Lot Sync Timer: how do YOU use it?
Karen:
Quote from: jsalemi on 2008 March 06, 19:28:07
Boy, I feel old-fashioned. :) I play each lot through one full day, usually saving it during the night in case of a reset, and then move on to the next. The only time I go beyond that is when a birth is imminent, then I'll wait until the baby is born and named and then save.
Hey, you're not the only one! :) I have been playing like that for ages. I play one day per lot, or two semesters on my Uni lot, then move on. I have 30+ families in my hood, so a single-day rotation through the entire hood can take a week or more to play through, particularly if any of them go on vacation. (I only let them go to the vacation lots if somebody actually rolls a want for it.)
Karen
Zazazu:
Quote from: karen on 2008 March 06, 20:19:25
I have 30+ families in my hood
That screams "Time for a culling!"
The furthest I've gotten generation-wise was 11, but I was playing only the heirs. Fifth generation is actually the furthest I've gotten playing prosperity-style and I owe it mostly to the tight ruleset of my current neighborhood controlling who gets married. I didn't have a "natural" birth until the fourth generation spawned. My playables hadn't wanted to get married until then, and didn't have a three-bolter available. Hence, probe. Fourth gen, the eldest is currently expecting his first and most likely only (Fortune-Fortune household). The middle-born looks like she'll either be childless or have a date with the probe. Someone has to have a date with the probe. The youngest I really haven't decided about yet. It all comes down to his aspiration and potential chemistry, and he's still a child. Plus, the great "Yes/No" roll for whether he's going to be made happy or not. So fifth gen will be either two children (three households running) or three-five, most likely.
Karen:
Well, I have been playing like that for a LONG time. In the days before ACR, I used to have a pretty stable population of 135-145 playables, and that number had been very consistent for a long time. Now that I let ACR decide when my Sims will spawn, the total is a bit higher (I have 166 playables at the moment), but as I said, it's spread out over 30+ families and some of those families are pretty small. I also happen to have a relatively high proportion of elders at the moment (and will have 8 more in the next day's rotation).
Talk about "culling", though: I had that "realistic sickness" mod in my game a few months ago and it did wonders for culling the excess population :) I might have to try that again at some point. In the meantime, I mostly don't cull the population deliberately. On the other hand, I had a bizarre death in one of my families yesterday: It's fall on that lot, so there were leaf piles everywhere. A tree got struck by lightning. By the time I noticed it, the rain had stopped, but the tree was still on fire. There was a fire alarm in the house but naturally it didn't summon the fire dept for an outside fire. I decided to just let it happen. After a few minutes the fire spread to the leaf piles under the tree. One of the elders got too close, and burned to death.
Karen
speedreader:
I use the lot sync timer mostly to keep age spans correct. I hate it when Sally is dying of old age and her sister Marie has just had her first child with her husband who is Sally's grandson's best friend. Just hate it! I generally play 2-3 days on a lot, one or two lots per session. As for college, I send the kids when they are 18 (6-7 days into teen). They generally only experience one semester per year at college. I play the college lot until I have some seniors, return to the main hood and when I reach the (lot sync timer) day they should return from college I move those who have graduated back (4 days after they left). When I move a new family into the hood they start out on the same day everyone else is on, and I adjust the season accordingly.
Before the lot sync timer I used an elaborate family tree method of playing and kept everyone's ages written on a chart so I would avoid the example above!
ingeli:
I also play each family a full season, or 5 days. Then I play Uni sub hood 2x3 days = 1 study year. This of course leads to very long study period for the students, they are gone a full seasonal year from the original hood, which is a long time even if they enroll at 10 days into teen-hood. I am contemplating speeding it up and do 2 study years in one rotation.. I use the LST to keep track of the total amount of days played.
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