What kind of storylines do you play in Sims 4? [ Edited ]

[k2even11]

Hey everyone, I'm starting to get bored of the way I usually play sims. I like to play multiple households in one game, but I'm out of ideas what I can do with my Sims. I'm not talking challenges specifically. But more like, how to run a restaurant or vet clinic? (Is this even possible in sims 4?)

I've never got into all the "Run a restaurant" of "Own a shop" part in Sims 4, since it's different from https://nox.tips/ https://xender.vip/ what it was like before. What are some things you can do gameplay-wise that are less known? Or what do you like to do that is a bit different from the regular "Build a family and get a job + kids" gameplay.

I myself do the 100 Baby Challenge quite often and I like to build Sims with a different etnicity.

What do you like to do?

[xochiquetzl_xkvn]

I do a lot of sprawling rotations and one-off challenges.

I'm doing a lot of vet clinic/retail store type things (yes, you can do those things if you have Cats and Dogs for the vet clinic and Get to Work for the store) in this save, which is interesting. I try to include some things in the stores that I would like to buy as my other Sims (like the Realm of Magic tomes, and even some completed potions, and I'm going to give my florist the 30 mermadic kelps I found exploring the beach cave...).

I'm also really enjoying putting all my kids in all my households in a kids club, all my teens in a teens club, etc. That means that even when they're NPCs because I'm playing another household I can see them and hang out with them, and they gain skills and friendships when I'm not playing them!

[adding more specifics]

What I've been doing with my current save (and not for any one-off challenges or scenarios):

Mods: MC Command Center, UI Cheats, Wonderful Whims, Pregnancy and Relationship Overhaul (formerly Woohoo Wellness), Whim Overhaul, MissyHissy's Personality mod, KawaiiStacie's Education System, SNB bank. Aging is set to active household only. Risky woohoo is set to a flat 20%.

Set up starting households by:

• Giving them a Personality type based on their aspiration category. If the aspiration category doesn't have a corresponding type, roll a d6.This is optional but does give your Sims different whims from one another; one will want to open a business, another will want to adopt a dog or hamster, and a third will want to become a spellcaster and then get abducted by aliens. I use this with Bienchen's Whim Overhaul, because I've seen "buy a bee box" so many times that it now makes me irrationally angry.
• Manually set sexual orientation with Wonderful Whims under attraction settings (for Maxis townies with a bio, you can use that, or your personal headcanon. When in doubt, or for future age-ups, I use a d100 and say 0-30 is gay, 70-100 is straight, and everyone else is bi unless I want them to be ace--you can, of course, set your own values).
• Look at the pregnancy wish Pregnancy and Relationship Overhaul assigned and if they don't want children they get birth control. That said, if they're family-oriented they always want children and if they hate children they never want children. Everyone else risks it. At least until they have 2, and then I cut them off. :P
• If the household is roommates, they get bank accounts for when/if they get married. Teens with part-time jobs can use bank accounts to save up for university and moving out on their own after.

Then I play, using their aspirations, their whims, their careers, and whatever other plans I had for this household to guide me. I play for exactly one week, Sunday to Sunday, and then move to the next household.  Repeat.

On age-ups, I use the Legacy Challenge trait generator, but I also hit refresh if I don't like that answer.  I do this because I don't want to straight-up hit randomize but I also want to be encouraged to use traits or aspirations I wouldn't otherwise, and I like that the parents' traits have an influence. (Left to my own devices, every Sim will be Self-Assured, Good, and a Genius.) Also I get to avoid traits I find deeply annoying. At teen I assign personality type and sexual orientation; at young adult I check their pregnancy wishes.

All children start with the social aspiration and join my Kids club that meets at the park: Activities: be friendly, play with toys, play on playground equipment, do homework, play chess. Banned activities: be mean. Bonuses to all childhood skills, charisma, logic, and friendly socials. Because I'm very competitive I always want to make all my kids get top notch toddler and all 4 childhood aspirations if I can swing it. If they get a whim to "get a job" I flip a coin to decide whether they do drama club or scouts even though I prefer scouts because my competitive self hates to leave a bonus on the table. 

My teens all join the teen club that meets at the bowling alley. Activities: bowl, dance, be friendly, be funny. Banned activities: be mean. Bonuses to charisma, bowling, dancing, friendly socials, and romantic socials. I've had teens max bowling and dancing as NPCs and then attend university on a bowling scholarship!

If the family is poor, or the teen gets a whim, or I just think it suits them they might get a part-time job. They might also join or continue scouts or drama club.

If Wonderful Whims tells me they're really into someone (and that person doesn't have an orientation that prevents it) I'll try to get them together. This is part of why my bi percentage is so high. I also have a fairly high gay percentage because I want gay and lesbian couples in my game! That said, yes, my straight and bi women tell me they're super into the gay guy, and my straight and bi men tell me they're super into the lesbian, and I tell them sorry.

University: When someone ages up to young adult, I move them into a currently not in world household named either Britechester Students or Foxbury Students with $5K per Sim added to the community funds. They hang out in that household until the end of the rotation, and then they all move into an apartment together. I then turn aging off, and they apply to university, apply for scholarships, and work and do odd jobs. On Friday, I enroll them in University and endure loading screen purgatory to put them all in the same dorm. (Five students? Ten loading screens!) They also have a club with the activity "be friendly," but once they're in the dorms I add "do homework." That Friday, they all start their term papers and presentations and homework, front-loading as much of the semester as possible. Anyone who sleeps quits their part-time job (my vamps kept their barista jobs). Their majors are determined by their aspirations, their personalities, any lifestyles they've acquired, and their current skills. Upon graduation, they move onto an empty lot at least until the diplomas spawn, and then I put them all back in their original households (and I turn aging back on).

New graduates might end up getting a job other than the one that led them to pursue the degree. For example, one Sim who got a Biology degree because he had the body builder aspiration ended up becoming a Doctor. Another who pursued Economics because he was in Business ended up an Environmental Manager because he developed the Outdoorsy lifestyle studying at home and gardening to support his family. I LOVE this.

I personally leave aging and neighborhood stories off for townies except during aging week, which is the first household of the rotation. I want my townies to age as the same rate as my Sims.

And there you have it! more than you wanted to know. 

[simsplayer818]

I play on Xbox Series S and have a few different ways that I play my Sims that might give you some ideas depending on which packs you have.

One thing I like to do is create a max household of different generations and relatives and create several different homes for them. I then split the family over a few different households into the houses I've designed. Sometimes there is a big family homestead (that meets the Mansion Baron Aspiration to give them all reward points at the start) with teens that I will later return to and age up. I gather them all for festival trips, holidays and family events. One of my favourites is headed by a Screenwriter who writes Spanish language films about his childhood, his adult kids are travel writers and I added extended in-laws households too and gave them all the Friendly Introduction reward trait so they all made friends easily. His sister is a celebrity chef and his youngest is at Uni. I play all of the households and add new in-laws when I want to return to them as they are my very favourite family. I've lost them due to bugs more than once but always enjoy recreating them.

Another thing I like to do is make some of the scenarios tougher. So I do the Millions scenario by shipwrecking a Sim in ragged clothes in Sulani on a deserted island and I don't let them buy a thing, they have to work for it. One used it for a social media career and became a global superstar documenting her journey and the other became an explorer who took his tent to every single world and lived out of it before he took everything he'd discovered and displayed it in the mansion I had built waiting for him, along with the jungle dogs he'd rescued.

I also love the retail aspect, I like my Sims to make everything from scratch and I avoid adding mannequins as they cause my game to crash (reported on relevant thread). I love craft shops and craft fayres IRL so I make a lot of those and scatter them all over. One of my favourites is an underground cavern style store in Sulani selling collectables gathered from Sulani to Sixam. I also like to use the knitting and painting skills to fill stores. I've recently finished a garden centre with every plant in my game on display to be harvested for free with some sheltered to still bloom out of season. It also has homemade herbal remedies, shelves of rare harvestables and vegetarian preserves and a little trailer where my Sim stays when he's working late. I usually always add an apartment or bungalow to a retail lot, one Sim and her family use theirs as a weekend place with a private beach house next to the store and fenced off. I also made a store based on the old Athena poster shops I loved IRL years ago. It sells all the space/microscope prints and city living posters. I made a furniture department store with all the Eco Living furniture handmade from dumpster diving, etc just to make it challenging. Poor Keiko, she spent a long time in those dumpsters!

I've mentioned this on other feeds but I love to make families who are of a different culture and ethnicity, I do a bit of research about each culture rather than just making it up just because it fascinates me to learn about these things. I love a vibrant and diverse world.

Another thing I really love to do is adopt children. I like to create a fabulous life for them with all the clothes and toys they could want plus a happy family life of course. I also rescue stray pets and do the same.

Unfortunately my way of playing is hampered by bugs right now which I've reported and I was hoping for a big summer fix to sort them all out. This is my second forced break of the year! So I'm on a different game and console I just got for my birthday. But I miss my Sims and plan to return to them soon as I'd only just added Wedding Stories, I just hope someone is working on these bugs.

Hope you find some ideas on here for your next household! Have fun!

[xochiquetzl_xkvn]

@simsplayer818 

Just a belated followup to say that I love adopting children, too! My Sims frequently adopt children, especially if they're a gay or lesbian couple. And yeah, I also love to adopt stray pets. <3

And yes, I think Mansion Baron works best if you have a family! that way everyone gets the aspiration points!

[simsplayer818]

@xochiquetzl_xkvn Agreed. My Sims almost always adopt both. It can also add an extra challenge to the game as the traits are pre-set so you have to work around those traits. I had one Sim who adopted a stray dog from the beach and didn't realise he was a vicious dingo! Yikers! But she took on the challenge of training him up and apart from biting a few ankles he settled in. I just had to keep the gate locked!
I just adopted a toddler and added him to a fairytale house (I added a picture of it on the thread about sharing new creations) and when I get my Sims up and running again if it's working a little better I'll be adding the new Little Campers kit to make it more special for him. Little Rocco deserves it!
Now I have to remind myself Sims aren't real, Sims aren't real...!

[daikoyu]

I normally play a story in sims4, so I love if the team add lore. I am especially happy about werewolves and how much they added in this. At the moment I have war between vampire, spellcaster and werewolves.  // I use spoiler tag for details because its rather a long read

Spoiler

It simple started as a vampire from me romanced a mermaid. Mermaids in my game can only fall in love one time and dying if they lose her romantic partner. My vampires have the same system as Werewolves, fate-system. They both was deeply in love until the vampire encounter his soulmate. The mermaid dies because of this and create a curse on the vampire race. The course makes it almost impossible that a vampire can get pregnant and if the child is a female child, the child will go insane as it reaches adulthood. Because of this curse the vampire began to hunt mermaids and this was the beginning for a lot of storytelling.

In time more and more rules/restriction got added, I don’t need any mods to have fun in sims4, but mods help that my blood pressure don’t get high because the game make again a stupid decision for my sim as … run inside in thunderstorm (I don’t want to give all my sim the storm chaser reward to stop this stupid thing), react to swearing or a celebrity. Townies want to join my conversation if my sims have a war council or a date. I wish autonomy off was truly autonomy off, I would need a lot less mods for these problems.

Because of this playstyle I toggle all off which give my sims any personalities. So, I don’t use NAPS, Lifestyles, whims, NS. I play with aging off and mostly don’t play with sims under young adult. If I add kids, they reach rather fast adulthood if I play these sims active or have a role in my story.  All my new sims start with rags to riches, with many restrictions how they can make money, specially painting and gardening have strict rules.

I was never interested in community challenge or scenario. I get bored easily with these playstyles because my brain doesn’t need to think for it. My playstyle needs a lot of fantasy because the game and mods can never fulfil this playstyle. Luckily, I can just close my eye and I see the scene in my mind. So Sims4 is a dollhouse for me, and I have fun with this dollhouse. Since a while the team add things which get rid of this dollhouse, so I need more mods, but I don’t mind it as long other player have more fun with this game and don’t give wrong messages (*cough* Hates Children and the daze situation before they changed it)

[simsplayer818]

@daikoyu Your storyline is awesome!!! I don't have Vampires or Werewolves as I have a terrible phobia of both since childhood but it's inspired me to involve mermaids more. I only have one and haven't really involved her much. I do have Spellcasters so I think I'll try mixing up mermaids with them! Thank you for the inspiration!

[xochiquetzl_xkvn]

Oh, also, speaking of challenges... I sometimes like to pick one that's out of character and would recommend that.

Example: I'm a big softie who hates doing mean interactions and fighting and hadn't let a Sim die ever, in playing from 2017-2022, so... I played the Black Widow challenge. It turns out that yeah, I don't like killing Sims! but it's not as bad as I thought, and also it was kind of refreshing to not be hyper-focused on making all the kids "perfect," which I tend to do. I mean, we did help with homework and such, but I didn't spend hours coaching their character values like I used to. (Is their Black Widow stepmother really going to lecture them on empathy? That said, the fact that she's nice to children and pets is really her only redeeming virtue.)

In short, if you're feeling in a rut, I would generally recommend trying to come up with something that's the opposite of your usual play style, or something that sounds fun but is something you've never done. Become obsessed with camping! Join the Secret Society! Be an Interstellar Smuggler! Other ideas include doing some kind of Occult Dynasty or playing the townies!

[simsplayer818]

I always have harmony in my game if possible, I ditch Roughhousing NAPs and Neighborhood Brawl and mostly try and have Sims all get along. However a few years ago I created an actor called Octavia without realising there already was an Octavia in the game. So I made mine an ice cold and bitter starlet who drives her namesake out of town, takes her house and her fortune and is universally despised by the time she reaches the top. She briefly marries Dirk Dreamer to boost her simsta-fame, only associates with celebrities and leaves a trail of famous broken hearts. Her look (but not her personality) was inspired by the amazing Grace Kelly, but she's truly terrible. Her personality was inspired by Jadis the witch of Narnia. However, at night she puts on a disguise and rescues street cats, changes their fur to look like mini leopards and tigers and takes them home to her cold marble mansion to keep her company (disclaimer: no cats were turned to stone in the making of this Sim!) She's a fruitarian and never eats a meal, just fruit. She's nothing like my other Sims, she's a monster.

I lost her when I lost my game last year and I haven't added her back yet but I look forward to recreating her fabulously mean and glittering tale!