I recently reinstalled The Sims 2, and I've been putting together a Megahood using the rather awesome mix-and-match 'hoods/sub hoods made by Tarlia (find them here!) and I am trying to come up with a way to play them that will keep my interest. So I've been browsing the site and asking questions about people's play styles. It's very interesting, and I have a good idea of what I'd like to do, but it's been tricky to get all the info as it's kind of all over the place!

So I thought an overview thread would be helpful. The idea is that anyone can comment, ask questions, make suggestions etc, and that anyone who has an unusual way of playing the game can share details about how they play. Unusual ways could include how you play in rotations, if you roll dice for things that aren't usually part of the game, if you have a different way of handling adoption, if your 'hood has politics or religion or a social hierarchy. Anything really! If you post about it in this thread, I'll keep a list of people in this initial post with links to stuff about their gameplay style, so that people can find the information more easily.

I have a couple of examples, if you're wondering what I'm talking about. These two people have very much influenced my way of playing. Firstly, iCad's BACC rules (and more rules ). Though I don't play a BACC, I've adapted some of the things she mentions and incorporated them into my game. Secondly, katja_stevens has an interesting style, which includes lots of dice rolling and formulas and things. Some info on it can be found on her blog . I've adapted quite a lot of things that she uses for my game as well.

Anyway, post away. I'll be posting some information about my gameplay style/rules in my next post, and I'd love to hear about yours too! :-)

People's Gameplay Style

Last edited by lauratje86 : 30th May 2012 at 02:42 PM.

One site I've personally used to help set up some of my rules is Behnd the Scenes of Apple Valley -- they've stopped updating the separate BTS blog and details can now be found on their main Apple Valley blog. They give a lot of details in a For Sims By Sims style game, and a fair few of my own rules and gameplay styles have been inspired by it (including my birth control/risky woohoo stats, ideal number of children, and my varying levels of degree education).

For my own rules and challenges (which have been linked in the first post) they have been a steady, slow-going process. I have been working on these rules on and off for almost a year, playtesting the main rules I set up and adding in additional rules as I go. I'm currently in the middle of setting up and playtesting rules regarding supernaturals and also random events, as well as more detailed information on university life, adoption/abortion, and the various schools sims can attend.

I'll be more than happy to give my thoughts on various details, and also answer questions about my own style and rules, and why I did or did not choose to do a specific thing.

Lauratie , while I often play round-robin with up to 50 families, sometimes i create aging off lots to experiment with fighting, a restaurant, a celebrity hood, or skiling competitions. You can contact me at my email address. I'd be happy to write some creative rules for your website. I'd also like to create some files you can distribute on your site. I'm creating buildings and hood terrains right now.

Okay, now I've got a bit more time to explain in detail:

I play in strict rotations: this does mean I get households which bore me on occasion, but I often have a more interesting or favourite household not long after the boring ones which encourage me to continue playing. If I'm playing a neighbourhood where everyone ages once a day rotations are 3.5 days each (Mon 6AM-Thurs 6PM); if they age only twice a week (on Thursday and Sundays) using BoilingOil's Slow Aging Controller I play a full week rotation Mon 6AM-Mon 6AM.

University households are played for four 'years' which, depending on the 'hood in question, is either four (when sims age every day) or fourteen (when sims age twice a week) days in the non-university neighbourhood. Depending on my mood and the sims at university I do sometimes cheat my sims towards their final exams using the college adjuster from Simbology -- I do try to get my sims out and socialising but more often than not I forget. I do have a custom-built university which I use to try and encourage my sims out an about: not all the dorms and rented households have all the skilling equipment so quite often my sims would need to go to the Art building or take a trip to the gym to build up the relevant skills. I do have to adjust hours if at least one sim is left behind in the dorms otherwise everyone gets out of sync and I hate that.

I also play with a mess of hacks, which are included in the spoiler below with a short description of what they do/why I use them. These are all mods I use with slower aging.



And now for my rules and guidelines:

Katya, I spent ages trying to find the skill limiter as it seemed rather essential for the way I wanted to play! I eventually found it here in the Apartment Life hacks folder. Apparently it requires Apartment Life and/or Mansion & Gardens to work.

How does it work once you have it? I had it downloaded but I never saw an object for it in my game and then I read it was an add on for the sim blender (I think) and never saw it on there, am I missing something???

The Skill Limiter isn't a separate object; It adds a pie menu option to the existing SimBlender object. You may need to sell and rebuy existing SimBlenders in order for the new option to show.

Once you see it, it'll be easy to figure out. Works on an individual basis only, if I recall.

lauratje86 -- that helps, I tried to find it in the thread where TJ originally uploaded it, didn't realise it had been added to the AL directory.

Gcgb53191 -- it's slightly hidden away: on the Sim Blender it's under Skills -> Limits -> [Sim Name]. From there you choose the skill name and are given options from 0 to 10: by default it sets everyone to a maximum of 10, but you adjust it as you want. Darby's right in that it works on an individual basis, although once it's set it stays that way unless you change it (I, for instance, set base skill levels depending on a sim's age, so I'm frequently fiddling with it when my sims transition, and also if a sim rolls a want to skill above their current limit).

Huh, it's not showing up for me. I wonder why..... :-( Does it require a special version of the Simblender itself? To allow the option to show up?

From the original thread on Simbiology:

"SKILL LIMITER TEST VERSION ATTACHED:

This zip file contains a plugin mod and a new version of the Blender (where I added the option menus). Both are required for the mod to work.."

I can't find the new version of the Blender for download anywhere though. Katya or Darby, do either of you have it by any chance?

Last edited by lauratje86 : 30th May 2012 at 05:32 PM.

lauratje86, try the attached file: this is the version I'm using and it all works fine in my game. It has both the Blender and the skill limiter add-on.

Thank you! That works :-) I'm currently setting up a little 'hood to playtest my rules - may turn it in to a story as well. Starting premise: there's an earthquake in Pleasantview, leading to complete destruction and a few deaths (oh noez!) and all the remaining residents move to the isolated town of Velden Hills, where they live the rest of their lives according to my new rules. I'm almost ready to start playing, so I'm racking my brains trying to figure out if there's anything I haven't thought of yet....

Thanks Katya, I'll probably download that too when I get home and hopefully it'll work in my game too

In Stonebridge, my rotation is one day, 7PM to 7PM. Each household is on the same day of the week and sims can only move out during sunday or monday or it would screw up the rotation (for example, Vy and Ky Hong must live with their parents for awhile, even as adults, because they aged up on Wednesday.)
There are several levels of housing that sims can live in. Highest up is the rich quarter, with the most elaborate and expensive houses. Then there are the suburbs, where children from the rich quarter move. Then the alley houses, where children from the suburbs move, and finally the apartments, where children from the alley houses move. There are also the block houses in West Stonebridge that are sort of a combination level of the suburbs and alley houses. Each sim spends their life striving to move up levels, eventually to the Rich Quarter, and so far only two families have house-hopped that high. If two children from different levels marry, they move into the richer sim's house level (i.e., Katie Terry and Wen Wo Hong marry, Wen Wo is from the rich quarter and Katie is from the suburbs, so they move to the suburbs.)

http://modthesims.info/download.php...=0&page=1&pp=25

Awesome! Didn't know there was such a thing. Though Ive been debating if I want all my households to play the same days. I like to have family dinners on Sundays and I can't imagine throwing one every time I go play family if its Sunday

Katya I'm still having a big of trouble with the skillinator. Nothing is showing up 'Ive even deleted the blender and put it back incase that was doing it but nothing shows up! I will install the sim blender that came with your package after (in case its a different version or something?) I finish playing this family.

Edit: It works now

Last edited by Gcgb53191 : 5th Jun 2012 at 07:03 AM.

Just a notice: I'm livesimming and what I've got scheduled for tomorrow is a go-through of my rules and regulations tomorrow at 6PM GMT/7PM BST (2PM EST, 11AM PST) so for anyone who's interested in them/my mindset behind them or would like to hear about them in a more interactive environment (so you can ask a question and I'll answer live...so long as I don't get too many people asking at the same time )