Curious Kyra here, Hi 👋🏻
Did u give ur townie in ur save file a makeover or u just play with them without giving the makeover? Also how did u manage to play and post with a lot of challenges. I really wanna do like urs but I can't. I'm scared that if i have too many challenges, I can't handle it. Do u have any suggestion for me? Just take ur time to do this ask and U know we are proud, love ur story and thanks ❤️
Always love questions - they make me feel special 😄 And thank you for the kind words.
In terms of makeovers, it depends. If the pre-Seasons townies have absolutely cursed hot and cold weather outfits, I will go into CAS and quickly give them a new one. Although (as the Landgraabs haven't been revamped since game release) part of me does enjoy the mash ups Geoffrey Landgraab will sometimes end up with, and I'm part of the gang who headcanons it as his Midlife Crisis look.
If it's someone who my sims are going to spend a reasonable amount of shared screentime with, like Paolo Rocca (who is the grandfather of my Odd Money heir, Ziggy) then I will give them a more thorough makeover. Generally my own townie makeovers are few and far between. But now that I'm less scared of MCCC and I have the ability to copy and paste their appearance, I may do more for new save files. Initially I had grand schemes of creating my own "default" save file, but soon realised just how overwhelming that would be.
With challenges, I figured out pretty quickly what would hold my attention and would make me want to return to them, versus what I would crash out of fairly quickly. I used to write away from Simblr, and there's a saying that writers are either "gardeners" or "architects." Gardeners plant some seeds, trim and uproot if needed, but basically let them grow and take their own shape. In comparison architects plan out their story methodically. I am definitely more of a gardener. And while they are great ideas and I enjoy seeing others attempt them, challenges like Not So Berry with their mandatory character traits and list of goals are too much like stuffing a round peg into a square hole for my gameplay style. They make me feel less like a Watcher and more like a micromanager. Odd Money suits me a lot better since I only need to give one trait per pixel then the rest is up to me, and other than how each gen makes its money (Ziggy is the Music gen), the rules are very flexible. I can move the generations around as I like, pick another money making means if the current one is something I've done too many times before, and allow my heir's relationships to ebb and flow according to gameplay.
Something that limits burnout is me not playing too far ahead of my posting. I ran into that problem with Nadia's and Summer's Globetrotter save where I had played the first three legs but hadn't even finished posting for Mt. Komorebi, which was a large part of the reason why I abandoned it. When something sparked me to resume the gameplay, I decided to just recount the completed challenges through Nadia and Summer having a conversation. While there are variants from one Watcher to another, and I love seeing everyone's different takes on it, we are all familiar with what the Globetrotter challenge looks like. Since nothing major character-wise had occurred during the initial three legs, a summary felt like it would work.
With having multiple challenges/ongoing saves, I think it depends on how many and what kind you have. If you're getting burnout from one, for example, you can disappear into a second for a while and hopefully return refreshed. But then if I have too many going at the same time, that can feel overwhelming in itself. For myself I've found that having one "serious" challenge/save (ie. Lilac's bachelorette) where I do a lot of screencaps, note taking and writing, versus one like 100 Baby which is very much casual gameplay, is a good balance. I guess Odd Money is kind of in the middle, but more over to the 100 Baby side, since I mostly post as I go and I don't do a lot of editing or writing for the pictures.
If I need a break or to refresh my "main" save, I'll either ask someone else to send me a sim for the save, or start an one-off challenge. Taking sims from other people who will play a role in my heir's future breathes fresh air into the save, and makes me feel inspired and like it's no longer just "my" save.
One-off challenges are also a low pressure way to try and do something new (I'd recommend not starting a new legacy if your main save is already one, but that's just me). Not Quite Human was a great one for me to do because it isn't multi gen, and so October themed that it gave me something to look forward that time of the year*. Sadly most challenges I come across are legacies of at least ten generations, but if I do find more one-offs, I will let people know. *I live in the Southern Hemisphere, otherwise I would love October. But where I am it represents the dreaded descent into my least favourite season: Summer.
With challenges, I'd also suggest a "if it doesn't spark joy, then out it goes" approach for something you really don't like or aren't looking forward to playing. The standard 100 Baby rules, for example, prohibit any of the fathers from helping with childcare. However even though I'm sure that this is just to increase how challenging gameplay is with having only one caregiver, I didn't feel comfortable with that - and I enjoy seeing the fathers coming over to visit and bond with their children. So I decided that fathers/dna donors could be involved if they wanted to. They will also autonomously run flash cards and help with homework even for children not their own, which is very cute!
Fundamentally gameplay and posting of our blorbos is something that is supposed to be fun, so if it's feeling less like "I can't wait to get home and share this hilarious thing that happened with my mutuals" and more "oh no, I have so many screencaps to edit and posts to queue," then it probably means we either need to take a break from at least one save or cull it. If you'd like to do multiple gameplays but are worried about balancing them, I'd suggest to maybe try an one-off first - such as Rags to Riches, Super Sim, Black Widow, the One Tile Challenge, or even a sim who has to furnish their entire home through crafting and dumpster diving - and see how you go.
Also with storytelling and multiple gen challenges, it's fine to spend less time with a generation that just doesn't excite you the same way, or has less complicated goals than other gens. Other than sending him off to @jonquilyst's Total Drama Sims save (so really, Maggie played with him more as a teen than I did 😅), I didn't spend a lot of time on Ziggy's high school years since those didn't interest me or feel important. I am spending a lot more time on his university arc, however. The studies themselves aren't the focal point of it, but his relationships with his friends and housemates (and those between each other) are. So just basically give each "stage" of the gameplay as much or as little screentime as you think is needed.
Hope that helps! And likewise if anyone has tips that have worked for them, please feel free to share.
