Play Style: Do You Play Close Up or At a Distance? Do You Pause Often?

[LlamaMama]

This came up in another thread, and made me really curious about play style. When I see sim stories with screenshots, I notice how close the camera is. I always assumed that was just for the screenshot, but recently I'm realizing that some people play the game that close up. How close are you (the camera)? Do you pause often, setting up everyone's tasks before hitting "go"?

I've gotten into the habit of playing at enough of a distance that I can see most of what happens on my sims' legacy lot (60x60), with walls down. That way I can better switch control of the various sims without too much zooming. If one is doing something that needs monitoring, I zoom in a bit, but rarely do I get right up "next to" the sim. I do play closer to toddlers, though.

For example, I'm having trouble getting my married elders to woohoo. They've been so busy with work and kids that they have let their friendship slide, so one offers woohoo and the other refuses. While I play with them, my viewpoint is closer than usual, higher than the ceiling, a couple rooms away from them.

What about you?

[Metropolis Man]

This came up in another thread, and made me really curious about play style. When I see sim stories with screenshots, I notice how close the camera is. I always assumed that was just for the screenshot, but recently I'm realizing that some people play the game that close up. How close are you (the camera)?

I back off enough that I can see anything on the lot that would happen. Since I typically go with my "bear in the woods" technique of outdoor living for my Sims I build everything very close to together. I can almost be right on top of them with the camera and still see mostly everything.

Do you pause often, setting up everyone's tasks before hitting "go"?

Wishmasters was a nightmare with pausing the game. At least in the beginning when all of their wishes were so different because of their different LTW and the skills I needed to pursue. So, it was constant pausing to make sure I did everything right. Once their LTW were all accomplished I moved into the pack strategy and they all pursued similar things — winning the martial arts tournament, sculpting, painting, getting a huge number of friends, writing children's books, etc. Then, the wishes fired similarly and they were doing the same stuff so I could play on ultra speed. With the da Vinci challenge I played it on ultra speed too because I had mapped out my strategy and once I got into a good groove, it was just a question of assembly line work.

[BlueJay91]

For camera views, it all depends on what I'm doing. Many, many times, if not all the time, I play from a sort-of bird's eye view looking down at most of the whole house. With bigger houses, you inevitably can't see everyone, but I still like that view. However, that gets to be a bit of a problem when I try to capture still-life pictures, so I might zoom into something before the picture view comes on.

I do pause often; I am used to playing multiple people at a time, so pausing becomes just an easy setting. I don't see it taking up more of my time since I'll play for hours on end anyway. My frequent family usually has between 5-8 people in the house, but it's fun having that type of playing chaos.

Yeah, I play closer to toddlers too. They're just too adorable, especially when the older people read to them. It's just such an "awww" moment.

[LlamaMama]

For camera views, it all depends on what I'm doing. Many, many times, if not all the time, I play from a sort-of bird's eye view looking down at most of the whole house. With bigger houses, you inevitably can't see everyone, but I still like that view. However, that gets to be a bit of hell when I try to capture still-life pictures, so I might zoom into something before the picture view comes on.

I was having an impossible time with the still-life pictures, until Pam figured out the connection between my bird's eye view and the capture problem. That's what brought up the idea for this thread.

[Saltypaws]

I am about the same.  I play just far enough back to where I can see everything.  Sometimes, I will play with the half walls, or whatever you call it.  I like to see the walls behind the sims, especially if I have put paintings on the walls or decorations.  My picture is so clear, I love the detail on everything.  In my big households, I pause and queue everyone up to do something and then un-pause it.  I very rarely speed up my sims, unless they are doing skills.  I am more of slow mo  player, that more or less just takes things as they come.  That is why I like big households with at least 5 - 8 sims, never a dull moment and it keeps me from getting bored.

[samoht04]

I play up close and un-paused most of the time.

[NeoFelis]

I play far enough away that I can see everyone in the house (with usually just the outside walls up) and pause frequently to queue up tasks. If I can't queue up several things, I get closer to that Sim so I can pause and add more things once they finish doing what was holding the queue up, like eating. If I don't keep an eye on my Sims while they're doing certain things, they'll stuff themselves with food, or decide it's a great idea to run outside and play in the sprinkler while they're supposed to be getting ready for work, or go off to pursue their hobby/profession (painting, playing guitar, etc.) instead of putting their plate in the diswasher. If I'm playing more than two Sims in a household, I only go to a faster setting if they're all skill building or reading or sleeping. It usually doesn't work that way though. So I play at a fairly slow pace. If they've got the time, I sometimes just don't queue up anything to see what they'll do. But it's usually not something I want them to be doing. Sometimes free will is a pain in the neck. 

[LlamaMama]

It's pretty funny when you queue up a sim to do something, switch to another sim for a while and then realize the first one has been standing in the street for an hour, singing a chinese song.

Houses with multiple stories make things a lot harder for one who likes to keep everyone in view. It might be a good building contest concept, to design a multiple-generation home with only one level.

[Swede1992]

My usual style (with a number of exceptions) is to play one single sim, usually seen from afar. Every now and then however I do pause the game and zoom into the room with walls up just to check in on everything and get me into the right mood (it seems less of a doll-house when you see the ceiling from inside the room).

[NeoFelis]

It's pretty funny when you queue up a sim to do something, switch to another sim for a while and then realize the first one has been standing in the street for an hour, singing a chinese song.

It's also frustrating! Or maybe I'm just a control freak. 

Houses with multiple stories make things a lot harder for one who likes to keep everyone in view. It might be a good building contest concept, to design a multiple-generation home with only one level.

Oh, definitely. I usually only build what I need for a one or two Sim home, and download larger ones when I have more Sims. Though unless I see a house I really like, I'm done downloading homes. Most larger houses (more bedrooms and bathrooms) are multi-story. I'm probably playing even more slowly when I'm in a two or three story home. For the Wishmaster Challenge, I'm getting away with a one-story because I made them two couples, but then I had to add an extra room for stuff. I'm glad they're not allowed to have kids or I'd be doing a lot more expanding or have to move. Besides, one of my Sims hates children.  I'd love to see a house like you described, though that's one Challenge I definitely wouldn't be pursuing!

[Jonna]

I like to play one or two sims at a time, and I like to see everything that's happening.  If my sims are living in a house (and not, as Metro calls it, "bear in the woods"), the house is one story and walls are down.  I don't even bother with a foundation.  There are no stairs and -- truth be told -- I don't even build a real house... just box in the bedroom and bathroom so my sims can sleep and shower without having to worry about no(i)sy neighbors.  I only play on two speeds: ` and 3.    That is, pause and fastest.

[Pam]

I play a combination of close up and far away view.  Of course, if my Sim needs to go somewhere for a task, I have to see the whole house/lot.  But for conversations and the actual performance of the task, I like to zoom in close and watch.  I watch them paint, cook, invent, swim, garden.  Most everything.  The interactions can be hilarious and it seems like there's always something new being added.  I use pause pretty often just to keep everything under control.  I'm playing 6 Sims at the moment and they can easily get off schedule if I don't pause and get things set up.  I also play with the walls cut away.  It lets me see what I need, but I can also see the back walls with paintings and whatnot.  I'm still playing the triplets from the Toddler Race and I've got portraits of each of them as toddlers and as children.  They are teenagers now and there will soon be teenage portraits on the wall beside the other portraits of them.  It's nice to be able to see those pictures with the walls partially up.

[Justwright]

I play zoomed out, usually so I can see the whole lot.  I'm not a big picture taker so seldom zoom in close.  Maybe I am missing out on stuff?  I do pause too much because I'm a micro-manager.  I hate free will! heh

I too have discovered that I prefer 1 story houses.  The moving up and down all the time to see family members makes me dizzy!

[Pam]

I hate free will! heh

Have you tried playing with freewill turned off or reduced?

[Justwright]

I usually play with it reduced, unless I'm trying one of the old challenges from this forum.   Shhh, I'm a secret challenger taker.  I have found it is a great way to learn the things in the game that I haven't tried on my own.