Swapping active household question

[Lesleyxxx]

From what I've read it looks like several of you swap household within a town, to actively play several of the families?  Is this correct? If so, how do you get to swap without the dreaded loss of wishes, relationships, jobs, goals etc?  I only changed household once, to be honest that was by accident, and it was like restarting? Then I was stuck and couldn't figure how to swap back?

Can someone explain how this works please?  Thanks

[loveSims]

If you switch households you loose the wishes. The sim may keep his job but he can move out of the house or even leave town. If you want to change households go to edit town in options. In edit town choose the option change active households. Then you can choose any household. But your previous household will go on with their lives. You can change back to them if you miss them

[Hosfac]

Once a Sim or family of Sims are no longer the active household, they are totally at the mercy of story progression and subject to any and all effects caused by it.  This includes relationship changes, career changes, having children, moving to new houses, moving out of town entirely, and even death.  There is no way to avoid this, outside of turning Story Progression off (and if you do this, it's a good idea to turn aging off, too).

[samoht04]

...moving out of town entirely...

I think that this was changed in a Patch or something, I remember something about that SP would never kill off (As in to make the Population Level go down/make room for new sims, not old age etc.) or move out anyone in a Household you had played before in that same game file (So if you switched the previous house wouldn't be moved out of town.)

There is a new Button that was added in a Patch to make it a lot less complicated. When in Edit Town if you click on another Households House Tag then their details come up, at the buttons along the bottom of that details window is a House with an arrow or something like that and you can change households like that. Although that does leave your previous Household at the mercy of SP unless you turn it off. (Even if it is for a short time, I switched Households for a Sim Hour and when I returned my Level 8 int he Military Career Sim was now a Lavatory Cleaner at the Hospital!)

[pallyndrome]

I play with multiple households - I turn story progression and aging off. It's a little tricky to get the ages right, but I like it.

[simmum]

Thank you for posting this as I had also wondered the same thing. I've been wanting to give swapping active households a try so that I can explore the neighbourhoods more but it hadn't occured to me to switch story progression off. Can I just ask 2 questions though please. Why do you have to turn ageing off too and then how do you go manage the ageing up with the birthday cake? Do you tend to make a mental note of how many Sim days have passed and then age them up? I shall give it a go. Still a shame that you lose all the wants and wishes though. Do the Sims still keep the Lifetime Happiness points they've gained?

[loveSims]

They keep the wishes and eveything in their invetory also. I don't now about story progression I never turn it off. I like it when eveything change and to get a suprise or two. When you return to a household each sim will have a nice book in their invetory. Ever wonder where the townies get the bools they read

[Lesleyxxx]

Great info you've all posted, thank you.

Like simmum I'm still a little wary about losing stuff doing this, but I do want to be able to play more than one in the same neighbourhood.  I do a lot of browsing  around these forums, and came across a build thread with 'Wildwood Treetop Village'.  I'm actually wondering if I could use that achieve a similar result? Sounds like I could have 3 families living on the one lot, but with seperate lives and interaction.  It's a bit daunting as to how much work that would be to control, but I'm thinking of trying it with single sims? The one worry is whether I would be able to lock each sim's treehouse door to stop the others accessing it?  They share living quarters and garden but it will be nice to keep seperate time private too? I have  thoughts racing around my head but not properly crystalised yet. I suspect Hidden Springs would be the better place for this, simply to fit in with surrounding woodland.

Or maybe I'm being barmy even thinking of trying this??

[loveSims]

Do you want to make couples or single sims?

[Pam]

@Lesley:

If I understand you correctly, you want to have three families living on the same lot, but control each family individually.  You can do this, but you don't have to change your active household to do so.  When you change the active household through Edit Town, you're changing the lot you play on.  In your case, you'd always be on the same lot, but with three families.  You could play one family and ignore the others, who will just do what they want to do.  Story Progression won't apply to the other two families on your lot because they're still under your control.

If I've misunderstood your intention, please clarify. 

[Lesleyxxx]

That was exactly what I meant Pam.  All 3 on the same lot, so the game won't differentiate but will see them as one household, but I can play them as if they are separate families.  I can swap as often as I want as are all on the same household. The snag is that they would share the money pot, a bit like living in a commune I guess? I've been out at my daughters this afternoon so not had time to think it through yet, my mind still has random and illogical thoughts flying around with no organisation to them yet. To be honest, I'm probably biting off more than I can chew as in likely to find it too hard to control.  I've been good at doing that so far. Will I be brave and jump in feet first or leave my ideas to run while I complete the writers challenge? hmmm...  Good question.

[Lesleyxxx]

Just a quick heads up on the rather large file size that must be used for Wildwood treetop village. It hangs something terrible. Placing it hangs. Saving hangs. Swapping mode hangs [buy/build/active]. There are issues trying to follow sims around, with so many pathways and levels you always seem to end up looking at the  level above their heads. I had to edit the kitchen to enable them to cook. And I've only played it to the end of day 1.  They love the  sprinklers, the gnub set, the garden in the kitchen, the musical instruments, etc. The 'outhouse' [treehouse bathrooms] has only 2 toilets so that can cause a bottleneck.    But you know what? I just love the way it looks. Superb imagination she must have to build this.

[Pam]

Just a quick heads up on the rather large file size that must be used for Wildwood treetop village. It hangs something terrible. Placing it hangs. Saving hangs. Swapping mode hangs [buy/build/active]. There are issues trying to follow sims around, with so many pathways and levels you always seem to end up looking at the  level above their heads. I had to edit the kitchen to enable them to cook. And I've only played it to the end of day 1.  They love the  sprinklers, the gnub set, the garden in the kitchen, the musical instruments, etc. The 'outhouse' [treehouse bathrooms] has only 2 toilets so that can cause a bottleneck.    But you know what? I just love the way it looks. Superb imagination she must have to build this.

That's one of the problems we run into with large, elaborate lots.  The more things on the lot, the slower it will run.  You can clean up your computer and game (see the Technical Help board), but it may not make any difference because of the details of the lot.

If you haven't been playing Sims 3 very long, it will indeed be difficult to control a full household.  The maximum number of Sims in a household is eight and it takes a lot of concentration to keep them all cared for.

[pallyndrome]

simmum- I turn aging off too, because if you really want the families not to change unless you play them, that's the only way it will work. If you only turn story progression off, they won't do much, but they will still get older, age up, and die while you play another family. I keep a note of days in my little notepad and age sims up with birthday cake or cheats. Then when I'm done with that family for the time being, I put in their info how many days each sim has since they aged up, so I know for next time I play them. I keep other notes too, but that's just cause I write a story about it - The (Ordinary) Lives of Barnacle Bay - it's in the miscelanious story section if you're interested.

Even with story progression and aging off, some stuff still happens - I guess sims 3 is just tailored to story progression in general. Examples:
sims will become friends with other sims in the neighbourhood - especially those in their own household (they don't seem to interact negatively at all)
If you leave a sim pregnant when you swap house, they will have had the baby by the next time you play them.
sometimes if a sim is unemployed or retired, the sim will get a job and rise in the ranks before you play them again.
I have even had a vampire sim turn another sim without my direction (though they were husband/wife, it hasn't happened outside of that family)

wants/wishes don't survive the change of families, but I don't see that as a big loss personally. By the time I come back to that family I can't remember what their wishes were anyway. I mean temporary wishes - lifetime wishes stay the same. Lifetime rewards they've gained stay the same, and I think their lifetime happiness points remain the same also, but don't quote me on that.

[MoMoll]

I switch for only a sim day or two. For instance, if my sim is pursuing someone for a romantic interest, I'll switch to see if they are involved with someone else, and then have them contact my sim for a date. I also like to switch to increase some of the townies skills before inviting them to move in. Many have practically zero skills and if you marry one it's back to square one on skill building!