Play Style: The Nitty Gritty
Marhis:
- Definitely more into playing families.
- lots: usually slightly decorated, always cutaway walls: focus on interactions but with some atmosphere around.
- Generations FTW. The genetic aspect as a whole is a very important part of the family story. Recognizing the facial traits of ancestors in their grand-grand-grand-(etc.)-children is one of the features I like the most (and touching, too).
- I've played a single hood only from the very beginning: the infamous Pleasantview. When it went BFBVFS, I discovered MATY, studied the issue, then I managed to reconstruct my borked hood from scratch, with all their traits, stories, etc. Almost all my sims have Pleasantview ancestors, playable or townie; only a few were addeeded from CAS (and not yet breeded, though).
The actual themed hood I'm playing is the first I create from scratch, and with completely different "rules". I find it a good chance to renew the game, and my "base" hood is now in sleep mode.
- I don't care almost at all of their skills, careers or LTWs. The rare cases I care is usually for story purpouses (like a gold-digger who slept with anyone able to pull strings at work, or the traditional bunch of cop pals: 1 police chief and his closer friend who takes his place when he dies - no flying morons in pantyhose, thankyouverymuch).
- My sims are mostly homebodies, because I hate the neverending lot loads. I play community lots only to have them socialize, I don't care a bit of their wants to bowling or play cards, etc. With OfB I often create "fake" community lots: just start a home business and people will randomly come to hang out.
- Suburban for residentials, and city for downtown, sometimes I mix, in the main hood, in zones.
- do you do themes? Medieval, now. I don't like aliens/cyber/space themes much.
- Pets: sometimes, just to add a feature to the story. No commands/pet jobs, some training to pee outside and not destroy the house, and I'm ok.
- aliens etc. I like them as an occasional weirdness addition, for variety. The zombie is totally boring, though. Not yet tried the werewolf.
- hacks: Insim is a must-have tool for in-game reparations or tweakings useful to the story purpose (like adding engagement flags to have sims marry without being in love, etc., or cleaning up borked love flags with deads and such). No inteen, mostly because it involves only a few features I would like and a ton I don't want, and no flavor pack suits my play style.
I use cheats usually only for special situations, and I like to follow rules I make my own, if I can.
E.g., in my medieval hood I motherloded the Royal family with no limits, but also lowered the Peasants budget to 0.
Other hacks are for handling annoyances, to add something funny to game (ex. ACR), or obscure crappy mods made by me to handle some features I want a special family have.
- custom content: a reasonable quote of hair and clothes, a few custom facial hair, very few makeup stuff (I stick to basics), almost no custom eyebrows (ditto), and eyes and skins I like default replacements only. Just a very few eyes and custom skins to use in special situations.
More stuff in the buy/build mode, but in the end I use mostly the same preferred ones, and it got deleted on regular basis.
- creations: a few mods, quite simple, that I made to handle some annoyances, and came out working enough to be shared with no (or not much) shame. My artistic side generated a couple beddings :P.
Most recently, I discover the medieval theme quite inspiring, and also the interesting world of screenshots etc.
Li'l Brudder:
Quote from: Hecubus on 2007 July 18, 01:01:49
Invisigoth and I were talking this evening about play style...and we realized that this discussion would make an interesting topic. Now IG suggested I start the thread, although, as she says, "since it was my idea I want you to credit me and never post it on the exchange or a paysite. And also no changing my idea, recoloring, alpha edits...And you must link back to my profile whenever you mention this idea to anyone. Including IRL."
So with that in mind....
How do you play? Please include details such as:
- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?
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- lots: do you play highly decorated, with walls up/cutaway, with a focus on 'whoever has the most toys wins"? Or do you play barely decorated, walls down, with a focus on interractions/spawning?
I play with a mixture of both. I enjoy building things.
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- is genetics your thing? Do you like watching spawns, and spawns of spawns for how they turn out? Or do you barely get through one generation before you're off to the next family?
I love this.
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- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?
One, but I usually smite it soon after its creation.
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- in terms of what your sims do: are you into relationships and interractions, or are you more into how they skill and climb the corporate ladders?
I love it all.
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- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?
Homebodies.
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-city/country/suburban?
Suburban.
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- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)
Nope.
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- do you play with pets?
Occasionally.
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- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?
I do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing.
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- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?
A little of both, but neither of those.
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-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?
A lot, hacks, recolors.
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- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?
Discuss.
Meshes. Recolors. Meshes.
cabelle:
Quote from: Hecubus on 2007 July 18, 01:01:49
- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?
I like building but I get frustrated because I don't think I'm very good at it. Mostly I will remodel Maxis homes or homes I've downloaded to fit my needs. My favorite things are to create sims and play families
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- lots: do you play highly decorated, with walls up/cutaway, with a focus on 'whoever has the most toys wins"? Or do you play barely decorated, walls down, with a focus on interractions/spawning?
I am into interactions and spawning but I like my sims' environments to look realistic. I'll decorate their home according to my perception of their economic status and style. I prefer to play with cutaway walls and when I take pictures I put the walls up.
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- is genetics your thing? Do you like watching spawns, and spawns of spawns for how they turn out? Or do you barely get through one generation before you're off to the next family?
Genetics is one of my favorite aspects of the game. I love to see how they turn out, who has Mom's nose, Dad's eyes and how it passes down through the generations. Really ugly sims (fish lips and gigantic noses) do bother me. I like a large variety in a sim's looks but if the sim looks like an ugly cariacture I'll either do plastic surgery and make the surgery genetic or kill off the sim.
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- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?
I have 5 neighborhoods. Two are Maxis neighborhoods; Riverblossom Hills and Pleasantview. Three are custom neighborhoods; Sedona (my version of Strangetown), Caerdroia (my Royal Kingdom Challenge neighborhood), and Spring Valley (my Victorian Neighborhood). I deleted Maxis' Veronaville and Strangetown long ago.
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- in terms of what your sims do: are you into relationships and interractions, or are you more into how they skill and climb the corporate ladders?
I only care about skills or career levels for LTWs. Sometimes I like to make sure teens have at least one skill at 8 points for scholarships. Otherwise I'm much more into relationships and interactions.
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- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?
Depends on my mood and the sim I'm playing. My Pleasure and Romance sims do a lot of socializing at community lots. My Family and Knowledge sims tend to stay home more often.
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-city/country/suburban?
All of the above. I like variety. ;D
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- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)
Yes. I like theme neighborhoods. I mentioned above that I have an alien, medieval and Victorian neighborhood. I'm a history nut so I love to have my sims "step back in time."
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- do you play with pets?
Yes, some families have pets though not all of them. I do tend to give more families cats rather than dogs. It's probably because I have three of my own and am more of a cat person though I do like dogs.
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- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?
I've played aliens, that's it. I'm really not into the other paranormal creatures. They don't appeal to me. I've never made a werewolf, vampire, zombie or a plantsim. Rose & Daisy Greenman (the plantsims that came with Riverblossom Hills) were turned to human sims as soon as I was able to do so.
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- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?
I use all of the awesome bugfixes and hacks to get rid of annoyances. I also couldn't live without TwoJeffs ACR and Visitor Controller. ACR is fantastic for me because I was tired of directing my sims' romantic interactions. I wanted my sims to choose who they would woohoo with and when to try for baby. It's also fun to see the messes they will get themselves into due to their romantic choices. :D
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-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?
I have lots of custom content, well over 1 G in my downloads folder. I got tired of the Maxis eyes and skintone so I found defaults I like better. For my themed neighborhoods I have a lot of historical clothing and objects. I get tired of Maxis clothes so I have some modern outfits I like too, mostly outfits from All About Style (I think I've downloaded everything she has) and some from MTS2.
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- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?
I have yet to make anything though I wish I knew how. One of my other hobbies is Civil War reenacting. I make all of my clothes for myself and my family (sans husband's 1st United States Sharpshooter Uniform-my sewing machine does not like thick wool). I wish I knew how to recreate my historical clothing in pixel version for my sims. But alas my skill at virtual needlework is no where near my real life sewing skills.
Cyjon:
- I'm mostly about playing families with stories
- My houses usually end up as "big box with stuff in it" designes. I try to be more creative than that, but they usually end up boring boxes. I rarely download houses as most of the ones I find are just cute building tricks that are completely unplayable in an actual game. I've played around with trying to build houses from real architectural plans and that's been a bit more interesting.
- For me it isn't so much genetics as it is family history. I like seeing how the generations mature, who ends up with whom. However I have yet to play a neighborhood past the 3rd generation
- I always play one hood, all lots time synched, until I install new EPs. Then I completely uninstall and reinstall from scratch, starting a new neighborhood. My first hood was the base game, next was Uni, third added NL and OFB, and I'm just gearing up for Pets and Seasons, playing a test neighborhood as I install hacks in bunches. Once the game is stable, I'll create a new hood as my real one.
- I'm very results oriented and I've had to push myself away from the "skill constantly, reach the top of the career, get all the badges" because that becomes a grind. I try to balance skilling and promotions with relations and family.
- I play a few community lots only as owned businesses. I've never seen the point of taking my sims to lots since I can do pretty much everything at home.
- Suburban. My latest game I'll probably not even create a downtown, just lump everything together in the main hood. The only real reason for a downtown (for me anyhow) is Grand Vampires and I can just make a sim a vampire if I really want one.
- I occasionally try themes on a lot, but not a neighborhood. Themes usually come from having to find some excuse to use the godawful Maxis clothing or hairdos, sometimes from custom content.
- I just got Pets but I doubt I'll have one in every household. Just a scattering here and there.
- I like having about 10% of my population as aliens for variety. I'm experimenting with my first test werewolf now but I doubt I'll have many. My problem with vampires, zombies, and servos is the immortality. They become too static. My plan for the new neighborhood is to have a 10% chance of every sim death to return as a vampire or zombie. I had an idea of using servos as townies, hiring them to manage my multigenerational stores. I age my townies so it's annoying to have to keep retraining managers as the old ones die.
- hacks: My last game had just over 200 hacks, mostly MATY and my own. In my current one I'm up to 164 and still have a few more to go. It's interesting how many of my previous hacks I'm not bothering to install because things aren't annoying me too much. Yet.
- custom content: I'm increasingly frustrated with CC because of things like unbinned hair, underwear classed as everyday, tile floors priced at $1 per square, and so on. I'm being very picky this time and pre-processing everything myself so it shows up right in the game. I'm also decustomizing many things so the townies can use them.
- I make hacks, mostly for my own use. I have a few up on MTS2 but I find the support side of it annoying. I have several dozen in my own game and a to do list of about a zillion. Like many modders, I'd rather play than mod so I don't accomplish as much as I would like. I also *gasp* dare to modify awesome hacks to appeal to my own tastes.
Onion Girl:
Yay, a questionnaire! (Is it weird that I kind of enjoy online ones? o.O)
- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?
Well, since I like to play families, create lots of generations, I have to build lots for them. So, I do a bit of both. I can get quite into building houses/lots, though.
- lots: do you play highly decorated, with walls up/cutaway, with a focus on 'whoever has the most toys wins"? Or do you play barely decorated, walls down, with a focus on interractions/spawning?
A bit of both. I always like to have nice, fully decorated homes, and I play with the walls up. I like the spawns to have somewhere nice to live. :P
- is genetics your thing? Do you like watching spawns, and spawns of spawns for how they turn out? Or do you barely get through one generation before you're off to the next family?
I suppose so. I don't do ugly sims, and I do like to see what the genetics have formed for a sim (or malformed. :P)
- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?
I like to try and stay in the same 'hood, if possible. I'll only begin a new one if the previous one becomes overcrowded/bugged.
- in terms of what your sims do: are you into relationships and interractions, or are you more into how they skill and climb the corporate ladders?
I prefer relationsips. I don't really care for the careers (except to see what they are and the outfits. etc). But, for sims who want to climb the career ladder, I usually do so. And they've usually gained all needed skills even before they're teens (no kids, you can't play, you stay here and gain skills, you useless sprogs!)
- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?
I only really go to community lots for outings and dates, which don't happen too often. They don't even buy food now that Seasons has more or less eliminated that need.
-city/country/suburban?
Usually, my 'hoods are a surburban bliss.
- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)
No. Although, I wouldn't mind trying either Victorian or 50's.
- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)
Sort of, I like the animals. But they can get a little annoying after a while (aswell as the fact that there's more pixels to keep from dying).
- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?
If I'm doing a story, I'll do the supernatural stuff. But for the most part, I prefer the game to be realistic.
- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?
Bit of both; I don't really do mood hacks, since it would get very boring after a while. I use InTeen because I sometimes like my sims to start spawning young, and because of the miscarriage aspect. Although, I find it bizarre that they react worse to a miscarriage than to a death.
-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?
I have a shitload of content; I've made certain to limit myself. I think I have more Bodyshop items than I do objects, but I'm not entirely sure.
- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?
I've considered uploading my lots; but I haven't got around to it, not even sure if I even want to, to be honest.
Personally, I'm quite a family/domestic bliss/OMG teh pretty houses!!!11one oriented Simmer. I like my sims to have shitty things happen, sure, but overall, I tend to keep them happy. I like the sort of story aspect of creating generations of a family, to see how it grows and develops. I also like to create people I know (in RL and online) so I can inform them of their families exploits. I did a very... interesting story using my sister and her family when I first got the game. She found it highly amusing. :P
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