do you have any tips for not getting bored playing a single sim for a while? i always rush things and marry everyone off and that kind of spoils it for me :-(
ok i might not be the best person to ask but iāll give myself you some tips!
give them fun traits and aspirations: i found that i get quite easily bored with perfect sims. try to give them traits that donāt work very well together, or give them two negative traits. if there are traits youāve never/rarely give to sims, try them out! similarly, give your sims different aspirations too, try out the ones you rarely use, and then try to complete them. you can use this random trait and aspiration generator if you find yourself giving every sim the same ones over and over again. or you can do it the nice and sloppy way (which is, obviously, what i usually do), look away from your screen, and click around like a blind bat until youāve accidentally clicked on a random trait/aspiration.
come up with a character sheet: donāt rely solely on traits and aspirations when it comes to your simās personality. come up with entire characters, for example, you can make a health-obsessed sim, give them the vegetarian and active traits - and then make them run every morning, do a yoga routine every night, make them eat only organic (aka make meals only for which you have fresh ingredients for from your garden), make them meditate. or you can come up with an always tired, slightly alcoholic writer character: give them the loner trait and the writer aspiration, and then make them get by on coffee, pull all nighters, drink a glass of wine every night, make them interested in maths (max out the logic skill), while completing the writer aspiration, etc. you can even use character generators, like this one.Ā
choose an active career: if you have get to work, choose the doctor, detective, or scientist career, and go to work with your sim. there are plenty of challenges in the workplace, lots of things you can do or have to do, and itās very rewarding.
try different careers: once again, do stuff you never do. i have at least five careers that i havenāt tried before, and i only got to the top of oneā¦ give your sim a job that youāve never played with/never made it to the top of; or give them a job that doesnāt work well with their aspiration/traits and come up with ways to make them work (for example, make a good sim become a criminal, or a gloomy sim be a comedian; choose the writer career for an the aforementioned health-obsessed sim and play like theyāre writing self-help books, etc.).
or, donāt have a career: try to live off the land, by making money only through foraging and farming. or make money only by selling paintings or books. or, if you have city living, make money only by selling random stuff at festivals/singing and playing an instrument in the city.
challenges: challenges save lives, to be honest. while many of them focus on legacies/multiple sims, you can find a lot that require a single sim. here you can find a huge list of different challenges. whenever iām stuck with a sim, i usually go to the box of chocolates challenge, though; you basically roll one/two events per sim week, and you have that week to complete them. it introduces a lot of things that you might never think to do, and they can eventually become something in your gameplay that you do a lot (like the thing with only cooking meals with fresh ingredients - i do that a lot when i need a bit of quick challenge for myself).
complete aspirations: this is quite straight forward, iād think that they came up with aspirations in the first place for keeping things from getting boring; but working towards an aspiration milestone definitely gives you something to do - especially if you chose an aspiration that youāve never completed before.
complete whims: try to make your simās every wish come true! if they have a whim to buy a hot tub, work towards having enough money and get them a hot tub. if they want to hang out with someone, let them. this gives you an array of fun things to do.
start a business: if you have get to work, you can try starting your own business. iāve had countless flower shops, but you can have your sim manage a fancy clothes shop, a thrift store, a museum that sells paintings, etc. it takes some getting used to, and it can be difficult at times, but thatās what weāre going for - difficult is not boring, at least.
manage a restaurant/pub/coffee shop: if you have dine out, you can have your own restaurant (though this is something i havenāt tried before). you can even build it yourself, and make it fit your simās personality - to be consistent with my examples, you can have a health-obsessed sim open a small vegetarian brunch place with lots of plants. or you can have a fancy restaurant that serves experimental foods, if you have a rich/weirdo sim. or you can open and manage a small coffee shop that also works as a library with lots of book shelves and couches. i donāt know much about managing such places, but iād expect itās fun!
have a garden: i guess this is pretty personal, i just love myself a good peasantā¦ a small garden gives you something to do every day, and itās quite rewarding to see plants grow and evolve. you can also experiment with grafting, and learning herbalism if you have outdoor retreat!
go camping: another fun thing to do, if you have outdoor retreat, is to go camping, and collect insects and wild plants, meet other sims, marry the ranger, fight bearsā¦
find the secret lots: there are four secret lots that you can visit, if iām not mistaken and count sixam, too. you can try finding and exploring them, make friends with the hermit, meet aliens, etc. building a rocket ship to go to sixam is also quite time consuming and fun, and exploring space gives you many new, fun things to do too!
have a cowplant: because theyāre a pain in the arse so much that only keeping a cowplant alive should tie you down a littleā¦
throw parties/social events: try out every kind of social event you can hold at home, or other locations. have dinner parties, fancy dress parties, brunches, house warming parties, pumpkin carvings, weenie roasts etc. better yet, try to achieve a gold medal in each of them!
start a club: clubs arenāt something iāve explored before, but you can start all kinds of clubs and gather club points, try to make them as fun as possible.
build and master skills: building skills doesnāt only give you something to do, but they introduce new activities and socialā¦ things to do/talk about (my english is failing me but you get what iām saying). so the higher your skill points, the more new things for you to do!
use skill building items: the obvious option is an easel, of course, i love looking at the paintings they make and discovering new ones! also, try out the woodworking table and make your own furniture. or try pumpkin carving, or buy a waterslide and look at your simās funny faces.Ā
donāt forget aspiration rewards: these will give you some new ways to play your game, itās definitely worth exploring all kinds of fun stuff and custom traits you can get for satisfaction points! there are things likeĀ āincredibly friendlyā which comes in handy if you have a social aspiration, orĀ ābeguillingā which is extremely helpful for a serial romantic, but there are so many options to explore.
give them a makeover: every now and again, when i get bored of my sim, i give them a little makeover to freshen up the experience a bit, like a new hairdo and hair colour or a new outfit. it seems quite basic, but it really helps make things a bit less boring on the long run!
bonus: @bratfishās ideas
download custom traits: there are many super fun custom traits around for you to download and explore, have a look around here.
add more CAS traits: thereās this mod that allows you to give your sim more than three traits, so they can have a proper personality. i suggest you read through the description on how to use it!
this is not really about gameplay, but whenever you feel uninspired with your game, take a break, go outside start building. you can try filling up empty lots, or delete all lots and townies (or download an empty world save or a different world for a change of sceneryĀ - though i suggest you do this before starting a game) and fill up the world with houses, community lots and your own townies.
ok, this is kinda different, but iāve found that taking screenshots of your game really slows down your gameplay - but in a good way. youāll find yourself doing all kinds of stuff you havenāt done before for the sake of a good screencap, haha. looking at other poepleās gameplay and stories also keeps you inspired; and you can even try writing your own story and then making it happen in the sims.
phew, this turned out to be a lot, i wish i could follow my own advice, haha. anyway, i hope you find this helpful - and everyone else, if you have any ideas and suggestions, feel free to add them!
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