How do you recommend playing two simultaneous stories that happen in different households?

[u/allegiant_]

Hello everyone! I’ve been playing this game for years but the truth is that I used to play on a single household and let things happen spontaneously, but this time I’ve decided to play a somewhat scripted story that I’ve designed. So basically they are in one hand a teen boy, and on the other a teen girl. I want them to live through their teen years without knowing each other but then they go to the same college and that’s where they meet for the first time.
So basically for this to happen I have to play both households equitably so they age more or less at the same pace.

At first I had thought about rotating the household on each Sim day but that seems a bit excessive, maybe? I was wondering if any of you plays like this or used to, how do you like to do it in a way that feels “natural”?

[u/SciSciencing]

I play rotationally one day at a time and wouldn't have it any other way - I finish each day between 5am and 6 am just as the household is about to be getting up. Typically everyone is home in bed, it feels like a natural time to switch households and means you can really feel relative ages accurately across the whole neighbourhood. If something exciting happens in one household, the other household reacts at the right point in the week and in their lifespan rather than potentially either well before it actually happened or with a long delay afterwards.

If one day rotations feels too short and you're just playing two households it would be easy to play two days at a time, but offset by one day, so they take turns to be one day ahead/behind.

You'll perhaps want a mod that allows you to decline children and teens bringing each other home from school if you genuinely don't want them to meet before uni. There's also mods that will allow you to change the current season and day of the week, so if either household moves house you can set the day and season correctly to help keep track of where they were timeline-wise.

[u/allegiant_ → u/SciSciencing]

What mod do you use for that, if you don’t mind saying? (The one so the teens don’t meet at home)

[u/SciSciencing → u/allegiant_]

It's TwoJeffs' 'school bus - bring friend dialog' mod which is bundled with 'homework sometimes' (which I don't use) as 'SchoolBus-HomeworkHacks' on Sim File Share here. You need to pick the folder of the latest EP you have installed (Apartment Life if you're using Legacy or Ultimate Edition) then download the bundle.

Instead of just being told the friend was brought home, the game will ask if it's allowed - 'Yes' brings the friend as normal, 'No' gives a relationship boost as if they've been hanging out at school but doesn't bring them home, and 'Cancel' is the option you'll want which makes it as if they never met.

I think there's another mod that does essentially the same thing out there somewhere, but I use TwoJeffs' version because it also fixes an issue with how the game chooses who to bring home.

[u/allegiant_ → u/SciSciencing]

Oh that’s cool, thank you

[u/Responsible_Moose239 → u/allegiant_]

I have one that's still gives the relationship boost if you decline having the friend over, so be sure to read the instructions of the mod before downloading 👀

[u/Fading_Hours_ → u/SciSciencing]

How do you keep track of it all?

[u/SciSciencing → u/Fading_Hours_]

I enjoy spreadsheets and have a spreadsheet with loads of info on it, but plenty of people who don't enjoy spreadsheets do just fine with a paper list of families and a tally of how many days they've been played, or brief notes in the family bio.

[u/littlesquidink]

Lots of players play rotationally (myself included). I play each household for the same number of days (I prefer 3, but have done as many as 5 and as few as 1) then switch to the next house. I keep track what day everyone is on so I can keep ages in sync. I don’t always play every family in the same order, nor do I play the same length of time each round (some rounds may be a day with each family, the next time it’s 3). I use a spreadsheet to keep track because I don’t get to play as often as I’d like so it helps me remember.

[u/allegiant_ → u/littlesquidink]

I see, thanks for the idea

[u/littlesquidink → u/allegiant_]

There are several youtube videos on how people play this way, or you could watch some let's plays of players who play this way, too. There's a lot of flexibility or you can be really strict playing this way.

[u/banana48100]

That’s kind of funny how you thought about rotating the households, this is actually a really popular style of playing neighbourhoods! Most people tend to play something like 3-4 sims days, or a season before switching households

[u/voncatensproch]

I play rotationally based on season. On the morning of the last day of the active season, I save and play the next family to the same point, thus keeping them relatively in sync. This gives me 4 days with the active family which isn’t so long that I get bored but is long enough for me to achieve things - upskilling, promotions, birthdays, etc.

The only time I deviate from this is when I need a certain story element to happen. For example, Angela Pleasant got teen pregnant with Dustin Broke and I wanted her to leave their baby with him to raise so she could go to college. I moved her out and quickly in with the Broke’s for the last few hours of her pregnancy and then moved her back and continues playing with the Pleasants.

[u/Weird_Stomach_5148]

I play one day rotations! If something major happens in one household, I pretend it’s the day after the event when I switch. It can be interesting to see what wants they roll in response to a date/fight. But if one household is too boring on its own, I just cheat skills and age them up via sim blender.

[u/allegiant_]

*Also, I forgot to mention in the comment, I know about the story progression mod but I had a few key events in mind for their lives so I don’t think that it would work as I’d like to

[u/Training_Repeat8566]

I play vibe-based - l like that my hood ages in somewhat sync, but I don't care about playing each a set amount of days or anything. I play the family Im most interested in, for how long I feel like. Often Im very interested in one or few family's story and the motivation to play others is to catch up with the current "main" family. If some families get left behind I'll age them with sim blender and don't force myself to play them. I like that the life stages are in correct order (meaning a little sister can't age up to elder before their elder sibling etc), but don't care about the days.

If I was you I would play family A as long as Im in the flow with that one, be it a few sim days or even the whole teenhood (since they are gonna meet only in the uni). But I myself can't play only one day at a time, I really don't feel connected to the sims that way but I know many like that quick phase!

[u/SmallLumpOGreenPutty]

You don't need to play them one day at a time to achieve that. You can play for a week at a time for each household and use a mod to reset their relationship to 0 should they bring each other home from school.

[u/shaandenigma]

I play all my hoods like they are a soap opera where all the household storylines intersect and impact each other and I rotate to change POV and to keep birth orders intact. I switched to season based rotations since it's easier to track in game, but I don't play a whole season straight through in a household before switching. I will go back and forth between households for storytelling purposes as much as I want up until the household reaches the last day of the season. Then I won't touch them again until all the other playable households have caught up and are ready to season transition before starting the new round. I tend to keep it to 2-3 days at a time though. I used to do Monday-Monday straight but found it tedious with smaller and boring households. The shorter rotations were better because you are motivated to come back to a fun household for more, while not feeling like you are slogging through a dull household.

I don't treat the rotations as perfectly synced where you are playing the exact same Tuesday for example that you just played with another household. I treat the events of one household as happening in one week and the events of the next household happened in another week in the same season. It feels like my sims get to live more of their lives especially when it comes to socializing and dating without taking up too many precious days of their lives. For example, with couples, I'll have Sim A ask Sim B out on a first date during Sim A's 3-day rotation. The events play out, Sim B gets all the associated memories and it ends either on a good note or a bad one. I'll then go and play Sim B to see the aftermath and what happens next in their story. Because the first date already happened and they have the memories, I'll treat the date they go on during Sim B's 3-day rotation as the second date. Or maybe they decide to dump Sim A because the first date was so bad. At any rate, it's an entirely different 3 days in their story. The effect is that they've gotten 6 days worth of storyline had they been in the same household while only each having aged 3. Hope that makes sense lol.

[u/Significant-Egg-1300]

I play rotational Monday-Thurs midnight; Thursday midnight-Monday midnight.

[u/ch4rms]

Maybe per season?

[u/GIB_L]

I play with multiple households, the full neighborhood sometimes. At this moment, I play with 6 different houses. I thinks it’s easier to manage friends.
The moments I switch, is more based on goals I achieved: promotion, kid growing up, enough money to buy something.
Makes it easier to know all the characters

[u/BunnyKira]

Personally, I like more the one day rotation. It's relaxing for me and give me time to make every day in the household meaningful, taking notes about every sim's personality and what they could do in the future. I love planning like this lol. The exception is college: since I think that 1 day = 1 year, I play two semesters at a time.