Tip: Rotational Play

[Playalot]

Just for the sake of having another viewpoint: For more information on the issues with Save-As read here (click) I always use Save-As but rewrite over my current save and rename it the same name. As long as you are saving over the current game all the other families progress will continue etc just the same as using only the 'save' feature.

The benefit in using save-as this way is that it stops the potential problem of that sometimes just using 'save' can cause the last save game to be saved over by the current played game. This is a problem mostly for people who have more than one played game in their saves folder.

This doesn't seem to be happening in all players games but it can cause games to be lost if it happens to you.

MrsFlynns Guide to the difference between Save and Save As

[RiotKitty]

I've read through the rotational play articles, but I'm feeling really dense. Aging sims in rotational play is drifting just outside my grasp.

I want to manually age my played households (shooting for two or three to start myself slowly) while allowing NPC households to auto-age. I can set those options at the game options menu, I believe. But my confusion is: Will my played households auto-age during the period I'm not playing them (like an unplayed household)? or will they still count as a played household that I can manually age when it's their turn?

Thanks,
RiotKitty

[MarianT]

I've read through the rotational play articles, but I'm feeling really dense. Aging sims in rotational play is drifting just outside my grasp.

I want to manually age my played households (shooting for two or three to start myself slowly) while allowing NPC households to auto-age. I can set those options at the game options menu, I believe. But my confusion is: Will my played households auto-age during the period I'm not playing them (like an unplayed household)? or will they still count as a played household that I can manually age when it's their turn?

Thanks,
RiotKitty

The way it's supposed to work is that if you have Aging on for Active Household Only and Age up Unplayed Sims, then the Sims you play in rotation should get older only when you play them. And I think this is currently working, but it's something that might get broken with a new patch.

A safe way to check, if you plan to play with normal age length, is to set your age length to long. Note the ages of one household when you leave it, and if they're the same when you come back after playing the other households, then you're okay.

[RiotKitty]

Thanks, MarianT. I think I understand now. I'll test the settings you mention and see what happens.

[MarianT]

As of November, 2017, a new Culling system has been put into effect. More information can be found here. Basically, any household you play should be put into "My Households" to avoid being culled. This replaces any previous information about culling.]here[/url]. Basically, any household you play should be put into "My Households" to avoid being culled. This replaces any previous information about culling.

Also, good news for rotational players -- if a death occurs when you are playing a different family, the tombstone or urn can be found on the lot of the Sim who died.

[Shewolf13]

I was curious what everyone's experience has been with the new Season's calendar and rotational game play. I am curious, since I would like to get back to my RKC, but am terrified of ruining something XD I have done some testing myself and the one thing I have a question about is Holidays and how it works when you are playing rotationally.  Currently, I am playing families a week at a time and the way things are set up, each week technically takes place at the same "time" in the story, so was just going to go with 28 day seasons. But that moves Holidays around and when I went to delete one (in a test file) I noticed it would delete it off the Calendar for all families.

So mostly, I'm just curious what everyone else has noticed with their rotational files.  If I can't figure a way to set it up, I may have to change how I am telling the story, at least a little.  I may even be over thinking this heh.

[MarianT]

I was curious what everyone's experience has been with the new Season's calendar and rotational game play. I am curious, since I would like to get back to my RKC, but am terrified of ruining something XD I have done some testing myself and the one thing I have a question about is Holidays and how it works when you are playing rotationally.  Currently, I am playing families a week at a time and the way things are set up, each week technically takes place at the same "time" in the story, so was just going to go with 28 day seasons. But that moves Holidays around and when I went to delete one (in a test file) I noticed it would delete it off the Calendar for all families.

So mostly, I'm just curious what everyone else has noticed with their rotational files.  If I can't figure a way to set it up, I may have to change how I am telling the story, at least a little.  I may even be over thinking this heh.

I've been playing with 10 families and 28-day seasons. Obviously, I don't even try to arrange it so that it appears I'm playing everyone at the same time. But with only 3 families, you could do 4 holidays in a year; you could even do as many as 5, one per week. Set up your calendar so that you have 3 Love Days, 3 Winterfests, etc. It doesn't matter what the households you're not playing are doing on those days, although if you choose streaking for one of your traditions, other Sims will streak when your Sims are on a community lot.

[Shewolf13]

@MarianT

Thanks for your insights ^^   At the moment, I'm playing 3 families, but once the mini challenge is done, then I will have 10 to play through (I don't know why I do this to myself XD). My current testing hasn't run long enough for me to see what happens when you have aging on for active families only, and how it works with the calendar.  If the illusion of playing them "at the same time" won't be feasible, no matter how I set it up because of Seasons, I may just go with a smaller, calendar but haven't decided yet. Again, thanks for the insights ^^

[oshizu]

I'm sad to read that, while playing the active household, the seasons will continue to progress for the non-active households even though they don't age.
Thank you for asking that question @Shewolf13 and thank you for responding @MarianT

[Shewolf13]

@oshizu

Yeah, I'm a little bummed myself in how the Calendar operates, at least for rotational games.  The concept is great, but it makes it hard now for something like the RKC.

[oshizu]

Hello Marian,

I have an untested question about rotational gameplay with Seasons (which I've never experienced).
These are my plans:
Conditions: 3 households, played one week each
Lifespan: Normal
Auto Age Played Sims: Active household only
Auto Age Unplayed Sims: No
Seasons 28 days

My question is this:
If my first household manages to achieve the Handiness L8 upgrade (Temporal Modifier Unit) on the Weather Machine, could I simply switch seasons in 21-day cycles from Household 1's Week 2?
That way, every household could play the same season, albeit at different points of that season.
I considered playing 4 households on Long with "Auto Age Unplayed Sims/Off" (so the townies wouldn't need auto-ageing), but I worry about my played households' youngsters ageing up without me.

My apologies if my questions are merely a variation of questions you've already answered...
And thank you for reading.

[MarianT]

Hello Marian,

I have an untested question about rotational gameplay with Seasons (which I've never experienced).
These are my plans:
Conditions: 3 households, played one week each
Lifespan: Normal
Auto Age Played Sims: Active household only
Auto Age Unplayed Sims: No
Seasons 28 days

My question is this:
If my first household manages to achieve the Handiness L8 upgrade (Temporal Modifier Unit) on the Weather Machine, could I simply switch seasons in 21-day cycles from Household 1's Week 2?
That way, every household could play the same season, albeit at different points of that season.
I considered playing 4 households on Long with "Auto Age Unplayed Sims/Off" (so the townies wouldn't need auto-ageing), but I worry about my played households' youngsters ageing up without me.

My apologies if my questions are merely a variation of questions you've already answered...
And thank you for reading.

I haven't done anything with the Weather Machine, so I don't know whether 21-week seasons are possible.

[oshizu]

I haven't done anything with the Weather Machine, so I don't know whether 21-week seasons are possible.

Thank you for your reply (and for reading through all that).
Since I'll play 3 households for 7 days each, I was going to try for 21 days per season (with a 28-day setting).
Once I get started, I'll report back to let you know if it works.

[MarianT]

I haven't done anything with the Weather Machine, so I don't know whether 21-week seasons are possible.

Thank you for your reply (and for reading through all that).
Since I'll play 3 households for 7 days each, I was going to try for 21 days per season (with a 28-day setting).
Once I get started, I'll report back to let you know if it works.

Thanks for looking into this. One problem I think you might have is with plants. Your summer-blooming plants will still think that it's spring, etc. But as long as you always use greenhouses, that should be okay.

[mousef]

I haven't done anything with the Weather Machine, so I don't know whether 21-week seasons are possible.

Thank you for your reply (and for reading through all that).
Since I'll play 3 households for 7 days each, I was going to try for 21 days per season (with a 28-day setting).
Once I get started, I'll report back to let you know if it works.

That's not what you asked (and for those doing challenges this won't help), but LittleMsSam has a mod for 21-day seasons:
https://littlemssam.tumblr.com/post/176559815578/21-days-seasons-instead-of-28-days-this-mod

I'm curious about your experiment with the weather machine. Please let us know how it goes