Living to a Schedule

[Raventiger]

Hi Everyone,



I've reached the point where I've been able to get one Sim to achieve her lifetime wish of being a professional sportsperson.  In doing so, I missed out on a lot of the social interactions in the game, and she died a natural death, but alone with no family. *Sad*.

My current game goals are fourfold. First I want to create a single Sim, and get them to the top of their profession Along the way I would like to find them a partner and have them both settle down and  build the best house they can afford. Lastly I'd like them to successfully raise a family.

Problem is that with the game set to the default settings, time seems to race by,  and I myself unable to  manage my single Sim's time.  It doesn't seem to matter what Career I pick, by the time my single Sim has washed, fed, cleaned, and slept , the only thing remaining that they can do is go to work, at which point the cycle starts over again.  Unless of course it's a day off, but that's not the issue   


I should add that currently I am working my way through the base game with the two stuff packs.  I own "World Adventure's" and 'Ambitions', and will be getting 'Late Night' for Christmas. It's just that there is so much to do in the game that I want to take my time and fully explore the base game.  Once I've done all I can do with the base game, then I want to fully explore "World Adventure's" before moving onto 'Ambitions' and so on.  So I have a lot of game time ahead of me in which to spend with this wonderful game. But as I'm going to be flat on my back in bed for health reasons between February and April next year, I figure I have also  lot of time to play Sims 3 on my laptop.

Anyway enough rambling from me, any help, and tips on time management in the game would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Raven

[Schipperke]

Hi Raven - interesting question!  You're right, managing a sim's time efficiently is one of the big challenges of the game.  When I have a single sim, one of the things I do is make sure they have a decent fridge and then have them "serve" meals  instead of whatever the single serving option is called.  That way, your sim can live on leftovers for a while and it frees up a lot of time they'd otherwise need to spend cooking and cleaning counters.  Getting the Steel Bladder LTR means your sim doesn't need to spend time cleaning and unclogging the toilet.  There are several LTRs that will help your sim save time.  Also, some careers are easier on a sim's time than others.  You mentioned the sports career, which has something going on 6 days a week.  By contrast, the culinary career (my personal favourite for several reasons) at the top has your sim working only 3 days a week, 4 hours at a time - leaving lots of time for other activities.  Whenever possible, I get my sims the Sleep Saver (Sleep Slave?  something like that!) bed even though it's expensive because having a good bed means less time spent sleeping.  These are just a few ideas that come to me off the top of my head.  I'm sure other people will have time-saving suggestions as well.

[Andrew]

When I am playing with one sim, I usually change aging to long, 180 days (The default is 90 days). To spice up your sims routine, I recommend finding a spouse for your sim. While one sim is working, the other could be adventuring the town, meeting other sims, or building skills.

Since you have Ambitions installed, I would recommend getting your sim a job as a fireman/woman, ghost hunter, interior designer, or private investigator. These are special "careers" where you control your sim at work. These careers are very time consuming, but extremely fun. I personally recommend the Fire fighter career. Your sim will relax at the fire station when not fighting fires, but will spring into action once the fire alarm goes off. If you are interested here is some more information on the Firefighter career and other Ambition careers. http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/careers/ambitions/firefighter.php

Welcome to the forum!

[Teresa]

I always play on Normal time.  The very first thing I have the sim do is find the spouse.  Since the game starts on Sunday, I can generally have them married by Sunday night.  Once they are married and moved in, then they get jobs and start skilling.  A lot of their skilling can be done at work with one of the work tones, depending on the career.  I only use the Work Hard option when in a challenge that requires level 10 as soon as possible.  Without work hard (as long as you don't choose the do nothing/sleep option) my sims tend to promote every 2-3 work days.  Toss in a child or two (keep in mind only the female stays home with the new baby) and even with the downtime for leave they can reach the top of their careers.  Also, I know a lot of people play like in real life - sleep at night, get up and shower and potty, then eat breakfast, go to work, shower before bed.  I generally just have them shower before work - let them potty and eat at work - if they need athletic for their career then they get to jog home and shower once more.  And I always hire babysitters, maids, and repairmen (unless I am in a challenge where service is not allowed). 

With World Adventures, I would say only take one sim on vacation at a time.  There is a lot of hand-holding with exploring and such and trying to keep more than one sim moving along is difficult.  You will need to make multiple trips to each location for the adventures, and you can't expect to do ALL of one location before doing the next.  I tried to complete all of France before moving on but reached a point where every remaining adventure was either one I already had done or one that needed me to go to either Egypt of China.  Make sure you stock up with a tent and dried food or fruits and vegetables and that will save a lot of time of running back to the base camp to sleep.  Pick up shower in a can and you won't even need a bathroom, just let them then shower spray and they are good to go. 

With Ambitions, again the new careers have a lot of hand-holding.  And I still have not completed any of them in depth so can't provide too much advice there.  Same with Late Night. 

[Raventiger]

Thanks for the responses all .  I'll do my best to incorporate your suggestions and let you know how I get on.

Warm Regards,

Raven

[Frey]

For me, the main problem is that Sims seem to walk and move soooo slowly! I mean, seriously, it takes them like 30 or 40 minutes just to go down the stairs, leave the house, get in the car and get to work... and they don't even own a giant house! That's what I find most annoying... so I make them live in decent but small houses so they don't waste like 2 hours walking from the bedroom to the kitchen and then to the bathroom. Or if I want a bigger house, I build it so that every room is as near as possible from each other. And as obvious as it may sound... living near town will save you a lot of time! In LN I just moved to the island where celebrities live and it takes me like an entire century to get anywhere, it's really annoying.


Oh and traits can help you save time too... the charismatic trait will make your sim make friends faster, the bookworm one will make them learn faster, and the ambitious trait makes sims success much easier, for example.

[sdinger70]

Also, if you want to use it, there is a glitch/exploit where you can get a tattoo (or have one removed, possibly) that will reset your sim's current age to the beginning - so if you want to stay an adult, when you get close to aging up, go get a tattoo. It should reset your age bar to the beginning of being an adult. This should give a little more time to explore and work on skills and your career and meet people.

[Raventiger]

Well I'm getting better at managing my Sims.  However I'm still tend to take my time.  Personally I find either turning off aging or changing the aging setting to long or epic works well.  Mind you I only turn off aging completely when I have a Sim who fascinates me.  Once I've done what I want to do with that Sim I turn aging back on and play as per normal.  I'm sure that time and practice with the game will help me develop faster game reflexes, right now I'm just taking my time, exploring everything and above all having fun.

It's funny, but having fun for me is the main attraction to this game.  My brother in law (who's a hardcore rts gamer), told me that he couldn't understand the point of the Sim's games, and the only response I could come up with is that for me they are fun.

[Morbid]

Heh, most of RTS gamers don't like simulators.

You know you can make your sims live longer by setting the aging scale to epic. It should give you about 200 days if you start as a young adult.