manage your town with dices

[fivine]

Coming from TS3, i was searching to solve some of the problems i had playing the sims4.
It was not very obvious to me how to play the game through generations and townies.
If i select aging they just all died and if i started to jump between houses it seemed difficult to keep some consistency.

Then i decided to use dices. You can easely find virtual dices on internet or use real ones.

After some weeks of testing/playing  i'm quite happy. It's helpful and more fun as before.
Let me explain.

I play session with one family only, between dice rolls.
I put aging for only the family i play.
I tried to reduce at most the use of the dices:
I roll 2 dices with 6 faces twice between sessions (so 2-12 as sum result, two times).
First roll (2 dices6): WHO? WHERE?

sum of dices / choices

• 2   3         Change family + Travel
• 4   5         Change family + Stay on the lot
• 6              Free
• 7   8   9    Same family + Stay on the lot
• 10 11 12  Same family + Travel

More if you get these special dices in the sum :

------------------------------------
[1]

reward store open (1 reward available only for each sims, no youth potion)
"milk cow" open
"use of book of life" open

-------------------------------------
[6]

buy/build mode open

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[11]  [66] 

ambrosia, potion of youth open

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[16]

changing aspiration open

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[22]  [44]

Sims should not go on work (and school)

-------------------------------------
[33]  [55]

A social event or a date should be immediatly planned (if possible).
You can't end the event before gold medal reached.
There is no second dice roll: the session ends with the event.


Second roll (2 dices6) HOW? HOW LONG?

• 2   3    watch until noon
• 4         watch until 6am
• 5         control before noon
• 6         control before 6am
• 7         control for a day (24hrs)
• 8         control before midnight
• 9         control before 9pm
• 10       watch until 9pm
• 11 12  watch until midnight

Notes:
stay on lot: means you only control sims on the home lot
travel: means you only control sims not on the home lot
open: all what is open in the list of special dices is closed (no access) otherwise in the game.

watch: means your sims are acting without you, on their own freewill.
watch can last longer at your will, but not shorter

control: means you can play your sims and ask them to do what you want them to do.
control can last shorter, but not longer.

if you miss a term, you can use penalties  (double the time in excess) for the next session.
I use full hours only, no mns.
Comments
These is based on my liking and can be adapted on yours.

I like sims with different personalities, aspirations...
They have to die too after having prepared a new generation.
It's boring if each of your sims will top 2 careers (more if you use anti-aging a lot), fulfill all the aspiration and max all skills available in a single life.
A superheroes town all similar to each other, meh.
To avoid that, i included watching break,  and restrictions lifted by special dices.
Watching fundamental was more to keep some balance in a sims life, more as to have to watch them.
There is always the fast speed option.
Nevertheless i guess sims freewill may surprise you if you don't use it often.

Enough dices for me but it's possible to add more (or less):

Pick a family from a specific part of the town; single, small or large family,children...
Travel to a (specific) community lot or visit
Holidays from O.R.
No social life/Stay indoor-outdoor/No skilling/Be happy/Be mean and reverse...
open/close: change career, clothes, friends, food, specific rooms,...
Still many more...

Some rules don't need dice, but this would be another topic to open.

If you change, it's more easy to use one single dice with a lot of sides as to take the sum of dices rolled together.

Probability may become complex to dispatch, if you chose to throw 3 dices with 6 faces (16 choices max from 3 to 18), it jumps from 36 to 36*6=216, something with 1/216 chance to occur may never happen in your game too.

Feel free to ask if something is not clear.
Any feedback will be deeply appreciated.

[Playalot]

It's obvious you have spent quite some time thinking about all of this. I have to say it's way to complex for me to give a go as I like to just more or less free-play and do what ever I want unless I'm doing challenge.
I'm a little unclear what you mean by 'special dice' though. Is this a 12 sided dice or something?

[dodi90]

I guess it is a mix of making manual story progression and a challenge to make the town more interesting. It is more or less tried to mimic the randomness thing in the sims 3 story progression by adding dice so in some way, the story progression way in sims 3 is preserved.

by special dice I think what @fivine  meant is if a dice thrown is at least include [1], you can use 1 store reward barring the potion of youth, milk from cowplant that has eaten a sim, and use book of life. The [xx] simply mean is both dice shows the same number.

[Zanriel]

This seems like an interesting idea but I don't exactly understand the post. Can you walk through a typical play session and how you incorporate dice rolls into your decisions?

[fivine]

@Playalot :
@Zanriel:

I get your point and i really try to be the shortest and most clear possible, i am sorry if not.

I'm playing now almost all the times with dices.

It means:
before playing
i open a notepad where i have the dice system i follow.

i open a virtual dice launcher and set it with 2 dices with 6 sides
(i open a virtual dice launcher with 1 dice 40 sides (!). I'm using new special events too now. See next post coming soon for more details.)

i open a notepad where i write the results of dices and the consequences (copy/paste from the one above)

now i launch TS4
i chose which household i play
ALT TAB
i through dices. i copy paste results/consequences for memory.
ALT TAB
i apply dices results and play TS4 to the end of session.
i elect which next household i will play if dices ask me to change
ALT TAB
i through dices, i copy...
ALT TAB
...


You don't have to through the dices every 5 mins, a session is like between 20 mins and some hours...
Using dices is an alternative between following challenge rules which is maybe not always the best way to write a story and a full free play which can leave you lost in managing a town.

@dodi90 : yes that's exactly what i mean.

[fivine]

So here i present the extended use of dices with random world events.
You can still follow the first post procedure if you don't want them.

between play session in TS4 you roll  3 times dices:

a first roll (noted r*) with two dices 6 sides to know who/where

a second roll which can be a two dices 6 sides if the first roll dont give you a world event occurence or which is a roll of a dice with 40 sides

a third roll (noted r**) with two dices 6 sides to know if you watch or play and how long

Now in detail:

r* WHO WHERE  (two dices 6 sides)


2 3            change F travel
4 5            change F stay on lot
6               free Move in a family is an option
7 8 9         same F stay on lot
10 11 12   same F travel
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
if  you get a dice with a 6 or a 1 or if you get a double: No world event but you roll (r!) 2 dices 6 sides and get this:

2 3 4         change aspi/career open + trait reward open
5               trait reward open

6                buy open
7                buy/build open
8                buy open

9                use of book of life/milk cow  + potion reward open
10 11 12    ambrosia/youth potion/use of book of life/milk cow + potion reward open

trait reward open     = one sim only can buy traits rewards
potion reward open = each sim can buy 1 potion only (no youth potion)


if during r* you didn't get any 1, 6 or double then you get a world event! You roll the dice with 40 sides for that
world events (r!!)

1    a family moves in the town (cancel r* . play this new family for 24hr)
2    a family moves out the town (Your choice, save it if you want then delete it of the world)
3    r* family moves out the town (save is fine, then delete it of the town)
4    One teen/child run away (no r**, play him/her out of the lot for 48hrs)
5    A child is excluded from school for 2 days (no r**, play r* until 5 pm the second day)
6    Divorce: (if no married, chose another family. split family.reroll r*)
7    A cousin come to study (add a teen to r* family. buy/build open)
8    An older comes in for retirement (add a older not going to work to r* family. buy/build open)
9    Economic boom: all the member of active family get a job   
10  Economic depression: one sim of r* family lose its job
11  Economic crash: all the member of family lose jobs and stay home for this session
12  Flower power: r* merge with another family of the town
13  Bad weather (hail) 1/3 of your garden die (random picture a list of your plants for ex:lines/colunms left to right/up to down. Then throw as many d6 dices as plants, if 1 or 6 sell the plant.
14  Bad weather (draught) no use of water. no r**, play r* for 24hrs
15  Bad weather (heavy rains): no outside activities. no r**, play r* for 24hrs
16  New fashion: create new outfits for your family
17  Go shopping before r**, buy mode open + (optional) family travel for 3 hrs)
18  Electric shock: 1 r*sim goes to hospital (travel away out of control). all lights switch off. No use of anything with electricity (incl. bubble bath)  no r**, play r* for 18hrs
19  Special urgent order: create at most 10 art works in what the family is the most proficient (highest skill) (one art only, whole family should try to contribute, sell all of them and add 500 for each art work done, play r* for 24hrs, no r**)
art works: worbench/music/painting/writing)
20  Family crisis, family can travel or stay at home but must be focused on socializing each other, avoiding skilling, no school and no going to work. no r**, play r* for 24hrs
21  Strong desease: a child and an elder die (chose in whole town)
22  Urgence in the family (add a sim to r*family. play r*fam (no r**) then move out the sim. buy/build closed)
23  Utopy dreams (a member of r* family moves out town (save it); next time a family moves in town, include this saved sim to it)
24  Ghost day (manage the ghosts and dead)
25  Lucky day (add 10 000)
26  Scholarship (add 2000 for each child/teen with a B, 5000 with a A)
27  Lost wallet (remove 1000)
28  Bad business (remove 5000)
29  Lottery day (add 50 000)
30  Burglar (sell 6 deco-electronic-appliance objects then remove the money earned by selling from family founds)
31  Movie day (all family watch movie for 3hrs before throwing r**)
32  LAN gaming day, no school no work (buy open. buy enough computers for each sim then play all together for 24hrs. can satisfy basic needs, option sell computers after is open. no r**)
33  Children break (r*: move in 3 children/babies from the town. Play this family to 8am then change family, play families who moved children out to visit r*. Then move children back. no r**)
34  Car accident  no sport activities. if anyone get focused or energized should go sleep asap and try to remove the emotion (headache/swore)
35  Bad memory (play r* for 12hr, trying that no one get any positive emotion. Then r**)
36  Love day ( get the most possible sims in r* flirty at all time. no r**, play for 24hrs)
37  New year session (plan successive social events for 24hrs. no r**)
38  Nature catastrophe (r* house breaks down. erase the house. can save it but not use it again,)
39  Pilgrim back (r* go to visit and socialize 5 other households)
40  Arranged Wedding (r* canceled, get the two most rich sims to be married together asap, free play with no dice until then)

Note:
Something has to happen so if something can't happen (no child for example) roll the dice again
If nothing is specificly written, the event applies to r* and you roll then r**

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOW HOWLONG (two dices 6 sides)
r**
2 3          watch     noon
4             watch     6 am
5             control   noon
6             control   6 am
7             control   24hr
8             control   midnight
9             control   9 pm
10           watch     9 pm
11 12      watch    midnight
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before asking me on more details please read the notes in the first post.

Feedback welcome as always!

[fivine]

Sometimes a pic explains better so here is a screenshot of my desktop between sessions.

From left to right: dices rules, world event list, my memory, and the dices.



Here, an extract of my memory notes during my game:

2+4 6 free Move in a family is an option
---------------------------------------------------------------------
3+4 same F stay on lot
28  Bad business (remove 5000)
5+6 11 watch   midnight
---------------------------------------------------------------------
2+5 7  same F stay on lot
5    A child is excluded from school for 2 days (no r**, play r* until 5 pm the second day)
12  Flower power: r* merge with another family of the town
4 watch 6 am
--------------------------------------------------------------------
5+2  7   same F stay on lot
19  Special urgent order: create 10 art works in what the family is the most proficient (highest skill) (whole family should try to contribute, sell all of them, play family until done, no r**)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
5            change F stay on lot
25  Lucky day (add 10 000)
7 control  24hr
--------------------------------------------------------------------
22 change F stay on lot
53 buy open
4             watch   6 am
--------------------------------------------------------------------

34 same F stay on lot
31  Movie day (all family watch movie for 3hrs before throwing r**)
8             control  midnight
--------------------------------------------------------------------
4+3 7 same F stay on lot
32  LAN gaming day, no school no work (buy open. buy enough computers for each sim then play all together for 24hrs. can satisfy basic needs, option sell computers after is open. no r**)