Play Style: The Nitty Gritty
aqualectrix:
My main playing focus is families. I'll build or adapt homes for them and occasionally create a new sim to throw in the mix, but otherwise it's all families, strict two day/two semester rotation.
I always think I want drama, but I mostly play Happy Families dollhouse-style. The march of generations seems to be enough to keep it interesting for me; I like to watch the genetics and family trees and I think sim toddlers are really cute, so if I weren't concerned about keeping the neighborhood size manageable they'd be spawning all the time. I seem to have found a spawning policy that works fairly well: every couple gets one child, but for each Family sim in the couple they get an extra kid. Plus exceptions for Graduate Three Children, Have Six Grandchildren, etc. Fortunately my population size is large enough that ltwvariety has seen fit to ban the Marry Off Six Children LTW.
I've been playing the same hood I've been since the game came out. Originally Pleasantview, Rambelton has been through a lot -- as various things have been exposed as Bad Things, I've gone in and cleaned them up with SimPE and other tools, meaning that it's about as healthy as a hood this old can get. The playable population is currently fairly stable at 130-140 sims; a full neighborhood rotation takes around a month. It keeps me from getting too bored with any particular family.
I play with my sims on Free Will, and try to guide how I play a particular sim by its wants and LTW. For example, I do quite a lot of community lot playing, but most of it is with those sims who want to Own Five Top Businesses. BRY makes running businesses a breeze, so I think it's a lot of fun. They are all on community lots, because if I have the patience or the boredom I like my other families to be able to visit the businesses.
I'm still playing in what was Pleasantview, and the atmosphere has stayed suburban. I imagine my population will eventually grow large enough that I'll want to have playables living in subhoods, and those will definitely have a different atmosphere. Seeing all the neat themed neighborhoods people have made makes me think they might be themed, although goodness knows I don't actually need excuses to do more downloading.
I play with pets and some supernatural creatures -- I have lots of aliens, although with a PT replacement because I can't stand the noseless. I'm working on some plantsims, and would like some werewolves if I could just manage to attract some wolves. I stay away from the immortals, because my population size needs constant culling through death.
Hacks are pretty much Awesomeware and various other fixy things. The game is easy enough as it is, who needs to make it easier?
As I have no skills of an artist, the only things I've ever made are recolors by playing around with Irfanview's Color Change tool.
Invisigoth:
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."
That's right, and I'd better not see this in any other forums either or I'm never telling any of you my ideas ever again and I'll have a big tantrum.
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- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?
Playing! I hate building and decorating. I am also missing the previously mentioned gene that allows for decoration and pretty handwriting. Creating sims is fun though.
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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 always play walls down although once they are rich enough I'll buy some of the items that they absolutely MUST HAVE RIGHT NOW OMG!11!!! including paintings. If they don't roll a want for a deco item then they don't get any. I am interested in the interactions, the story telling, the "personality" of each sim, and the genetics more than anything else.
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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 the genetic aspect, that is one of the most fun parts, although sometimes I get bored and drop a family or a hood to create some more interesting sims.
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- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?
I do tend to make lots of hoods although I play only one or two at a time. When I get sick of the hood I'm playing I'll usually just dump it and start fresh. I do build all of my own lots typically because most Maxis homes suck for playability and I loved the downtown lots but so many of them are stupid seasons disasters waiting to happen. I guess it didn't occur to them when they were building bernard's botanical dining that one day there might be lightning hitting those trees poking out through the giant hole in the roof...Plus it's annoying when non playables are constantly doing the it's raining indoors action.
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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 the relationships, but for the most part I let the sims and ACR decide who they will be with. Sometimes I will plan two sims to marry even if they have no bolts or one is a family sim and one is a romance sim just to mess things up a bit and make it more interesting. I also enjoy the skilling and climbing of the corporate ladder though. The way I play each sim tends to depend on their asp and inclinations that they have shown me. A sims aspiration is determined by personality and family more than anything else (a really outgoing sim will usually be popularity or romance) but sometimes I will mix it up for variety. I guess it just seems more real to me that most sims will aspire to do what their personality indicates but with some deviation from that rule. It can be really interesting to play an incredibly shy, serious, mean romance sim or a really lazy, messy family sim. I like mean sims as pleasure in particular because I think that mean and self-absorbed go together well.
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- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?
Lately I have been going to a lot more community lots because I've figured out how to build really small, efficient, playable lots that don't take quite as long to load.
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-city/country/suburban?
Desert in the middle of nowhere. Always.
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- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)
I never did before, but after downloading Dewshine's Enayla's One Series I absolutely had to create an alien hood. I haven't actually started really playing it yet because I generated a townie pool and none of them used the decustomized skins, so I blew up the hood and did it again and the second time they all generated s1-s4 skins (I am really mad) so I am going to blow it up again and make all of my townies in CAS. But I am really looking forward to my first themed hood. The idea alone brought me out of a simpotence streak that began when I realized that I hated every sim in my other custom hood.
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- do you play with pets?
Depends on the family. My snotty stuck up rich families are less likely to get a pet, and if they do a single cat is the limit, typically I only let them have one child as well. I almost never play with dogs because I don't like them IRL, but they do have some really cute toddler interactions that I love.
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- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?
I usually have aliens in my regular hood, I've always loved green skinned simmies. To be honest I've never bothered with any of the other creatures, but once my new freaky hood is up and running I plan to have several of each.
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- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?
Harder is better. I have most of the director's cut, I think I only took out three or four hacks (traditional marriage, no fraternization...I forget what else I took out). I like harder jobs a lot! I also have ACR, insim (although I pretty much just use it as a second opinion for ACR's preg scanner since I had a few probems with ACR's day after pill not working and ACR thinking it worked...Hmm, now that I think about it that's a pretty large file for a second opinion). I use the kitten killer because I like my teens to have consequences if they are going to be having sex, and it can create a really interesting and unexpected storyline. I love when something one of my sims does totally throws off my plans and then I have to shuffle to cope with the unanticipated. Although easier on me is better too, macrotastics and similar allow me to do repetitive things in fewer clicks which I like. Macro-clean is the best sims invention ever because I no longer have to search my entire house for that one last dirty plate that the sim left in the upstairs bedroom for some weird reason.
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-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?
Tons and tons of skins (Enayla, trill, cardassian, and default replacements as well as a few skintones between the defaults to make more realistic looking offspring). A fair amount of custom hair, but I'm always looking for more. LOTS of eyes. A handfull of objects and a few wall and floor coverings. I think the largest one group of CC I have is clothes. For years I didn't use any CC clothes but in the last few months I can't seem to download enough of it. And I'm still not happy. I NEEEEED moar clothes! ::goes off to download stuff:: Oh, and a growing collection of accessories. I've gotten really into earings lately.
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- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?
I create eyes sometimes, and I was working on some fantasy skins until I found Enayla's beautiful jewel encrusted wonders and I realized that I would never create anything half as pretty so I burninated my embarassments. I don't share them because you would all mock me. Similarly I doubt you will ever see a screen shot with any of my creations in them either. I is shy dammit!
By the way, your responses to this thread should look like mine in length and content. Or I'll throw another tantrum. ;)
Kyna:
- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?
Playing families. I suck at building. I hate rebuilding/redesigning lots that I downloaded too. I did d/l a few lots from the most recent MATY competition, but I usually tend to stick with Nec's grey box that won last year as it plays fast. I have entire neighbourhoods filled with this lot - the storyline to cover that is that this is a company town (or a former company town), such a a desert mining town or former military base, and the company built these rows of identical houses to house their employees.
- 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?
Barely decorated. I recently got a graphics card, before that I was using an integrated graphics chip. The graphics situation meant that I needed to keep non-essential decorations to a minimum, although when I installed Seasons I was starting to add gardens to my lots. Walls down, so I can see what's going on. I've now had my new graphics card long enough that I turned the cut-scenes off yesterday. (The abduction one would be my favourite).
- 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 try for genetics. I play on 3 day rotation, but eventually my hood gets too big, and all those families are a chore to play through if there's nothing going on in their lives.
- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?
I have several hoods. I rotate through them. I currently have 3-in-1 (by SaraMK, available in Peasantry), ST, PV. I also have a legacy hood, and Madame Mim's PV ancestry (available at www.genensims.com). Currently I've just finished an Apocalypse challenge with the Seasons rules, and am playing it through again. I also periodically get bored with a hood and delete it. Am thinking of putting in Marhis' reverse gender PV again (available in the Podium).
- 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'm trying to get away from the skilling/corporate ladder thing. I use Hook's randomiser to shake things up a bit, introducing random death, and Denimjo posted JadeElliott's list of random events in Hook's randomiser topic, which I also use when I think the pot needs to be stirred. I'm trying to get away from playing happy families.
- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?
Homebodies. Occasional outings, until a sim has enough friends, or I might send a sim with 20 woohoo LTW to a comm lot. I don't do dates. I'll also run through 5 comm-lot businesses for LTWs. Get them to lvl 10 then sell them.
-city/country/suburban?
Suburban.
- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)
No.
- do you play with pets?
I have it installed, but they annoyed me too much. No pets now in any of my many hoods.
- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?
I like aliens, especially with Dylan's Laverwinkle PT replacement. Aliens in all my hoods. My Legacy usually has a main line and an alien line, and each generation in the main line has the heir, the spare and the alien baby. The alien line has a normal baby and an alien one (I edit aliens so that they're not related to PT). Every other household gets one pregnancy.
- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?
I use insim, but only sparingly. Mostly when I make my own townies - sometimes I give them skills, job, etc, rather than letting the game randomise it, since the game doesn't give townies the Seasons jobs. Also handy for keeping track of how close they are to dancing level 8. Most of my hacks are from here, I have most of Pescado's director's cut installed and quite a few of TJ's hacks. I tend not to use hacks to make life simpler - the game is easy enough as it is.
-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?
Not much. I need more RAM before I can go mad with CC. I have Melodie9's toddler hairs, Genensims' apricot red recolours of Maxis hair, and some makeup by Hairfish.
- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?
Not a creator.
EDIT: to give appropriate credit to the people who put together the neighbourhoods I play.
SaraMK:
Quote from: Hecubus on 2007 July 18, 01:01:49
How do you play?
I have many neighborhoods, all of them either themed or based around various challenges. The challenge neighborhoods are pretty self-explanatory, I guess, so I'll just talk about the themed ones.
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- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?
I'm not into building lots. I have built very few houses for my own game. I mostly download lots and modify them. I'm primarily a player, not a creator, but because my 'hoods are themed, a certain amount of creation and decoration has to be done.
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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?
Again, themed. Most lots are appropriately decorated.
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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 are very much my "thing." I often plan out families well in advance, like, Cornelius is going to be the seventh son of the seventh son, so he'll be the town idiot who makes dire predications and seem to leave a lot of dead sims in his wake.
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- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?
Both. I have a lot of 'hoods AND I've played a lot of them for a long time. My oldest was made after Uni came out and I've been playing it at least once a week since then. It's kind of dying a slow death due to too many character files....
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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'm definitely more into relationships and the sims' place in the community.
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- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?
I try to keep comm lots to a minimum, based on what's necessary for the neighborhood. But, yes, I like to take my sims out!
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-city/country/suburban?
All of the above. :)
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- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)
Just about everything. I have several with variations of the country theme, a space colony... just a lot of different stuff.
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- do you play with pets?
Yup. I like pets. Most of my families have at least one.
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- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?
I like them if they're appropriate in the neighborhood.
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- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?
Both. Or, I guess I should say, I use hacks to change the game to make life in my themed neighborhoods seem more like what it should be. Sometimes that means using a hack that makes something easier, and sometimes it means using a hack that makes something way hard.
InSIM is always in my game. InTeen not usually.
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-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?
Tons and tons. I think I generally have the most clothing, hair, and decorative objects, but it depends on the neighborhood.
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- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?
Not much. I'm not really a creator. If you go into Peasantry... that's pretty much all I've made, except for some default replacement stuff that I've made for specific neighborhoods.
CandyToast:
I like to screw around. I do a little bit of everything.
I download houses by Pbox at MTS2 and rip them apart and re-wallpaper and such. I play strictly walls down (I like clear sight lines)
I get through about 2 generations and then get bored
I rip apart maxis hoods because hood decorating and house building is beyond me
Both interaction and skilling
Suburban
Homebodies. The com lot load lag is severe, my computer is not equipped to play base game let alone all expansions and 2 stuff packs.
As making everything as strange as possible (if thats even a theme)
Very few pets
Aliens!
I am hacked to bits, I have Insim, Inteen, Squinge, and a good portion of the director's cut. I have hack subfolders where I can.
I have a lot of CC mostly clothes
I make paintings, but I do not share because making paintings is lazy-man work. I mod some things when given hand-hold directions
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