3 Tips for a Long Sims 3 Playthrough

The Sims 3 is a wonderful game with so much to discover and explore. But when I first picked it up, I had no idea what to do. I fell into a routine of making the same type of Sim and playing the same type of scenario. That was boring. With so much freedom, I didn’t understand what to do. Not until recently did I find my solution.

For the past few years, I have been playing the Not So Berry Challenge (Sims 3 edition). I am currently in my 7th generation. How did I go from the same scenario to a 7 generation game? Well, that’s what I’m here to tell you about so you can do the same.

Challenges

I found that the best way to keep a long save going was through a challenge. The Internet is full of Sims 3 challenges. I chose the Not So Berry Challenge to start with but the player just has to find one that interests them.

Challenges give the player guidelines: traits for the heir Sim and specific goals that need to be met. At first glance, a challenge might seem constricting but it isn’t. The structure provided by the challenge provides the player with an outline. It stops them from falling into the same routine. Challenges force the player to step outside their comfort zone and explore parts of the game they never interacted with. I even found myself creating my own stories with the Sims that fell inside those guidelines. The stories fall into place and I continue to find new things with every generation.

Follow the Sims

Being in control of everything, it can be easy to ignore the Sim’s wants. The Sims have their own wishes based on the traits given to them. I cannot stress this enough: FOLLOW THOSE! Each Sim has a unique personality that will shape their own story. They want to learn skills and go into careers that may be different than what the player is used to. Following the Sims themselves stopped me from falling into the same patterns that made me bored.

How you make your Sims is crucial. I used to make “perfect” Sims with no “bad” traits. My Sims were so boring and I always chose the same “good” ones. Once I used other traits, my Sims took me in totally different directions. Picking “weird” traits and lifetime wishes make the game more interesting. For example, I had a Sim who needed to grow 8 perfect plants and now I understand how gardening works (in The Sims).

Mods

I used to think mods were a form of cheating but they are a way of enhancing and fixing the game. I found The Sims 3 does not work well with a multi-generation playthrough in one town. I had to add mods in order for the game to even work. Here is my list of mods that coincidentally are all Nraas mods:

1. Dresser
2. Errortrap
3. Master Controller
4. Master Controller Cheats
5. Overwatch
6. Story Progression
7. Story Progression Population
8. Tagger

I started off with only Story Progression. As the generations passed, the town became stagnant. No other Sims besides my household moved along in relationships or careers. I highly recommend this mod as the EA Story Progression doesn’t work that well. I accumulated other mods to fix the other problems and bugs that came up.

My biggest issue had to be what I called “the Supernatural Problem”. I have all expansion packs installed and running, which meant witches, werewolves, fairies, and vampires roamed my town. Their lifespans are longer than regular Sims, especially fairies and vampires. These two occult types would have children with one partner then when that partner died, move onto another and have more children. I couldn’t take the massive families and them not dying so the town could move on. Within Master Controller, I found a way to remove occult types. I removed most of the fairies and vampires, making them witches, werewolves, or human. My town is moving again. I like the occults but keep the population of vampires and fairies low so this doesn’t happen again.

It took me some time to figure this out to the point where I was happy in my Sims save. Each time I boot up the game, I enter a crazy world filled with fond and funny memories. And each session brings more. I fully embrace the strangeness and honestly, couldn’t live without it.

Originally published at http://twilightramblingsblog.wordpress.com on January 10, 2024.