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Field Researcher
Original Poster
#1 Old 18th Mar 2019 at 2:11 AM
Default Semi-Playable Sims - how do you play with them
So I have sims in my neighbourhoods which I would call semi-playable.

These are not the NPCs or Townies/Downtownies or whatever.

These are playable sims who I have moved in but who are not actually part of my neighbourhood timeline. For instance, Brittany Upsnott (and Tiffany and Heather before their untimely deaths) lives in Tri-Var house at my university. I treat her like a roommate in AL - making sure she is fed and doesn't flunk out of school, but then I reset her. She's seen Lucy Burb and Danna Dreamer go through university and now she's still there with Willa Burb.

Other families, like the Ottomas, the Travellers, etc, are also in houses, can make friends with my sims, but I treat the way I treat NPCs even though they are actually living in my neighbourhood and at some point, I think I will activate them, and they will stop being static in time, like the Picasos who have 4 teenage boys now and their eldest, Matty Picaso is about to get Ilana Dreamer, who is in mourning for her mum Cassandra, pregnant, and neither is going to go to college as a result.

So I wonder if anyone else plays like this?

I'm thinking I've got to rotate Brittany out of the Tri-Var house for a couple of years, but then move her back in later maybe?
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Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#2 Old 18th Mar 2019 at 2:27 AM
The only semi playable I would have would be a test sim who I am planning to send the tax money too and not be seen at all. He will be like a bank.

If a sim is seen they will be played. So the townies that I made will at some point be played, townies from BV will be aged up, moved into my retirement home and be played. I like to keep ageing realistic and in sync. If I played the game university (I use a custom one) Brittany would have to be played, even if that was played by cheating her up. So I might cheat her as graduated, give her some skills and a job (I find these sims good as sims to hire for my businesses) and place her in a house, or at that point, I might make her into a townie for a while but she would at some point become an elder and move to the retirement home. I keep an ever-changing cast of sims which reminds me I need to do something with the NPC's, again I will probably age them up and move them into the retirement home. The teen paper girl got moved in and aged up and will be married in. The teens at the few NPC run shops will need to also be aged up and probably townified for awhile.

I don't have any of the sim bin sims in my hood I kept them out. They are in my medieval game though, there I moved them in, made them over and they are played like any of my other playable sims.

Basically, I can't stand seeing the teenage paper person bring the paper when the grandkids are heading off to uni so after I have seen them long enough I age them up to get a new one.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#3 Old 18th Mar 2019 at 9:22 AM
I don't think there is a right or a wrong way - as far as I am concerned, I play certain sims when I wish too or when it suits me - otherwise, they are skipped (eg. the current mayor is only called upon when I need her to host the annual Christmas charity dinner - she has been played until she reached her LTW, though - and she is probably now a semi-playable).

I have visited the Tinkers in Bluewater village around 3 times, but I did send Melody to Uni

In my opinion, it is a game and perhaps a story, and some characters are more important than others.
Mad Poster
#4 Old 18th Mar 2019 at 11:11 AM
I move so slowly I don't often run into the problem of eternal youth for people I don't actively play. I like to set up people to run owned businesses, so I can customise the business, then leave them and don't play them. Of course my sims will get to know the owner of their local coffee shop etc., so depending on the relationships they make I might end up playing them.
Alchemist
#5 Old 18th Mar 2019 at 2:10 PM
Yes, kind of, I think of them as minor characters or "extras." I have one hood where I've eliminated most townies (by sending them off to the non-existent downtown). Any remaining townies that I may have missed are meant to be sims just driving through on the highway, and most of my lots, like the local pool or tiny library, have them banned, but you might see them at the general store on the highway. Everyone else is a playable, has a story, and has a house. Those semi-playables that I'm not really playing much or even interested in right now, are available if I need a random baby daddy or business owner to be running a lot (like the pool and the library) when my main sims visit. The advantage is that I know them when they walk around, they are already part of the story of the town, and they have background details and personalities and memories of gossip in town that might be useful later. Recently I put a ghost in the town to haunt several lots and it's fun that when a random sim sees the ghost, they end up spreading rumours about it. No one is in the bin in this hood, and no one ages unless I decide to age them for the story, so that's not an issue.
Theorist
#6 Old 18th Mar 2019 at 3:00 PM
I have "peripheral characters". Sims or families I have lost interest in. So I don't play them.

However because I'm very OCD about relative ages in the neihgbourhood and about family trees, I use cheat objects to age them along in rotations. Sometimes, after a while I start playing the family again.

The University Premades I treat as "Extras" just like Townies and NPCs. Potential Characters that can become Actual Characters when I choose to move them into a household or have them graduate (it probably helps here that I don't play uni, I just cheat to give my Sims degrees, because blergh I'm not playing 24 days of university for every.single.sim.)

Avatar by MasterRed
Taking an extended break from Sims stuff. Might be around, might not.
Scholar
#7 Old 18th Mar 2019 at 11:32 PM
I've only done that when playing a BaCC, and the families do get moved in eventually. I consider them to be living in a nearby city, and then they move in either when one of the adults becomes BFFs with a resident, or when there's a vacancy for someone in their career. So in my last BaCC, the Ottomas family moved in when there were enough teens and children to justify hiring a teacher; a resident knew Samantha and recommended her for the job (I'd previously played them through until the twins were born, so she'd be available for work when needed).
Mad Poster
#8 Old 18th Mar 2019 at 11:41 PM
If I don't play bin Sims I usually don't want my playables "playing" with them. I will move them to a lot just to give them prisoner tokens. I DO, however, totally mess with the few hoods I have that have spawned townies; they get shot, axed or made temporally playable have surgery done (& make it genetic), & made pregnant and then turned back into townies. I am a god with a cruel sense of humor.

Stand up, speak out. Just not to me..
Alchemist
#9 Old 18th Mar 2019 at 11:58 PM
Quote: Originally posted by grammapat
If I don't play bin Sims I usually don't want my playables "playing" with them. I will move them to a lot just to give them prisoner tokens. I DO, however, totally mess with the few hoods I have that have spawned townies; they get shot, axed or made temporally playable have surgery done (& make it genetic), & made pregnant and then turned back into townies. I am a god with a cruel sense of humor.


Will they stay pregnant if they are made townies?
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#10 Old 19th Mar 2019 at 12:21 AM
^ Yes they will.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Alchemist
#11 Old 19th Mar 2019 at 12:46 AM
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
^ Yes they will.


Cool. I'm guessing they just waddle about, though, and never have the babies?
Mad Poster
#12 Old 20th Mar 2019 at 4:58 AM
Pregnancies don't progress until they are playable. So to waddle, you have to play them to that point. Thanks for the idea. Pregnant gardener, nanny (I have a mod that replaces them with adults), repair person. Too bad cashiers are always teens (are they teens in other people's games?)

Stand up, speak out. Just not to me..
Field Researcher
#13 Old 20th Mar 2019 at 5:48 AM
I have had one townie pregnant, I think she was part of the townie pool that apartments create. My sim was on adventure career track or something like that, and she brought home a colleague that was pregnant, with belly and the waddle, which was surprising as I thought pregnant sims do not work at all.

Does this mean my game is corrupt?
Mad Poster
#14 Old 20th Mar 2019 at 9:39 PM
I just moved Ashley Pitts out after graduation and moved him into my main hood so yes, I play them normally, if I do have them in a Uni. I also intend to play the other Maxis Greek Sims in my Uni once I move them out. I never had a problem with any of them. It's not the first time I've done this.

Thanks to ALL free-site creators, admins and mods.

RIP Sunni ... truly a ray of light.
Test Subject
#15 Old 22nd Mar 2019 at 2:07 PM Last edited by citybeyond : 22nd Mar 2019 at 3:27 PM.
I don't have sims who are outside of the 'neighbourhood continuity', so to speak, but I am guilty of having sims who I only play for a day or two and then age them for the rest of their rotation. It's always childless sims, usually elders, who I don't have a lot of ideas for. It won't be as much of an issue when my sims have a bit more money for bigger houses and Aunt Wanda/Uncle Joe can come and live with the kids!

@Giga, I don't think that by itself, is a sign your game is corrupt. Was she at some point a playable Sim, or made playable? Do you have the ACR mod or anything like that?

@grammarpatt always teens in my game!
Lab Assistant
#16 Old 22nd Mar 2019 at 5:12 PM Last edited by Rguerra : 22nd Mar 2019 at 5:45 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by grammapat
Pregnancies don't progress until they are playable. So to waddle, you have to play them to that point. Thanks for the idea. Pregnant gardener, nanny (I have a mod that replaces them with adults), repair person. Too bad cashiers are always teens (are they teens in other people's games?)


I think once I saw a mod that makes the cashiers into adults, but I have no idea where to get it. Even if something like this was just my mind playing tricks on me, I think it wouldn't be hard to make, considering there's adult versions of the cashier uniform (the baristas wear them) and there's animations of adult sims using the cash register in OFB.
Field Researcher
#17 Old 22nd Mar 2019 at 5:17 PM
@citybeyond No, i did not play her. The only sims I play are the ones that I have made myself in CAS. I have killed off some university townies though, and that pretty much the only thing I have done to sims that are not made by me. No I don't have that mod, I do have some of pescado's, especially the ones mentiones int the essential mods sticky thread.
Test Subject
#18 Old 22nd Mar 2019 at 5:45 PM
@Giga, my next guess would be cc that's imitating a pregnant sim that's she's been assigned. Of course, you might not have anything like that at all in which case I'm not sure. Someone who knows a bit more than me will have to chip in! I've never had a pregnant sim working without a mod to specifically enable that, or indeed a pregnant townie. I wouldn't be particularly alarmed unless you can think of some way you might have messed with the character files for your hood. But you've got the essential mods, so that's a good start.
Mad Poster
#19 Old 22nd Mar 2019 at 6:20 PM
Semi-Playable Sims? I think that's a good description of how I treated the Veronaville pre-mades during my first few months of playing. For my first four months or so, I only played my CAS Sims - 3 families to begin with, later it was 5. I made no distinction between townies and pre-made playables -- my Sims could interact with them freely, but I never played their houses.

But then the Corntons, a family of gay (occasionally bi) Romance Sims got busy in their attempt to seduce the neighbourhood: the Cornton boys, David and Gordon, had already seduced most of the male teen townies, when Puck Summerdream was unwise enough to walk past the Corntons' house -- and ended up in bed with David. Then I realised that, since Puck was a playable, I could play this relationship from, both sides. And so, I ended up playing Puck's party at the Summerdreams' palatial home, so that Puck could invite David round. It was a revelation both to David and to me: we saw how the other half lived. When he got there David Cornton looked, and I'm sure felt, like a fish out of water. For my part I could also see that Puck had had his own plans for his life, and that David and I had just trampled all over them in our hob-nailed boots. I could also see that a gay relationship with a promiscuous Romance Sim was about the last thing that Puck needed in his life. So I have since tried, with limited success, to get Puck's relationship with Hermia back on track.

After that I began to play the pre-mades, taking their turn in very loose rotations along with my CAS families. So I no longer have any semi-playable Sims. I'm quite hot on Sims' rights, and I take it as read that playable Sims have a right to be played.

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
Lab Assistant
#20 Old 22nd Mar 2019 at 6:22 PM
I started with one founder and all my current playable sims are somehow connected to him - either his descendants or partners or parents of said descendants. I tend to say I'm doing a legacy, but it's more like a clan, with no real rules.
Most of other sims in my game are townies (made by me and townified by Inge's teleporter cat), but there is also one family I have moved to a house but never play. I do track all of them in an excel sheet though, do my best to keep their ages consistent with my playables and sometimes use a very simple ROS to determine what happens to them. I have a special "manager" household and I always move the townies in, age them up, give them makeovers and townify them again. The same happens if they need to marry, have children or die. I never had pregnant townies, though. Pregnant ladies I usually keep part of the "manager" household until they give birth, just to be on the safe side.

My medieval legacy: Rowena's Sims
Field Researcher
#21 Old 22nd Mar 2019 at 6:38 PM
I feel Sims aren't people and perhaps live in a different universe, therefore they aren't subject to time in the same way we the players are.

When my game was playable I made my last neighborhood without townies or a downtown and is intended to represent a very remote town, so the only other Sims are service NPCs like cashiers, newspaper delivery, postal person, etc., and I don't think a Sim in this neighborhood has ever ordered pizza or grocery delivery for example. What I did make use of is things like teleporters since I don't have the expansion that allows townies to age with playables. Sometimes this results in a new boyfriend/girlfriend (unless it's with a character that's known to result in a VBT), or even a new member of a family.

So, I think that when a playable character talks to a service Sim, if they got to know them they'd find out the service Sim only remembers being a service Sim and doesn't think any differently of it. Kinda like a curse or byproduct of the aging mechanism no Sim realizes is as such. Similar to how I could create two married adult Sims, and play nobody else but that house for an entire generation or two while everyone and everything else is static.
Mad Poster
#22 Old 22nd Mar 2019 at 9:06 PM
I personally would use the term semi played Sims, as you said it can be mistaken for townies/npcs. At the moment, I took break from rotation, but I can tell th@at when I did lose track of days each family was played, I still try to synch it up even it's not approximately even. Like If I played second family more than the first, then I might play the first family up to the days they were dorment or prelong the play session and start the turn-game over after it's their turn is up (or skipping right to them to by cheating the rotation in order to fix the time ripple for asap cases).

P.S. Sorry for my bad english.
Scholar
#23 Old 22nd Mar 2019 at 9:07 PM
I have two sorts of semi-playables.

a) Townie teenagers who are sent to college.
Because the which-townie-friends-are-growing-up-with-you dialog does not apper, so I send them to the university subhood along with the playable friends. This way everything seems to be in sync - sort of.
BUT:
I move them in a separate house, only inhabited by former townies.
I play them less than playables - actually their rotations are just half as long as the playable ones so it takes them twice to graduate.
They fail in their studies more often than playables (because of the lack of previously adquired skills) but some even graduate. In any case: if they are engaged to a playable they move in with them, if not they are returned to their townie status as adults.

b) Elder townies who have been around for way too long.
I move them into an specific house, which I call Heritage Manor (I've actually uploaded it to MTS), where I pretty much let them on free will.
Sometimes a playable runs the bussiness, for the sake of me having something to do in the meantime LOL
But I simply let them enjoy the rest of their lives until the finally die of old age.

And that's it.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#24 Old 23rd Mar 2019 at 12:10 AM
One of the main reasons that I use the semi-playable style is that I play my neighbourhoods with lots of sims and for a long time. I don't want secondary characters to up the number of sims in my neighbourhood to the point of corruption.

I am considering taking what some of you are saying and having the sims that get close to my playables - whether they be townie or semi-playable - age along with my main hood. Age them up when their best friend ages up, or when they go to college. Then, when they become an elder, and their closest friends are dying, instead of killing them off, maybe I will make them teenagers again - as if it's their kid or grandkid - to give them another opportunity to, if a plot reason makes sense - move into my hood.
Link Ninja
#25 Old 23rd Mar 2019 at 7:18 PM
I have a few of these that are technically playable but don't matter in the rotation because I don't plan on ever letting them die. Some are the ladies of the night that live in the brothel and are pretty much there to run the business. I also have a preacher that lives in the residential chapel and newly engaged couples out of college move into there so he can 'marry' them.

Uh oh! My social bar is low - that's why I posted today.

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