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Lab Assistant
#26 Old 22nd Jul 2018 at 10:12 PM
I play a rather loose rotation. Two days per family residence, one semester per university residence. I maintain a spreadsheet that includes the date households are played. If I really don't feel like playing someone today, I see who's within the next three days, and play them. Today, BTW, I start a new rotation! Always a sense of accomplishment getting through my big 'hood.

Yes, some households get a little tedious. I find that can be the case with single resident households, especially if they're Romance Sims. I mean, after the fifteenth conquest, yawn. When that happens, I often change it up by selling the house and tossing that Sim into a multi-family building. The new dynamics make that Sim interesting again. This round I'm throwing together Brandon Lillard, a zombie lawyer, and a fallen-on-hard-times Mortimer III. Hilarity should ensue.
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Mad Poster
#27 Old 22nd Jul 2018 at 10:26 PM
If you find single romance sims boring, you probably haven't tried having them have "accidents" and then have unexpected kids that they have to raise by themselves.
Mad Poster
#28 Old 22nd Jul 2018 at 10:31 PM
I play a fairly strict rotation-one day per family at a time. I find that's the only way I can do rotation play because if I go beyond that time limit, I have to do 'catch up' and that's as tedious as it gets.

Receptacle Refugee & Resident Polar Bear
"Get out of my way, young'un, I'm a ninja!"
Grave Matters: The funeral podium is available here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/e6tj...albits.zip/file
My other downloads are here: https://app.mediafire.com/myfiles
Test Subject
#29 Old 22nd Jul 2018 at 11:49 PM
I play exclusively in rotation--4 days per household. I love seeing how one event in a household can affect another household. I love watching my Sims bring home neighbors from school or work and develop relationships of all kinds with other playables. I couldn't get those things if I played a single household. Although I like some households more than others, no one is a secondary character. I feel like that'd turn out to be the case if I played a single household.

I play my households in alphabetical order, so that usually means a good mix of different types of households, which prevents boredom. I'm rarely bored with a household.
Lab Assistant
#30 Old 23rd Jul 2018 at 8:24 AM
Quote: Originally posted by kestrellyn
If you find single romance sims boring, you probably haven't tried having them have "accidents" and then have unexpected kids that they have to raise by themselves.


That, and making them romance/family. Their conflicting wants/fears are a source of never ending drama sometimes.
Mad Poster
#31 Old 23rd Jul 2018 at 1:45 PM
Make single Romance sims housemates and watch the drama self-generate.

Whatever rotation order you go with, make sure to pace yourself. Intersperse high-stress households with relaxing ones.

Use "boring" households to experiment. Can you run an outing, a date, and a party all overlapping? (Yes, you can.) What have you never done? Pick one thing and this boring household is the one to do it.

From a purely gameplay standpoint, rotation play has the inestimable benefit of providing more variety than any other plan. You can have one household that's all about challenge play, one household where you play traditional Happy Families, one household where you fill fears instead of wants, one household that is forbidden to have a career, an agoraphobe who's can't leave her house, a homeless sim who can only go to her tiny patch of bare land to sleep and must spend all her waking hours scrounging a living on community lots, a household of random roommates, a household where somebody's pregnant all the time, an asylum, a convent run according to a strict set of rules, a household with no rules all, sims who have "disabilities" or "superpowers" created by rulesets, cheats, and mods; different rulesets in every household, so you never have to sit down to the same gameplay two sessions in a row, yet you get an overall sense of continuity.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Undead Molten Llama
#32 Old 23rd Jul 2018 at 2:43 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Peni Griffin
From a purely gameplay standpoint, rotation play has the inestimable benefit of providing more variety than any other plan. You can have one household that's all about challenge play, one household where you play traditional Happy Families, one household where you fill fears instead of wants, one household that is forbidden to have a career, an agoraphobe who's can't leave her house, a homeless sim who can only go to her tiny patch of bare land to sleep and must spend all her waking hours scrounging a living on community lots, a household of random roommates, a household where somebody's pregnant all the time, an asylum, a convent run according to a strict set of rules, a household with no rules all, sims who have "disabilities" or "superpowers" created by rulesets, cheats, and mods; different rulesets in every household, so you never have to sit down to the same gameplay two sessions in a row, yet you get an overall sense of continuity.


^^^This. This why I play in rotation, for variety. I tend to play neighborhoods long-term that get very large (though not as large as @Justpetro ! ) , and if I didn't do something different in at least some of the households, it'd get repetitive and therefore boring. To me, ages in sync is just a side benefit. The real reason to rotate households is variety.

So yeah, I only play in rotation. For me, the length of each household's round depends on the number of playable households in the neighborhood. Generally, the fewer the households, the longer the rounds. Otherwise, in very large neighborhoods, it might take months (or even a year!) of playing to get through a single rotation. When a neighborhood is just starting, I play each household for a full Sim-week. As the number of households increases, I shorten the rounds. The first "step-down" is playing each household for a season, which is 5 days. Usually that's when I have around 10 playable households. Once I hit about 25 households, I break up the Sim-week into a 2-2-3 pattern. Meaning, I'll play Monday and Tuesday for a round, then Wednesday and Thursday, then Friday-Saturday-Sunday. I won't go less than two days in a round, though. One day is, IMO, too short, especially since I use the Community Time mod, so sending Sims to a community lot doesn't artificially lengthen the day.

I'm mostly found on (and mostly upload to) Tumblr these days because, alas, there are only 24 hours in a day.
Muh Simblr! | An index of my downloads on Tumblr.
Mad Poster
#33 Old 23rd Jul 2018 at 3:41 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Woolysmurf
That, and making them romance/family. Their conflicting wants/fears are a source of never ending drama sometimes.


Yes! Romance/family is my favorite aspiration combination.
Field Researcher
#34 Old 23rd Jul 2018 at 3:48 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Peni Griffin
Use "boring" households to experiment. Can you run an outing, a date, and a party all overlapping? (Yes, you can.) What have you never done? Pick one thing and this boring household is the one to do it.

You can? I seem to remember that going on a date ends the outing. Bah, I don't like how outings are measured solely by social interactions anyway, outings should be a good place to do fun things in groups, like Myshuno or bowling. Actually using community lots shouldn't come at the cost of having bland outings. Same with parties, now I think about it. All the other sims are having fun, but your poor sim has to run around to make sure they are also social and pay for all the meals.

The variation is a big plus of playing in rotations! I definitely try to make the households fairly diverse, or make sure that the same kind of households don't follow each other closely. I have 2 gay couples, both with 6 kids and with so many kids comes a certain kind of play style but I play them some households apart. One is also harder to play because the family started having kids sooner and are poorer as a result of that.
Mad Poster
#35 Old 23rd Jul 2018 at 4:10 PM
I do regard my play style as rotational - I just don't feel I need to spend the same time with each family.

My mayor, is, of course, not just any Sim, she is the granddaughter of Trent and Trisha Traveller - she has reached her LTW. She is a perfect example of a Sim who now has a secondary role in the hood - her husband owns the grocery shop and she has twins at Uni. So she is, imo, "free" to act as the mayor for a while. I don't plan on never going back to her - eventually she will become an elder, retire, move to the retirement hood, and a new mayor will take over her role.

None of my households are boring.
Forum Resident
#36 Old 23rd Jul 2018 at 6:26 PM
Rotation for the win!

I'm just flexible about the length of time I stay with each family. I don't worry about them all being in the same season as it's kind of like playing that same time period over again with the next family (so what Family B was doing while I was with Family A...)

I do need keep a fairly strict order of play though, because I like to age up children who are in the same cohort on schedule. It keeps them in the same classes with their peers at school, so I'm careful play each and every family - for however long it takes for the baby to be born or the toddler to age up and so on. It also keeps me from being bored because on the next rotation there will be the families I haven't gotten to yet, and as things play out in one household, they set up some interesting ideas for others.

That's probably why I'm also so carefree around the length of time in each household. I play them until I feel like playing someone else, and so on it goes. I might only be in a household for an hour or so if I feel like that's enough to advance their personal story in relation to all the others.

I should say: I also use Community Lot Time which is amazing for making sure the game flows and the stories play out properly.
Alchemist
#37 Old 23rd Jul 2018 at 7:50 PM
have not really played in a rotation.

in past times playing, for the most part kept planned couples equal in Age and equal in days left.
and generally played a lot for about 1 sim day then played another lot.
Lab Assistant
#38 Old 24th Jul 2018 at 1:07 PM
I play a Monday to Monday rotation - every household has to complete it before I move on. But I don't always play a household for the full week before jumping to another - sometimes children need to be aged up with their friends, or the action in one house means fun in another. But I also like the ability to get stuck into a family's own story for several sim days.
Scholar
#39 Old 24th Jul 2018 at 3:57 PM
I used to play in strict rotation until two years ago, because I liked keeping everyone in synch. However, it got to the point where this was a problem because it took some of the drama out of certain competitive elements. For example, if two families were competing to get their political householder elected, it tended to go to whoever was next in the rotation.

Now, I split my game into three (one Polgannon section and two SimHampton sections). Each may have up to 19 households. With more households and subhoods, I'd have more sections. These sections are always done sequentially. At the start of each section, I roll a d20 nine times, and those are the households that get played. All 9 numbers are written down (and yes, it's possible for houses to appear multiple times - those ones will be played for multiple Sim days). If I roll 20, a new family is introduced. That family is moved into the played sector if it is not Polgannon and not already containing 19 households (which is "full" for these purposes). If there's space in a different non-Polgannon sector but the one I rolled for is "full", that sector will receive the new family. Otherwise, the family will found a new sector.

The households will still be played in a sequence, but I reserve the right to start the line from either end, or otherwise vary the sequence according to instinct. Each Sim day I play, the relevant number is crossed off my sheet. When all the numbers are crossed out, I go to the next section and continue. Synching was never my strong point anyway, and now Sims age at different rates, much like the real world.
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#40 Old 24th Jul 2018 at 10:15 PM
I'm curious to know why Polgannon doesn't get a new family?

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
Scholar
#41 Old 24th Jul 2018 at 11:05 PM
Quote: Originally posted by maxon
I'm curious to know why Polgannon doesn't get a new family?


Because my version of it still has a murder investigation going on, so nobody's allowed to move in or out until the culprit is caught. (It's only taken 10 rotations so far, give the police time...)
Mad Poster
#42 Old 25th Jul 2018 at 1:13 PM
I've started a new town and only have one family so far though rotations will be a factor when more families arrive in the town over time.It's a BACC and the first settlers are having to start building a house.
Lab Assistant
#43 Old 27th Jul 2018 at 8:29 PM
In my neighborhood, I play in rotations of two days.

It goes something like loading the family up at 1AM on Monday (sometimes a little later if a Sim has a third shift job. Basically when all of the family is asleep and somewhat stable, just in case I install or delete a new mod and it resets the whole neighborhood) and playing it until Wednesday at 1AM. Then so forth and so on. (Wed to Fri, Fri to Sun)

Also, all of my families are generally on the same season, give for a day or two. Currently, I have two seasons set to Fall because Winter (and snow) doesn't play nice with my laptop lol. But the next go around with the seasons, I will probably switch it to two Springs, two Summers, etc.
Instructor
#44 Old 28th Jul 2018 at 4:28 AM
I didn't play in rotation for the first few years I played Sims, but I've been playing rotation for almost a decade now and never went back. I do by season because my gametime is so sporadic, so it's easier to jump back in when it's graphically displayed like that (I've tried implementing documents to write notes, but nothing has stuck for me). I'm actually surprised so few people play their rotations by season, but there's nothing wrong with that!

I don't play households in the same rotation, but I can't play a household that has reached the next season until all of the other households have as well. I sometimes use Jo's method (playing a day or two of a household, then moving on, etc) but I usually am so engrossed in a household I just play them the whole 5 days. If I'm bored of a household, it's only because I'm preparing them for the drama that I have planned for them, so that anticipation is what keeps me moving forward. Usually, though, I don't get bored because there's such a long period between getting to play each household - I've probably been on the same season in my main hood for about a year or two.

I might one day finish my Zanes Hollow project, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Until then, you can see what I'm up to on my Simblr!
Scholar
#45 Old 29th Jul 2018 at 7:54 PM
Nah, cos playing in rotation means that you have some sort of a plan, but also it would mean having dedication to the digital beings, which I've never really had. Also that's more effort and I am a genuiney lazy person so the same shall be reflected in my game. Basically if I feel like playing a particular sim then I play that sim, if not its usually a new family or building a new house. It's always been like that since 5 or 6 year old me started with TS1.
Alchemist
#46 Old 30th Jul 2018 at 7:57 PM Last edited by mdsb759 : 30th Jul 2018 at 8:56 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by Noa1500
cos playing in rotation means that you have some sort of a plan
not necessarily.
players that do not play in rotation can have a plan; and players that do play in rotation might not have a plan.

edit::
probably similar with dedication.
Mad Poster
#47 Old 30th Jul 2018 at 8:52 PM
I have two neighbourhoods I play - My Megahood (technically uberhood - got everythin' in it) and a neighbourhood called Ivy Shore.

My megahood I play on rotation. Strictly. Every house in a specific order, from midnight to midnight. I like to have families all age consistantly and children grow up with their friends/cousins/half-siblings as they would in real life (and drama progresses too!). Those that go to uni graduate the same day those that didn't become adults, etc. Everything is always in a perfect order. On the otherhand, Ivy Shore is just for funsies. I play whichever family I want, and sims age when I play them. Which means some children have stayed children for the whole time another child has gone from baby to teenager. Some families I never play. Some I play from time to time when I feel like. Some I play in a loose rotation ("okay so Sim A in household A has grown up, so I should go play household B so Sim B can grow up") etc. Ivy Shore is the town I play when I want to just make a little family and play them through for a while, whereas my megahood is more for my serious gaming habits.

~Your friendly neighborhood ginge
Lab Assistant
#48 Old 30th Jul 2018 at 8:59 PM
I play rotation from Monday to Thursday, then Thursday to Monday. I end rotations at 6:00 pm (or a little later if I lose track of time or someone needs to age up.)
Test Subject
#49 Old 31st Jul 2018 at 5:47 PM
I used to play random in the past, it was fun but ending up with unsynchronised families all the time was really annoying.
Few years ago I started playing in rotation, took me a while to find the best pace for me, and about a year ago I set for 3 Sims days per household - it is the perfect amount of timeso I make the family progress, on one hand, but not get bored ith them, on the other. The only annpoying thing is Uni- to keep the aging synchronised and reasonable I play in bulks of 2 years (4 semesters) per uni household It's quite repetative so I try to send 4-5 teens to uni together. When it doesn't work out I try to look for other ways to develop the story.
Overall, I really enjoy this method and my favourite thing is expending the neighbourhood (currently playing Pleasentview) and weaving the families' stories together
Meet Me In My Next Life
#50 Old 2nd Aug 2018 at 12:28 AM
Not sure what my playing style is all I know is once my game open I play whatever family I feel like playing that day, otherwise I will get bored.
I Only have two neighborhood in my game my Custom and Pleasantview and a downtown and UV and shopping district added only to Pleasanview ( Not to my Custom hood )
I removed all other neighborhoods, mostly I play my custom hood and will visit Pleasantview now and then only because Don Lothario is there and one of my favorite Sims.

"Nothing in life is a Surprise it just happen to come your way at the time".
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