of that happens then its depended on interest/hobby.

Oh my God, preschool! That's adorable and absolutely something that I will institute in my game at some point.

My sims will have to start paying some kind of tax soon, because a couple of families are getting a bit wealthy. A couple own businesses now but unfortunately they're all vaguely related by blood or marriage and most other families are quite poor and renting. That's been a problem for me a couple of times. I think I tend to favour families and have them all marry each other's kids lol. Hopefully a few generations more and it will all be nicely integrated to some extent or another.


I think of it as a soap opera too. I have their conversations in my head all the time. I try to play with an overarching story while still incorporating the personalities and wants of each individual sim.

I have one witch in my game too. She'll likely be the first witch in a long line of daughters inheriting her talents. I'd like other witches actually, so eventually I could sell regents and potions in a little witchcraft shop and employ young witches. That's right up my alley.

Today I went through every single pixel and checked for their 'motivation' level (separate thread discusses this.) and I found I had a high number of 'overachievers' in the second generation.
That means they'll all go to college and grind away until they get their degree. When they graduate, they'll be able to get the career of their choice and rise to the very top without any hindrances. They're truly going to 'overachieve' in life.
However, there are some benighted pixels who are not as motivated to succeed in life, I'm considering not sending them to college, or should they want to, they won't really get a head start in life because they just won't care that much-(unless they really indicate they'd like to..)and their lives will be scattershot with half-baked ideas and dreams. I guess every town has this kind of person, but in my pixel town, an entire family is that way. Talk about inheriting bad traits!

To add to uni I use a mod to make semesters 48 hours plus a mod that makes getting a good grade harder if they don't write a term paper. They can still pass but not with flying colours I have found. Group research can help a sim who isn't doing so well. One time a coach came along and saved one sim since he needed body skill to pass. He had been on academic probation once and I guess the coach telling him off scared him silly because he worked out enough to pass. Sims need 4 scholarships to go to uni. I also have installed badge scholarships so working a cash register or on the farm or other badges count. Those skills are every bit as useful if not more so to a sim than those 10 regular skills, so why not? Sims with 2-3 scholarships can go to community college. I have that in the main hood with Squinges College pack. Sims with 1 or less can't go to college, they stay in the main hood as YA but usually own a business or work for somebody.

Another thing I have for overachieving sims is a uni portfolio. I count this as a scholarship even though the game doesn't view it as one. So a teen could grow one of each growable to excellent quality, paint a high-quality painting, write a novel, fix up a junker car, sew an outfit etc. Something of high quality that I can take a picture of. I find it makes the teenage days more interesting for these overachieving sims.

Now I can never use the 48 hours semester mod myself, because my students have to go to community lots to earn skills. I do see the point of it if you play a certain way, but Uni goes quickly enough with students being forced to study anywhere but in the dorm.
Some of my teens have only one or two skills - I like the teen years, and since I do not use aging mods, they only need to get through school as far as I am concerned, and as long as they have a B+, they are good enough for Uni.
Some, of course, may have 10 creativity points from playing in the teen band at the open stage in the park.
Some may have 10 body skill points from playing soccer with their sport group.
Some may have a skill or two which they needed for their teen jobs (not all teens get teen jobs, mostly only the fortune ones).
For the rest of it, they are teens in my hood - hanging out with their friends, buy posters at the shop for their walls, listen to loud music. watch TV (where they may gain a cooking skill or two); go to the park and try to get a date

My kids and teens mostly all go to my playable schools which focuses on skilling over bookwork so by the time they are ready for uni most have a good range of skills. Given that school experience plus needing at least 4 scholarships to even go to uni most of my uni students don't skill much unless they want to (The keyboard at my fanciest dorm gets lots of use) Mine tend to use Uni more for dating. I like the idea of going to other lots for skilling though.

Your way sounds quite enjoyable to me as well, Jo
I have started the student skill on community lots only back when I still played the vanilla game. I found it fun to have them building skills and finding dates at the same time
Uni to me also meant that I could make YA's rather than adults in CAS - because they would be far more useful than a Sim right out of CAS
So I stuck 18 sims in 3 6-dorm rooms - and I still do that today.

I may yet limit skills some more, I recently lowered toddler and kids skill limits. The small issue I have now with double ageing and school skilling is that some uni students don't have to study at all. While I don't want it to become a skillathon I think uni students should have to study some of the time lol. I think what it is, is that scholarships take so many skills, 8. I wish they took less, 6-7 to leave the sim room for improvement. Or maybe I need to focus more on badge skills, hidden skills and the portfolio at school age. I tried the harder skilling mod and it was too hard. So I am still trying to find that balance.

I partly ignore skills during the teen years, they do their homework and social But they have hobbies and here and there the loners may get scholarships because they are good at pottery Which is fine for me! I also see a band and a sport as a social activity, so they need to go out in a group to do it. Same with fishing - some of them are in nature too and go hiking over weekends. I enjoy the age group and it feels as I get more out of them this way.Then they build skills at Uni and they have the rest of their lives to build more.

Many people express their distaste for the teen stage, but I love it! They are at a perfect in-between stage of freedom and independence versus responsibility. They don't have to work or worry about careers yet. I use this stage to focus on their relationships with others in the 'hood and to discover what they want out of life and who they'll become. Though they often throw me curveballs down the line, it's still a fun stage to create drama and learn about the Sim.

Edit: Your post reminded me that I want to start using the group function. It's a great feature and I've only tried it once or twice! Thanks, lol.

@Nukk - I love it too

The teen stage is such fun - and mine covers ages 13-18 (I track my sims ages by year, and have 'birthday parties' even though they aren't aging up. At the party they can change their main outfit to simulate 'maturing' and move up a grade at the next school year), so there's a ton of stuff I like to do with them. I have them take 'driving lessons' at 16 and simulate the first part by having them go to the 'DMV' and study for a mechanical skill-point. If they earn it, then I have them get into the instructors car, and go for a drive. Next I use an RNG to roll and determine whether they get their license or have to retake the 'exam'. If they pass they get their license and can drive an ownable car (they have a curfew of course).

For younger teens, I have them host slumber parties, go to summer camp, go on holiday with their families (older teens too) and hang out at the arcade or the mall with friends. It's such a great lifestage, the last thing I like to do is have them focused on jobs and skilling. I do like to let the studious ones study and do their homework and earn points, but the ones that just roll wants for fun and entertainment are allowed to do that (some kids really aren't into studying). I like to see them all with a range of grades from D- to A+ because not everyone gets an A at school.

Then they go through the 'college applications' process. I always have a few with a C- that need to go to summer school to get their grades up and apply in the spring for college, and there's also always some that graduate into a full-time job and don't go to college at all. Some stay in their home hood and attend technical college to learn hair dressing or gardening or manufacturing (toys, tech, clothes << I use a lot of modded objects lol). I just like seeing them all sort of navigate on their own. It's a lot of fun!

Skilling has been a bugbear for me though. I leave it up to wants and personality but it's hard sometimes to limit the amount of skills my more diligent sims earn because they live so long (1 day = 1 month). Some sims do max out certain skills in childhood or teenhood - like creativity, which I think is fine because in real life some people are just crazy talented or crazy smart (logic). I do use a slower skill gain mod to help though since I had a well-off toddler boy earn 7 mechanical skills from his toy garage. I was like, there's no way this baby needs to be able to fix the plumbing.

dang it. I ran on too long again! :oops

Oh I like that driving instruction idea. The main problem in Coral Bay is hardly anybody has a car. Well, I guess I could aim for moped licences? :D

I'm actually curious about your adventure career now because I've been trying to figure out a reasonable way to incorporate that one in my town in a related manner.

Due to various technical reasons I don't get to play much these days, however when I can I don't play with any defined "rules" beyond what's built into the game or what can be done with safe cheats and hacks, and I try to use the latter as little as possible.

I've tried both rotations and playing a certain family through their adult life stage, but again I don't limit myself to one or the other.

I do keep a separate log of what's going on when I play, so if weeks or even months go by I can read the log to jog my memory.

I also play most of the premade neighborhoods, some downloads, and my own personal neighborhoods. When I first started playing the game I could go crazy with making Sims, and neighborhoods soon filled up. To compensate, later on I started to think "why/how would someone move to a particular neighborhood, and for that matter why does this neighborhood exist in the first place?" Also since I don't have all the expansions or Ultimate Collection and can be somewhat of a perfectionist, I discovered I actually prefer smaller populations and creating a neighborhood that's designed to be a settlement in the middle of nowhere works well with both how I play and how the game is set up. Using blank templates is even more helpful so the Pleasantview townies aren't always poking around. Even though it might seem unrealistic that all the careers, or for that matter, any jobs are available, I just assume they go to a small building where business is conducted remotely.

I, too, like that idea of driving licenses for teens. Heck, we all had to go to driving school ourselves, why not them?

I also upgrade furniture gradually for every generation that passes on, so when I start with a new household they live with the very cheapest furniture out there when their great-great-great... grandchildren meanwhile get to experience the luxury in their house.

also recall skill being discussed in past threads.

skill; the ones I have sims build are usually based on aspiration. told about that in a number of past threads.