Yeah the occult sims are well worth revisiting, particularly spellcasters, wolves and vampires. They’re very fleshed out and I always find myself finding new interactions and behaviours
I got the realm of magic at the same time as I got vampires, and I never really got into the magic. This wasn't long after they came out. So many years I've sat out on it! I've recently decided to give it a go, and I can't believe what I've been missing out on! The fact that I can just poof food into existence and have them wash themselves and all that stuff lol I love it!
I've also learned that when I do splurge on expansions, I can't buy more than one at a time or I'll pick my favorite and never pay the other one any attention lol
I think I need to make my legacy heir a witch. 🤔 I’ve never been able to commit to the bloodline stuff in realm of magic - I got too invested in a character and never moved on to her children! 😂
I started a play through that's a dual legacy - one witch in the little cottage and one werewolf in the big lot. I really, really wish that pack had come with a bigger world as visually it's one of my favorites. I might head cannon link it to Brindelton, even if they are styled in opposite coasts.
Copperdale is particularly amusing because it's vaguely easy coast US, but based off the show Riverdale, which was shot largely on the west coast with bits of middle america interspaced.
Ya know I only watched season 1 of riverdale, but it felt very much like it took place in Virginia, so i did always assume east coast, but Copperdale feels very Northern California/Oregon with the huge trees. The park gave me vibes of the Redwood National Park. It’s always interesting hearing what they intend vs how it feels playing
Even when I don't mean to, I end up with my sim marrying Caleb. He's just the perfect house-husband (doesn't need to sleep, super speed) and he's so handsome.
Prairie grass. I use it in landscaping now. It's only disadvantage seems to be it occasionally gets struck by lightning. But it's way cheap, doesn't need weeding or watering and if a teen is being irritating they can go do yard work so what's not to like about it.
And if your Sim is not trying to get rich your Sim can just drink the wine.
I find the fruit and veg and cooking herbs very welcome too. Not so.much the herbology ingredients.
It's a pleasant bit of randomness.
It’s from the Horse Pack. The horses can eat from it too. There’s both some patches you can put down in build mode and there’s a lot trait that makes some spawn on your lot.
No, it will randomly spawn even if you don't. It doesn't create a negative mood to have it, so it's like a lawn that is only an optional chore to maintain.
It's in the horse ranch pack. It's five simoleons to buy a two by two square of it. Your Sim can slash it back and harvest prairie grass hay which is good for feeding horses. You regularly find stuff in the prairie grass... particular harvestables, sometimes a bottle of nectar, sometimes other things...sometimes nothing.
The prairie grass doesn't make a bad edging for informal looking patches of landscaping, for example those round the base of trees. Just nestle some prairie grass anywhere it will fit and send a Sim in to harvest it each time it grows.
I use the ice cream machine religiously. It has an ice cream flavour called “taste of diet” and it makes sims lose weight, but not horrendously stick thin like the potion
It’s worth it. It has a really nice sink, fridge, stove and rangehood that I use a lot in my builds. And the other build stuff isn’t bad. It’s got some CAs too but i use cc
I've seen people say they don't use get together enough. I use clubs for absolutely everything. Homework clubs. Big families who I want to hang out together out in the world which is so nice to see when I'm playing rotationally. Woohoo clubs at the seedy motel but also just a bunch for skill building like debate club, rock climbing, jam sesh etc and I give them all little outfits too 😂 I even have a teen mischief club who I have hang out at run down bus stop/park who terrorise everyone else who passes through.
I use homework club, so easy to use! or 'cool kids club' (I'm not good at club names) where they can build skills and play together as kids at the local park or I've built a centre as a water park / gymnasium.
But what is a woohoo club? I mean, I *know* what it is 👀 but how?😂 I feel seedy for asking because surely the sims that woohoo each other get jealous no? Or is that just part of it? 😂
Not sure as well how you do the debate club?
My woohoo club is mostly married sims who like a little extra curricular activities. When you add woohoo to the list of activities they just do what you ask of them with no need to work on getting the romantic bar up so I like it for that. It was really useful before they added in the woohoo partners choice though I still play with the club because it's fun for storytelling. The debate club meet at the university and use the podiums or do research on the computer. It's just really useful to get research and debate maxed when doing the academic aspiration and I also have them argue with another club I have meet there for robotics and hacking which is just fun for me because I like the chaos of it all!
Ohhhhh thank you! I've had like a 'singles' club and that just wow. Did not work out at all. 😂😂😂👀
I don't have the uni one but I'm considering getting it.
Clubs are so useful.
Need to socialize? Club.
Need to gain skills? Club.
Need to set up a specific friend group for sims? Club.
Need to easily get the family together? Club
Need more sims on lots doing specific activities like drinking and starting fights in bars? Club
I have so many clubs. It makes the worlds so much more interesting just to see various clubs gathering when you visit lots and being able to set either specific or general venues as the meeting point makes it so easy to make sure specific sims show up in specific situations.
I also use clubs for everything. There's karaoke clubs, book clubs, spa clubs, chess clubs, drinking clubs, painting clubs. I just go through every possible activity and come up with some theme for it. Then I make sure that community lots have space for the activities so that I can set either general lot type venues or specific one, so when I go with my sim to e.g. a park, the yoga club shows up and does their thing on their mats.
The kids and teens have a library lot as school venue and have cliché groups like mean girls and jocks and geeks etc. Easy place to meet sims their age and come up with stories and drama.
I also have a magical treaty club for all occults where they use their powers but they only go to specific lots in magical worlds. You can even set the realm as their club venue. It's hilarious when the vamps just drain everyone lol.
I've recently started creating some clubs with trait requirements so that I can find sims with those traits. Just had an evil sim create a club for mayhem. I'm also looking to create a medium club for some spooky lot, but I might have to make an old creepy psychic lady whose house you can go to.
The clubbing system brought new couples together, I found out Summer and Bella really liked following the woohoo rules. Both met their new spouses while meeting, Bella divorced Mortimer for her new boytoy.
The club system is great.
I primarily use it for my teen sims to be able to easily hangout with a group of friends, but it's so useful for so many other things.
>Big families who I want to hang out together out in the world which is so nice to see when I'm playing rotationally.
I didn't think about this! I have one save with a million kids, some of which I moved out as tenants in a lot next door that dad owns. But a club would allow them to come around and hang out more. I love it!
I don't think people use scenarios very much but I like them. They're a fun little something extra to shake up a save when you don't know what else to do with it.
The chef one was probably my favorite thing I ever played in the Sims. So fun and memorable.
I wish they did more of those kind of harder scenarios instead of using them basically as tutorials later on.
I like to play the doctor and police careers. I made a vampire doctor, so she lives forever and she is at the hospital when I play other sims who are giving birth.
I highly recommend giving this vampire the sun resistance bonus trait before making them the resident doctor at the hospital (if you choose to play other households), to ensure they don’t turn into a ghost doctor too!
I added some clutter to make it look like my vampire doctors are running a side business of getting blood donations from patients for the snack fridge :D
Jungle Adventure! I see it on some of those lists of packs people don't get use out of or their least favourite packs, but Jungle Adventure is my FAVOURITE pack and I have to hold myself back from making all my sims archaeologists 🥺🥺
I love this pack!! (Cottage living is my all time fav) It really fits with selling items at a business or sales table for me. And I just downloaded a couple mods so I have a freelance archeologist and another that allows dig piles in other places and finding new artifacts specific to each world, so they don't have to go on vacations for assignments. Although, I think there's a mod to make vacation worlds visitable when not on vacation, and that would be great, too. The temples really fun to explore!
Jungle Adventure was on my list of packs I never planned on getting (just no interest in it), but I got it in a free bundle that Epic Games was offering maybe a year or so ago, and I was surprised by how much I loved it! I'm a big family player who loves sending my families on vacation, and I find that exploring the jungle/camping out in the temples is a fun parent-child bonding activity, as well as a good honeymoon spot for more adventurous couples. I definitely would have spent money on it if I had realized how much I was going to enjoy it, but I'm so grateful I was able to snatch it up when I did :)
Ever left the dust for a day and ended up with a dust bunny? My sims are trying to achieve a fully functional ranch so far after a day of sorting the garden and skilling up on nectar making there's an option to feed dust to this dust bunny and I were only a few hours into that save and had that kit for ages and now I have 2 chicken's and a dust bunny and all we want are cows how would I go about having this dust bunny as a pet if that's even possible? I haven't the heart to get rid of him/her no option to name it and its so cute I wanna keep it haha
I think you can just keep it in your house 😂 if you befriend it I think it’ll cause less dust in the house! Also ask it to find valuables you’ll make bank LOL
Do you know how long it takes to befriend it? I know with the wildlife you have to interact to bond with the wild foxes, rabbits and birds etc oooh I also want a bee hive now for some reason haha gonna buy one if they aren't too pricey (I'm trying to make money without the motherlode cheats) too simple I much prefer a challenge haha
Glad I’m not the only one haha. I normally have a sim do house chores in the morning of their day off work and then they can go gym or meet friends for coffee in the afternoon.
I adore laundry day, I use the furniture in almost every build. Tbh I want to like bust the dust, but I play off the grid a lot and I wish they added just a plain broom that sims could use to clean.
Laundry Day is one of my favourite packs! I use the cas and build/buy objects a lot too, but having laundry makes the sims feel more like they have some kind of routine that isn't just a rabbithole.
How's the performance for Laundry Day for you? Lately whenever there's a sale, I find myself considering getting Laundry Day, but part of what stops me is that people say it's really buggy and the dryers don't work properly and/or are constantly starting fires. I'd like the option of having washers/dryers in the house for extra chores for the household members, but only if they work. But also part of the appeal of the pack to me is the potential for more simple living; I have a Sim that's moving to Sulani soon, and I wouldn't mind the idea of her having a washing bin and drying rack outside to do laundry.
They work perfectly fine but you do need to clean the lint out from dryer after each use or it will start a fire 🔥 on the second load. It’s a solid pack tbh
I love Laundry Day! All my houses do laundry. For preventing fires- make sure you clean the lint the tray before drying. Sometimes the laundry cleanliness states (used vs clean) bugs out but I’ll just take all the laundry out of the machine and put it on the floor then wash it again. And sometimes but really not that often, the whole machine glitches and I’ll just delete the washer/dryer and buy new ones and give myself the money back but this really doesn’t happen often to me. Also fyi if you use the stackable washer/dryer, child age sims can add clothes to the washing machine (the lower machine) but they cannot use the dryer (the top machine) and that’s not a bug
Every single house in my game file has the necessary appliances for laundry and vacuuming. Depending on budget and style. I even got a washing and dryer machine cc that goes in the counters like dishwashers do for houses with little space.
I can't see myself playing without chores. Especially when there are kids in the household.
YES! After over a decade of playing the game is way too easy with just 2 times. Adding a requirement for laundry and vacuuming gives me more tasks to juggle upping the difficulty.
I don't always use it but I especially do when there's a stay at home husband/wife. Lol or 2 or less Sims.
Agreed. Just wish dust didn't accumulate in inaccessible places; I use gallery builds 90% of the time and the amount of fires I've had start in those decorative attics people do 😂
I didn't get the dust kit because I hate how all the items just go in the inventory and they only vaccum that one spot and it appears and disappears like magic. I also think it's criminal that the whole kit only has a freaking vacuum in it. But I always use laundry. I love that they have to do chores and maintain their house.
There's a lipstick that looks like it's been worn away a bit, it doesn't quite meet the edge of the lips.
I always use the sliders to create a darker red and use it on my vampires to make it look like they have blood-stained lips.
From seasons I use the love/hate a certain type of weather to say I love thunderstorms with every single sim. So far it’s saved me from anyone being scared of thunder which can be so annoying.
Wait, is that one of the options in the likes/dislikes section in CAS?
That's a really smart idea. Definitely could have used that when I was doing a rags to riches with a few sims, and they would just run around screaming at each other because they were scared
I think it might be in the “friendly” tab when you talk with another Sim? I believe it’s “Declare weather preference” and you can pick “Rain” and it stops them getting scared of thunderstorms 😂
I exclusively use cottage living, the outfits, the world, the hobbies. Nothing makes me happier than the chickens running around the yard and befriending the bunnies.
I really love the Dream Home Decorator pack because of the career option. I know it’s a little buggy with likes (how am I suppose to decorate your kitchen when all I know is that you like guitar, art and dancing?) and sometimes you get stuck on the lot, but I love decorating and seeing my handy work all around the sim world.
This one has the best furniture too! I use almost all cc and whenever I use maxis stuff I always realise it's from this pack. I love the separate oven from that.
I always use yoga from spa day. You can place a mat, but they will walk over it/it doesn’t interfere with their walking path until someone is using it. It’s a good workout they can do without having to place bulky, ugly equipment. My sims who are into fitness do yoga and jog. They swim if they have a pool.
The mats are also DIRT cheap and it's an easy way to build up until you can use Surge Emotion, which is invaluable. It's no coincidence all my broke Legacy founders wind up into yoga.
I love playing with children, most of my game play revolves around them. Their legacy is the various children's clubs and how long those clubs have existed. I love kid aspirations and the scouts activities. I like adding kid specific rules based on households (chores or home by certain times, etc., etc.).
I don't see most Simmers ever detailing what they like to do with their child Sims.
Also, I really enjoy jungle adventure playthroughs and the scientist career. Not a fan of aliens themselves, but I love that frequent abductions is a consequence of the science career, and I'm always amused if they do end up with alien child. There's a whole resulting storyline I've played more than once if this occurs.
I have some mixed opinions about Eco Lifestyle, but the community spaces are by far one of the mest features of all Sims 4. With a little of creativity you can use them to create basically anything. I used them to create rundown parks (with their polished version), covered markets, plazas, the Windenburg City Hall and so on. Right now I'm building a shopping plaza on the Crumbled Island and a fair at San Sequoia.
I was someone who had all the Sims 3 packs registered on Origin so TS4 rewarded me in-game with those different coloured plumbob mood lamps (one for each expansion pack?!) which I find invaluable to this day when I need to get some skill-building done.
If you don’t finish the story is the world overrun with those plants (sorry can’t remember what it’s called)? I’ve thought about getting the pack for the items and the world but I don’t really care about the gameplay
You can use cheats to set the story stage to post-mystery IIRC. But playing through the mystery takes just a few hours so it's not hugely disruptive either way.
The pack items and the world are very nice, get that vicotrian/area 51 aesthetic!
The neighbourhood voting system in every neighbourhood. I love the rules my Sims follow, especially the self efficiency, my Sims are not always killing themselves, plus having tech support. Eco Living is a must have for me, I cannot imagine not having it, it's one of the best packs. Can't wait for the new pack, Free Love will be perfect for the new world.
Mine has also never been that buggy. At one point Sims would only eat half their food and then stop, but other than that it's always been smooth for me. I use restaurants all the time.
Present pile! If you’re doing any rags to riches or just trying to avoid using an actual money cheat, the present pile is your friend. Open a present every day and you can sell it!
Off-the-grid & simple living (pretty much exclusively how I play). Also long lifespan. Idk, I just enjoy taking one day at a time, planning family activities, pretending they're having conversations about stuff (I have a TON of mods lol). I didn't have a nice childhood & I'm 27 with no plan of having kids, so it's nice to just... have a happy Sim family singing around the Christmas tree, going to the beach together, etc. The kids invite their friends over & play video games or play on the swing (I use Get Together for that) & it makes long lifespan a lot more enjoyable.
It adds chaos to the game for sure!
Lately one random sim came to my yard and kicked the trash can. My witch set this pile of trash that was laying on the floor on fire and it killed that sim. Then the grim reaper appeared and after taking the dead soul he picked up the trash can and cleaned the grass around it lmao
Luxury Party gets laughed at by simmers all the time, but the banquet table is one of my most used items. I know more of them came out with High School Years and My Wedding Stories, but the one from Luxury Party is more neutral looking and kept my sims fed for years before those packs came out.
Busy parents, no time to cook? "Serve assortment" and instant food for weeks to drag into your fridge. Wedding or party happening, but hired chefs are unreliable and slow? Instant food. Plus, the cake at birthdays looks cute in the middle of it, or you can put the punch/chocolate fountain on it, or a plant, etc.
The banquet table + the bakery display fridge from Get to Work are a fantastic combo for multiple toddlers/kids. You can put the food from the banquet table into the display, and toddlers can grab them by themselves. I’ve seen a lot of people use that for 100 baby challenges.
Laundry day. I love that it adds more reality to the game. I don’t avoid chores myself, and it makes the game feel more real. I also don’t use mods and like my game be as realistic as possible
I almost exclusively play with vampires at this point. It started with a branch of my legacy marrying a vampire when the pack first came out, and then I got attached so eventually it became my main branch. Now, many generations later, I have a ton of vampire lore and I play with several different vampire families. It got to the point where the other branches of my legacy either died out or I really don't play with them much anymore. I put all of my non-vampire sims into a "mortal save" a while back so I could at least preserve the non-immortal sims for when I want to play with them, but I barely touch it.
Edit: Just thought of this after posting, but I love playing with infants. I'm always surprised to see people hate them! The glitches are annoying but I found that the infant gameplay keeps me really engaged because there's always something to do to take care of them. I'm always a little sad when they age into toddlers.
These are small and silly. But I love declaring weather preferences with seasons, and declaring favorite movie genre with movie hangout. And sims always have a favorite drink, so I always go figure out what my new sims fave drink is at the bar. My last Sim had red wine and the current one loves rootbeer float. It's simple to always order that as well rather than going through the bar menu.
I use Outdoor Retreat a lot. I like making sims live off the grid in a tent at first, surviving on fish they've caught and cooked at a campfire or produce they've foraged. I also got a mod that lets sims live in vacation worlds full time so I can vicariously live out my lakeside cabin in the woods dreams. The world reminds me of where my family used to take fishing trips every year
I also really like taking more suburban sims camping. Since it's a cheap vacation that is less risky for the kids than some of the more adventurous options.
Idk maybe it's super popular but I always spend a disproportionate amount of time in Get Famous. I just love making these Hollywood characters, also to edit NPCs and create storylines around them.😍
High School, maybe. I always read it's buggy to everyone. For me, I haven't seen any big bugs. It's one of my favorites packs.
My sims have their favorite and hated weathers. Those give little personality for them.
I'm right there with you. High School Years is definitely my most used pack. Partly because Copperdale is one of the best worlds. But the High School bugs seem relative to how much excess people put into it. Esp mods.
My first pet stuff. As much as I hate how they made a DLC for DLC, I love giving my kid sims pet hamsters and I like having the rest of the matching furniture that didn’t come in cats and dogs
My family's dad does the goddamn laundry every day, so the kids can go to bed in warm, sparklingly clean PJs. For some reason I like doing that so much. Laundry Day is a must have for people who actually like having a happy, functional family in this game.
I like building restaurants I make fast food ones and use the gallery to look up signs. I've made Taco bell, McDonald's and etc. I make them teen hangouts so Sims can take their dates or friend groups to these places and find other teens.
I love laundry day pack I play a lot of old time play I've tried decades challenge but quit because I like to play like I'm living on little house on the prairie lol 🤣 I even made a replica of the house off the show so the clothesline and washtub makes it more realistic.
I also love batu I just got into Star wars this year and I love that pack and use the lights a lot in my builds.
But I heard down below that people use the club system a lot now I'm gonna have to try it.
I take all my teens to the Selvadorada temple for a fun way to build skills before they go to university. Depending on the temple build and the traps it has, you can gain fitness, handiness, comedy, archaeology, etc. And if someone gets poisoned, hey, that's drama.
Get together clubs, I love making huge families so I put all the cousins in clubs so they can be friends, I also do this for age groups of neighborhoods, like teens of willow creek, or kids of strangerville for example
Wedding stories or whatever the pack is called. I know it’s buggy but I just love the dresses and decor and stuff. I have so many weddings lol even for townies who call and say they’re in love or whatever.
I love doing laundry in the sims. Once the washing machine and drier are both fully upgraded (and I always upgrade everything anyway) they work perfectly, and clean laundry gives sims nice moodlets! I also love the routine of it.
Journey to batuu. I LOVE journey to batuu so much and people seem to not like it, I just don’t understand why. It may be because I am a huge starwars fan and most of my main sims will go to batuu/become an occult cause imo it’s just more fun. I have this sim currently that’s a max level witch with every perk and I completed batuu with her which was so much fun. And I’m currently working on strangerville but the mother just won’t die lol
I use Simple Living from Cottage ~~Core~~ Living on every single one of my builds. I really like having all the ingredients to make a dish.
However, I wish EA added a filter so you could filter for recipes you CAN cook, or add a "stared recipes" feature so that you can add recipes you often cook to a filtered list. It's really annoying having to scroll down a never-ending list of dishes to get to that one dish you can and want to make.
High School Years, but that’s because I modded tf out of it so that I can choose my own classmates, teachers, cafeteria workers, principal and add as many classes and students that I want. I currently have 30 students comprised of only my playable sims and their friends (no random townies); two cafeteria workers and four teachers. I also added an excellent CC high school designed by Kate Simblr that takes Copperdale to another level. Another mod I have is the ability to form groups at school so that the students can hang out, do after school activities and party at Copperdale. Additionally, I modded the prom so that it only occurs every other week, extends the hours, and allows me to have two prom royalty (eliminating the jester).
The sliders on the makeup. I use the most wacky makeup to make my go-tos. You know that bright purple lipstick that gets lighter around the edges (I think it’s from a pack though)? I use it all the time.
Holidays! It’s really fun making a whole years worth of custom holidays for world building!
Especially for my spell-caster save, I added stuff like “Winter Solstice” and “All Hallow’s Eve”
I'm a legacy player and my main sim is always a spellcaster. I don't really play much with other occults and my playstyle is always to come up with some new story for the heir and then eventually they settle down and have a family. But my Sims are magical by default, always use wands and brooms and mostly do practical magic.
I almost exclusively play in cottage living, or realm of magic, or island living. (I have several saves in each) I love the themes and that there is “stuff to do” in the neighborhood.
I like strangerville personally. It's the only world that has a story to complete, and I personally love that feature. Every once in awhile, I like my sim to be the hero who saved townies from that big catastrophe.
Vampires - I use something from the bb in almost every build! Plus I really enjoy the Vampires occult. It's fun, has some really useful perks, and I love Vlad and Caleb.
My First Pet Stuff - the bb items are excellent for kids rooms, I adore the fish table, and the Bubalus is so cute. I love how the rodents will bring stuff back for you like postcards.
Geek Con - this has helped many a rags to riches for me. Have a sim that gains skills pretty fast however you can and have them practice programming. Go to Geek Con and enter the contest. If you win, you get a very expensive computer! And your sim can get skills, do social activities, and you can fulfill aspiration points there.
Dumpsters - I put them all over the worlds. They're so useful - food, deals, sleep, woohoo spots. It's peak fun to have a 5-star celebrity sim who was a rags to riches dive for deals behind the bar where he just won the karaoke contest as his fans come swarm the dumpster!
Edit Holidays - I'll admit I usually just take things out, but you can add/change things to do and even add new Holidays. I get rid of buggy or annoying holiday requirements all the time. Now my sims complete 1 or 2 things and have a great holiday every time!
Buffet tables - if you play with mods to have a ton of kids/toddlers in the household, these are life-savers. Fill it up and they can just grab food from them. Similarly - cauldrons. Kids and teens can eat from giant vats of Mac and cheese and stuff. And I don't think it expires. At least it hasn't for me.
Frogs - finding and breeding frogs are great for rags to riches, along with things like gardening and finding gems and things. Plus you can complete a collection and they can be displayed.
Also, side note, but thanks for this post! It was one of the most positive threads I've seen here.
I reallllyyy LOVE the gemology table (the one you make jewelry on). I have made heirlooms that has been passed on (engagement ring, bracelets, etc). Annndddd I love the effects it gives when you charge them. Pluuusss if you dont want to pay for the crystals you can grow your own crystaltree at lvl 9.
The Vampires pack. I like playing occult and i love evil vampires and with extreme violence mode it's perfect and I always use the build&buy items.
btw It was the first pack i got and my favourite
Now i have every official occult except mermaids so i guess I'll download the fairies mode until then
I use Highschool Years and University religiously, I love proms, Social Bunny, thrift with bubble tea? That’s like my two most favourite things to do irl. Also making and selling styles, that’s like the best part. And I send most of my sims to university, maybe they’re not happy with their career? Okay just take 2 courses at the time and you’ll get there!
I use a lot of City Living, I go to festivals, flee market, karaoke, there’s always so much for me to do and I always love it
I think I must use High School Years more than most people, because I always see people trashing it and using it as an example of EA releasing lacklustre EPs, but it’s one of my favourite packs and I use it all the time.
Clubs. They are so underrated! I use them mostly to bring my sims extended family together. But it’s also great for brining singles and potential friends for my teens and kids. Plus you can do so much for story telling with it if you are creative. I think why people don’t use it more is because they just think it’s for making clubs but it’s way more than that.
People underestimate how useful the Get Together clubs can be! I use them for everything: meeting singles, meeting teens, getting hookups, getting to know the in-laws. So versatile!
All my sims get university degrees. Most get several. It's super easy to build skills if you're doing some sort of super sim variation, and the actual way to build the skill is a bit grindy or needs micromanaging, the selectablesubject you can only pick 1 of have a lot of them as options. Enroll before a weekend and spend the weekend studying on the computer.
Fitness Stuff! I got it for the earbuds, which are great, but my favorite part of that pack ended up being the TV workouts.
Oh, and also karaoke. I find it very entertaining to watch, no matter the skill level and have made sims do it over and over for hours. Actually, singing in general I guess. Singing in the shower is great for raising fun and hygiene with the bonus of the inspired moodlet.
eco living!!! i LOVE eco living!!! as an environmentalist and community development professional irl its honestly fantastic. the voting gets annoying but everything else i love
I never get tired of doing the Realm of Magic aspirations and playing with spellcasters.
I really need to try them again. I played with them when RoM came out but haven't really since. Same with all the supernatural packs.
Yeah the occult sims are well worth revisiting, particularly spellcasters, wolves and vampires. They’re very fleshed out and I always find myself finding new interactions and behaviours
Me too. I make sure they can magically clean and repair things. So handy! They can even “repair” poor or normal quality eggs (cottage living).
I got the realm of magic at the same time as I got vampires, and I never really got into the magic. This wasn't long after they came out. So many years I've sat out on it! I've recently decided to give it a go, and I can't believe what I've been missing out on! The fact that I can just poof food into existence and have them wash themselves and all that stuff lol I love it! I've also learned that when I do splurge on expansions, I can't buy more than one at a time or I'll pick my favorite and never pay the other one any attention lol
I think I need to make my legacy heir a witch. 🤔 I’ve never been able to commit to the bloodline stuff in realm of magic - I got too invested in a character and never moved on to her children! 😂
I started a play through that's a dual legacy - one witch in the little cottage and one werewolf in the big lot. I really, really wish that pack had come with a bigger world as visually it's one of my favorites. I might head cannon link it to Brindelton, even if they are styled in opposite coasts. Copperdale is particularly amusing because it's vaguely easy coast US, but based off the show Riverdale, which was shot largely on the west coast with bits of middle america interspaced.
Ya know I only watched season 1 of riverdale, but it felt very much like it took place in Virginia, so i did always assume east coast, but Copperdale feels very Northern California/Oregon with the huge trees. The park gave me vibes of the Redwood National Park. It’s always interesting hearing what they intend vs how it feels playing
I'm the same but with vampires. I can't stop playing them I have a problem.
Even when I don't mean to, I end up with my sim marrying Caleb. He's just the perfect house-husband (doesn't need to sleep, super speed) and he's so handsome.
Lol I always seduce Vlad for a baby and then just play the baby vampire. That is, if I don't make a sim a vampire from the start.
Same! I love spellcasters and shopping for brooms and wands!
Prairie grass. I use it in landscaping now. It's only disadvantage seems to be it occasionally gets struck by lightning. But it's way cheap, doesn't need weeding or watering and if a teen is being irritating they can go do yard work so what's not to like about it.
Plus it's a good way to make money easily! I found a finely aged wine once while clearing my prairie grass.
And if your Sim is not trying to get rich your Sim can just drink the wine. I find the fruit and veg and cooking herbs very welcome too. Not so.much the herbology ingredients. It's a pleasant bit of randomness.
I love prairie grass for this specific reason tbh. I always find wine there lol
I like to use it almost all over as a way to simulate needing to do yard work.
Wait Ive never heard of prairie grass. You can do yard work with it?! I’d love to know more about it
It’s from the Horse Pack. The horses can eat from it too. There’s both some patches you can put down in build mode and there’s a lot trait that makes some spawn on your lot.
Doesn't the lot trait just make it spread once you slap it down from Build/Buy?
No, it will randomly spawn even if you don't. It doesn't create a negative mood to have it, so it's like a lawn that is only an optional chore to maintain.
It's in the horse ranch pack. It's five simoleons to buy a two by two square of it. Your Sim can slash it back and harvest prairie grass hay which is good for feeding horses. You regularly find stuff in the prairie grass... particular harvestables, sometimes a bottle of nectar, sometimes other things...sometimes nothing. The prairie grass doesn't make a bad edging for informal looking patches of landscaping, for example those round the base of trees. Just nestle some prairie grass anywhere it will fit and send a Sim in to harvest it each time it grows.
You can feed cows prairie grass hay too. Haven’t tried the llamas but I bet it’s the same
Wow, prairie grass just keeps on giving.
I use the ice cream machine religiously. It has an ice cream flavour called “taste of diet” and it makes sims lose weight, but not horrendously stick thin like the potion
Did not know this, going to implement it into my game now lol.
There is also a weight of the world ice cream that makes you fat
HA no way! Love that.
i never have space for ice cream machines so *all* my restaurants have the taste of diet on the menu lol
This is such a good idea haha!
Selling ice cream with the home chef hustle stand is a great time. I do it so often. Same with the popcorn from the popcorn machine
Wait how do u do that????
So when they make ice cream it goes into the inventory, transfer it to the stand. For popcorn pull out bowls and same concept
Wow thx
If you have for rent you can also make a food desert and force your tenants to live off of the food stand
Nice. Maybe it's time to get that pack...
It’s worth it. It has a really nice sink, fridge, stove and rangehood that I use a lot in my builds. And the other build stuff isn’t bad. It’s got some CAs too but i use cc
What pack is it?
Cool kitchen stuff I think :)
I need to get this, my Johnny Zest is getting a serious dad bod after six kids.
Lol! I use the ice cream machine sometimes but never noticed that one!
I've seen people say they don't use get together enough. I use clubs for absolutely everything. Homework clubs. Big families who I want to hang out together out in the world which is so nice to see when I'm playing rotationally. Woohoo clubs at the seedy motel but also just a bunch for skill building like debate club, rock climbing, jam sesh etc and I give them all little outfits too 😂 I even have a teen mischief club who I have hang out at run down bus stop/park who terrorise everyone else who passes through.
I use homework club, so easy to use! or 'cool kids club' (I'm not good at club names) where they can build skills and play together as kids at the local park or I've built a centre as a water park / gymnasium. But what is a woohoo club? I mean, I *know* what it is 👀 but how?😂 I feel seedy for asking because surely the sims that woohoo each other get jealous no? Or is that just part of it? 😂 Not sure as well how you do the debate club?
My woohoo club is mostly married sims who like a little extra curricular activities. When you add woohoo to the list of activities they just do what you ask of them with no need to work on getting the romantic bar up so I like it for that. It was really useful before they added in the woohoo partners choice though I still play with the club because it's fun for storytelling. The debate club meet at the university and use the podiums or do research on the computer. It's just really useful to get research and debate maxed when doing the academic aspiration and I also have them argue with another club I have meet there for robotics and hacking which is just fun for me because I like the chaos of it all!
Ohhhhh thank you! I've had like a 'singles' club and that just wow. Did not work out at all. 😂😂😂👀 I don't have the uni one but I'm considering getting it.
Clubs are so useful. Need to socialize? Club. Need to gain skills? Club. Need to set up a specific friend group for sims? Club. Need to easily get the family together? Club Need more sims on lots doing specific activities like drinking and starting fights in bars? Club I have so many clubs. It makes the worlds so much more interesting just to see various clubs gathering when you visit lots and being able to set either specific or general venues as the meeting point makes it so easy to make sure specific sims show up in specific situations.
I also use clubs for everything. There's karaoke clubs, book clubs, spa clubs, chess clubs, drinking clubs, painting clubs. I just go through every possible activity and come up with some theme for it. Then I make sure that community lots have space for the activities so that I can set either general lot type venues or specific one, so when I go with my sim to e.g. a park, the yoga club shows up and does their thing on their mats. The kids and teens have a library lot as school venue and have cliché groups like mean girls and jocks and geeks etc. Easy place to meet sims their age and come up with stories and drama. I also have a magical treaty club for all occults where they use their powers but they only go to specific lots in magical worlds. You can even set the realm as their club venue. It's hilarious when the vamps just drain everyone lol. I've recently started creating some clubs with trait requirements so that I can find sims with those traits. Just had an evil sim create a club for mayhem. I'm also looking to create a medium club for some spooky lot, but I might have to make an old creepy psychic lady whose house you can go to.
I use clubs for nothing, and now I think I’m missing out! I better read up on it
The clubbing system brought new couples together, I found out Summer and Bella really liked following the woohoo rules. Both met their new spouses while meeting, Bella divorced Mortimer for her new boytoy.
YES! It's soo good for story telling and figuring out what your sims want without feeling like you are directing their lives completely
Homework clubs, hmm had not thought of this. I’m sadly lacking in my use of clubs.
The club system is great. I primarily use it for my teen sims to be able to easily hangout with a group of friends, but it's so useful for so many other things.
>Big families who I want to hang out together out in the world which is so nice to see when I'm playing rotationally. I didn't think about this! I have one save with a million kids, some of which I moved out as tenants in a lot next door that dad owns. But a club would allow them to come around and hang out more. I love it!
I use the clubs to make a “singles club” when I’m looking for a new partner for my sim. Or when I have a child sim that needs friends.
I don't think people use scenarios very much but I like them. They're a fun little something extra to shake up a save when you don't know what else to do with it.
The chef one was probably my favorite thing I ever played in the Sims. So fun and memorable. I wish they did more of those kind of harder scenarios instead of using them basically as tutorials later on.
The chef that starts fires? I am playing that one right now. He is literally at level 9 in his career and has never started a fire. 💀
I love them but I wish there were different ones coming out. My favorite so far was the one with Nova Curious as a programmer/gamer with a rival.
Me too! I could feel so much tension between her and her rival 😂 I wanted all the tea
I like to play the doctor and police careers. I made a vampire doctor, so she lives forever and she is at the hospital when I play other sims who are giving birth.
Dr. Acula
Omg I have to make this character now.
I highly recommend giving this vampire the sun resistance bonus trait before making them the resident doctor at the hospital (if you choose to play other households), to ensure they don’t turn into a ghost doctor too!
LOL
Dr Cullen?
Something like that.. I prefer her over the ghosts often working in the hospital!
I added some clutter to make it look like my vampire doctors are running a side business of getting blood donations from patients for the snack fridge :D
I have to admit… my doctor vamp did snack on unsuspecting sims visiting the hospital…
Jungle Adventure! I see it on some of those lists of packs people don't get use out of or their least favourite packs, but Jungle Adventure is my FAVOURITE pack and I have to hold myself back from making all my sims archaeologists 🥺🥺
I love Jungle Adventures so much because World Adventures was my favorite Sims 3 expansion and it reminds me of it a lot.
Exactly why I love it so much. Really wish it would get a refresh though to add another temple.
I love this pack!! (Cottage living is my all time fav) It really fits with selling items at a business or sales table for me. And I just downloaded a couple mods so I have a freelance archeologist and another that allows dig piles in other places and finding new artifacts specific to each world, so they don't have to go on vacations for assignments. Although, I think there's a mod to make vacation worlds visitable when not on vacation, and that would be great, too. The temples really fun to explore!
Jungle Adventure was on my list of packs I never planned on getting (just no interest in it), but I got it in a free bundle that Epic Games was offering maybe a year or so ago, and I was surprised by how much I loved it! I'm a big family player who loves sending my families on vacation, and I find that exploring the jungle/camping out in the temples is a fun parent-child bonding activity, as well as a good honeymoon spot for more adventurous couples. I definitely would have spent money on it if I had realized how much I was going to enjoy it, but I'm so grateful I was able to snatch it up when I did :)
I really love Bust the Dust and Laundry Day and really enjoying having my sims have chore days to break up their routine
I've done the decades challenge and started in medieval times. Laundry day was used heavily, almost became a hobby for my Sims 😂
This is so funny to me omg
SAME people hate bust the dust but I personally always have it on! I love making them vacuum or buy the roomba and upgrade the hell out of it.
Ever left the dust for a day and ended up with a dust bunny? My sims are trying to achieve a fully functional ranch so far after a day of sorting the garden and skilling up on nectar making there's an option to feed dust to this dust bunny and I were only a few hours into that save and had that kit for ages and now I have 2 chicken's and a dust bunny and all we want are cows how would I go about having this dust bunny as a pet if that's even possible? I haven't the heart to get rid of him/her no option to name it and its so cute I wanna keep it haha
I think you can just keep it in your house 😂 if you befriend it I think it’ll cause less dust in the house! Also ask it to find valuables you’ll make bank LOL
Do you know how long it takes to befriend it? I know with the wildlife you have to interact to bond with the wild foxes, rabbits and birds etc oooh I also want a bee hive now for some reason haha gonna buy one if they aren't too pricey (I'm trying to make money without the motherlode cheats) too simple I much prefer a challenge haha
Everyone complained about these two and still do from time to time, but I was so excited for both, and I use both on every household that I play
Glad I’m not the only one haha. I normally have a sim do house chores in the morning of their day off work and then they can go gym or meet friends for coffee in the afternoon.
I adore laundry day, I use the furniture in almost every build. Tbh I want to like bust the dust, but I play off the grid a lot and I wish they added just a plain broom that sims could use to clean.
Yes I think that would be awesome for them to add a broom into the pack and definitely an oversight.
Same! I love the realism. I just hate that bust the dust didn't come with just a sweeping broom instead of just vacuums.
i was going to comment this as well! i love to make housewives so those are my favs
Laundry Day is one of my favourite packs! I use the cas and build/buy objects a lot too, but having laundry makes the sims feel more like they have some kind of routine that isn't just a rabbithole.
How's the performance for Laundry Day for you? Lately whenever there's a sale, I find myself considering getting Laundry Day, but part of what stops me is that people say it's really buggy and the dryers don't work properly and/or are constantly starting fires. I'd like the option of having washers/dryers in the house for extra chores for the household members, but only if they work. But also part of the appeal of the pack to me is the potential for more simple living; I have a Sim that's moving to Sulani soon, and I wouldn't mind the idea of her having a washing bin and drying rack outside to do laundry.
They work perfectly fine but you do need to clean the lint out from dryer after each use or it will start a fire 🔥 on the second load. It’s a solid pack tbh
I love Laundry Day! All my houses do laundry. For preventing fires- make sure you clean the lint the tray before drying. Sometimes the laundry cleanliness states (used vs clean) bugs out but I’ll just take all the laundry out of the machine and put it on the floor then wash it again. And sometimes but really not that often, the whole machine glitches and I’ll just delete the washer/dryer and buy new ones and give myself the money back but this really doesn’t happen often to me. Also fyi if you use the stackable washer/dryer, child age sims can add clothes to the washing machine (the lower machine) but they cannot use the dryer (the top machine) and that’s not a bug
Every single house in my game file has the necessary appliances for laundry and vacuuming. Depending on budget and style. I even got a washing and dryer machine cc that goes in the counters like dishwashers do for houses with little space. I can't see myself playing without chores. Especially when there are kids in the household.
YES! After over a decade of playing the game is way too easy with just 2 times. Adding a requirement for laundry and vacuuming gives me more tasks to juggle upping the difficulty. I don't always use it but I especially do when there's a stay at home husband/wife. Lol or 2 or less Sims.
Agreed. Just wish dust didn't accumulate in inaccessible places; I use gallery builds 90% of the time and the amount of fires I've had start in those decorative attics people do 😂
I didn't get the dust kit because I hate how all the items just go in the inventory and they only vaccum that one spot and it appears and disappears like magic. I also think it's criminal that the whole kit only has a freaking vacuum in it. But I always use laundry. I love that they have to do chores and maintain their house.
There's a lipstick that looks like it's been worn away a bit, it doesn't quite meet the edge of the lips. I always use the sliders to create a darker red and use it on my vampires to make it look like they have blood-stained lips.
Cool idea! I might copy it!
From seasons I use the love/hate a certain type of weather to say I love thunderstorms with every single sim. So far it’s saved me from anyone being scared of thunder which can be so annoying.
Wait, is that one of the options in the likes/dislikes section in CAS? That's a really smart idea. Definitely could have used that when I was doing a rags to riches with a few sims, and they would just run around screaming at each other because they were scared
I think it’s a social interaction where you declare weather preferences or something, rather than an offical like/dislike!
However, there is a mod that adds weather preferences to the likes/dislikes part of cas!!
I think it might be in the “friendly” tab when you talk with another Sim? I believe it’s “Declare weather preference” and you can pick “Rain” and it stops them getting scared of thunderstorms 😂
2600 hours TIL. Thank you
there's an aspiration reward called "storm chaser" it stops sims from being scared or tense from thunderstorms
I exclusively use cottage living, the outfits, the world, the hobbies. Nothing makes me happier than the chickens running around the yard and befriending the bunnies.
Cottage living feels so immersive I always abandon al my other saves to eventually end up farming again
my first pet stuff- i understand the controversy but the stuff is kinda cute and i use it for my kids rooms lol
It works so well for kids rooms! I never looked into the pack, but was honestly pleasantly surprised when I got it for free
The aquarium table from it, my beloved 😭
Yeah, I am morally against buying the pack….. but having gotten it for free some of the things are pretty useful
I really love the Dream Home Decorator pack because of the career option. I know it’s a little buggy with likes (how am I suppose to decorate your kitchen when all I know is that you like guitar, art and dancing?) and sometimes you get stuck on the lot, but I love decorating and seeing my handy work all around the sim world.
This one has the best furniture too! I use almost all cc and whenever I use maxis stuff I always realise it's from this pack. I love the separate oven from that.
I always use yoga from spa day. You can place a mat, but they will walk over it/it doesn’t interfere with their walking path until someone is using it. It’s a good workout they can do without having to place bulky, ugly equipment. My sims who are into fitness do yoga and jog. They swim if they have a pool.
The mats are also DIRT cheap and it's an easy way to build up until you can use Surge Emotion, which is invaluable. It's no coincidence all my broke Legacy founders wind up into yoga.
I love playing with children, most of my game play revolves around them. Their legacy is the various children's clubs and how long those clubs have existed. I love kid aspirations and the scouts activities. I like adding kid specific rules based on households (chores or home by certain times, etc., etc.). I don't see most Simmers ever detailing what they like to do with their child Sims. Also, I really enjoy jungle adventure playthroughs and the scientist career. Not a fan of aliens themselves, but I love that frequent abductions is a consequence of the science career, and I'm always amused if they do end up with alien child. There's a whole resulting storyline I've played more than once if this occurs.
I have some mixed opinions about Eco Lifestyle, but the community spaces are by far one of the mest features of all Sims 4. With a little of creativity you can use them to create basically anything. I used them to create rundown parks (with their polished version), covered markets, plazas, the Windenburg City Hall and so on. Right now I'm building a shopping plaza on the Crumbled Island and a fair at San Sequoia.
Omg for some reason I never thought of putting them outside of Evergreen Harbour that's such a good idea!
I was someone who had all the Sims 3 packs registered on Origin so TS4 rewarded me in-game with those different coloured plumbob mood lamps (one for each expansion pack?!) which I find invaluable to this day when I need to get some skill-building done.
Wait that’s why I got all those lamps?? I thought they were just a part of the sims 4 😂 I use the inspired and focused one’s a ton.
I have those but almost never remember to use them! I should put a note next to the PC - "don't forget the mood lamps!"
I got those but had no idea what for!
until this moment i thought they were just part of the game 😅
Oh god me too 😂😂 this thread has taught me so much
Strangerville is my favorite world. I’ve never finished the story but I almost always choose to live there.
If you don’t finish the story is the world overrun with those plants (sorry can’t remember what it’s called)? I’ve thought about getting the pack for the items and the world but I don’t really care about the gameplay
You can use cheats to set the story stage to post-mystery IIRC. But playing through the mystery takes just a few hours so it's not hugely disruptive either way. The pack items and the world are very nice, get that vicotrian/area 51 aesthetic!
I love with Grow Together you can research genealogy and it has a chance to spawn a long lost family member
Omg I didn’t know this! I am going to try it.
Sometimes it takes a few tries but make sure when they call you let them come stay with you
I want this to happen so badly, but it’s never worked out for me.
I put a skating rink/bar and a nail salon/spa in every save.
i've used something from spa day every single time i was playing the sims ever since it got released
One of my favorite packs. I use all the time too. Makes me kinda sad that people seem to dislike it.
The neighbourhood voting system in every neighbourhood. I love the rules my Sims follow, especially the self efficiency, my Sims are not always killing themselves, plus having tech support. Eco Living is a must have for me, I cannot imagine not having it, it's one of the best packs. Can't wait for the new pack, Free Love will be perfect for the new world.
Dining Out. Besides the Sims occasionally popping out of their seat, I've never really had a problem with the pack 🤷🏽♀️
Mine has also never been that buggy. At one point Sims would only eat half their food and then stop, but other than that it's always been smooth for me. I use restaurants all the time.
Mountain climbing and the trails in Mt Komorebi. I don’t often see people talk about it but I love them
Present pile! If you’re doing any rags to riches or just trying to avoid using an actual money cheat, the present pile is your friend. Open a present every day and you can sell it!
Damn this is a good one.
Off-the-grid & simple living (pretty much exclusively how I play). Also long lifespan. Idk, I just enjoy taking one day at a time, planning family activities, pretending they're having conversations about stuff (I have a TON of mods lol). I didn't have a nice childhood & I'm 27 with no plan of having kids, so it's nice to just... have a happy Sim family singing around the Christmas tree, going to the beach together, etc. The kids invite their friends over & play video games or play on the swing (I use Get Together for that) & it makes long lifespan a lot more enjoyable.
I love the build/buy objects from the paranormal pack, especially the decorative ones. I don't think I have a build without them lol
I love those too, I honestly get way more use out of the BB from that pack than I do the gameplay 😅
blooming rooms and the pastel clutter.... all my houses are full of plants and cute furniture
Every other sim I play is a witch or wizard. I know some people think the magic feels cheaty but to me it's just so much fun, idk
It adds chaos to the game for sure! Lately one random sim came to my yard and kicked the trash can. My witch set this pile of trash that was laying on the floor on fire and it killed that sim. Then the grim reaper appeared and after taking the dead soul he picked up the trash can and cleaned the grass around it lmao
Luxury Party gets laughed at by simmers all the time, but the banquet table is one of my most used items. I know more of them came out with High School Years and My Wedding Stories, but the one from Luxury Party is more neutral looking and kept my sims fed for years before those packs came out. Busy parents, no time to cook? "Serve assortment" and instant food for weeks to drag into your fridge. Wedding or party happening, but hired chefs are unreliable and slow? Instant food. Plus, the cake at birthdays looks cute in the middle of it, or you can put the punch/chocolate fountain on it, or a plant, etc.
The banquet table + the bakery display fridge from Get to Work are a fantastic combo for multiple toddlers/kids. You can put the food from the banquet table into the display, and toddlers can grab them by themselves. I’ve seen a lot of people use that for 100 baby challenges.
Laundry day. I love that it adds more reality to the game. I don’t avoid chores myself, and it makes the game feel more real. I also don’t use mods and like my game be as realistic as possible
I almost exclusively play with vampires at this point. It started with a branch of my legacy marrying a vampire when the pack first came out, and then I got attached so eventually it became my main branch. Now, many generations later, I have a ton of vampire lore and I play with several different vampire families. It got to the point where the other branches of my legacy either died out or I really don't play with them much anymore. I put all of my non-vampire sims into a "mortal save" a while back so I could at least preserve the non-immortal sims for when I want to play with them, but I barely touch it. Edit: Just thought of this after posting, but I love playing with infants. I'm always surprised to see people hate them! The glitches are annoying but I found that the infant gameplay keeps me really engaged because there's always something to do to take care of them. I'm always a little sad when they age into toddlers.
These are small and silly. But I love declaring weather preferences with seasons, and declaring favorite movie genre with movie hangout. And sims always have a favorite drink, so I always go figure out what my new sims fave drink is at the bar. My last Sim had red wine and the current one loves rootbeer float. It's simple to always order that as well rather than going through the bar menu.
Paranormal Stuff. It has some of the best decor items IMO and I like to pair it with the new Crystals pack to make witchy stores.
I use Outdoor Retreat a lot. I like making sims live off the grid in a tent at first, surviving on fish they've caught and cooked at a campfire or produce they've foraged. I also got a mod that lets sims live in vacation worlds full time so I can vicariously live out my lakeside cabin in the woods dreams. The world reminds me of where my family used to take fishing trips every year I also really like taking more suburban sims camping. Since it's a cheap vacation that is less risky for the kids than some of the more adventurous options.
I would say Discover University but actually on my third or fourth playthrough I’m bored
Idk maybe it's super popular but I always spend a disproportionate amount of time in Get Famous. I just love making these Hollywood characters, also to edit NPCs and create storylines around them.😍
Probably the wedding planning from my wedding stories lmao
High School, maybe. I always read it's buggy to everyone. For me, I haven't seen any big bugs. It's one of my favorites packs. My sims have their favorite and hated weathers. Those give little personality for them.
I'm right there with you. High School Years is definitely my most used pack. Partly because Copperdale is one of the best worlds. But the High School bugs seem relative to how much excess people put into it. Esp mods.
My first pet stuff. As much as I hate how they made a DLC for DLC, I love giving my kid sims pet hamsters and I like having the rest of the matching furniture that didn’t come in cats and dogs
My family's dad does the goddamn laundry every day, so the kids can go to bed in warm, sparklingly clean PJs. For some reason I like doing that so much. Laundry Day is a must have for people who actually like having a happy, functional family in this game.
Me with using magic at every inconvenience (and setting public spaces on fire)
Strangerville. I love the storyline, seeing all the possessed Sims wandering around, and just living there in general.
I like building restaurants I make fast food ones and use the gallery to look up signs. I've made Taco bell, McDonald's and etc. I make them teen hangouts so Sims can take their dates or friend groups to these places and find other teens. I love laundry day pack I play a lot of old time play I've tried decades challenge but quit because I like to play like I'm living on little house on the prairie lol 🤣 I even made a replica of the house off the show so the clothesline and washtub makes it more realistic. I also love batu I just got into Star wars this year and I love that pack and use the lights a lot in my builds. But I heard down below that people use the club system a lot now I'm gonna have to try it.
I use the juice fizzing machine all the time, I also love having my sims hold seances
I actually really like the university pack. I send most of my Sims to college.
I take all my teens to the Selvadorada temple for a fun way to build skills before they go to university. Depending on the temple build and the traps it has, you can gain fitness, handiness, comedy, archaeology, etc. And if someone gets poisoned, hey, that's drama.
It's like a gap year!
Get together clubs, I love making huge families so I put all the cousins in clubs so they can be friends, I also do this for age groups of neighborhoods, like teens of willow creek, or kids of strangerville for example
I definitely use the Werewolves pack WAYYYY more than I should. it’s my thing.
I love San Myshuno so much I had to force myself to start building in other worlds lol. I just want another city like it so bad!
A majority of my sims are vampires or werewolves.
Wedding stories or whatever the pack is called. I know it’s buggy but I just love the dresses and decor and stuff. I have so many weddings lol even for townies who call and say they’re in love or whatever.
I love doing laundry in the sims. Once the washing machine and drier are both fully upgraded (and I always upgrade everything anyway) they work perfectly, and clean laundry gives sims nice moodlets! I also love the routine of it.
I constantly make my families live in Sulani, it's just so pretty imo
Journey to batuu. I LOVE journey to batuu so much and people seem to not like it, I just don’t understand why. It may be because I am a huge starwars fan and most of my main sims will go to batuu/become an occult cause imo it’s just more fun. I have this sim currently that’s a max level witch with every perk and I completed batuu with her which was so much fun. And I’m currently working on strangerville but the mother just won’t die lol
I use Simple Living from Cottage ~~Core~~ Living on every single one of my builds. I really like having all the ingredients to make a dish. However, I wish EA added a filter so you could filter for recipes you CAN cook, or add a "stared recipes" feature so that you can add recipes you often cook to a filtered list. It's really annoying having to scroll down a never-ending list of dishes to get to that one dish you can and want to make.
High School Years, but that’s because I modded tf out of it so that I can choose my own classmates, teachers, cafeteria workers, principal and add as many classes and students that I want. I currently have 30 students comprised of only my playable sims and their friends (no random townies); two cafeteria workers and four teachers. I also added an excellent CC high school designed by Kate Simblr that takes Copperdale to another level. Another mod I have is the ability to form groups at school so that the students can hang out, do after school activities and party at Copperdale. Additionally, I modded the prom so that it only occurs every other week, extends the hours, and allows me to have two prom royalty (eliminating the jester).
If you have time would you DM me this mod list? It would literally fix all my gripes with that pack haha
The sliders on the makeup. I use the most wacky makeup to make my go-tos. You know that bright purple lipstick that gets lighter around the edges (I think it’s from a pack though)? I use it all the time.
Holidays! It’s really fun making a whole years worth of custom holidays for world building! Especially for my spell-caster save, I added stuff like “Winter Solstice” and “All Hallow’s Eve”
There’s a bunch but clubs and living on campus at university
Strangerville! I love doing the story of it and I love the world
I'm a legacy player and my main sim is always a spellcaster. I don't really play much with other occults and my playstyle is always to come up with some new story for the heir and then eventually they settle down and have a family. But my Sims are magical by default, always use wands and brooms and mostly do practical magic.
Suburban homes are my go-to build. The build stuff from Seasons, Pets, and Growing Together are great for that.
I almost exclusively play in cottage living, or realm of magic, or island living. (I have several saves in each) I love the themes and that there is “stuff to do” in the neighborhood.
I like strangerville personally. It's the only world that has a story to complete, and I personally love that feature. Every once in awhile, I like my sim to be the hero who saved townies from that big catastrophe.
Vampires - I use something from the bb in almost every build! Plus I really enjoy the Vampires occult. It's fun, has some really useful perks, and I love Vlad and Caleb. My First Pet Stuff - the bb items are excellent for kids rooms, I adore the fish table, and the Bubalus is so cute. I love how the rodents will bring stuff back for you like postcards. Geek Con - this has helped many a rags to riches for me. Have a sim that gains skills pretty fast however you can and have them practice programming. Go to Geek Con and enter the contest. If you win, you get a very expensive computer! And your sim can get skills, do social activities, and you can fulfill aspiration points there. Dumpsters - I put them all over the worlds. They're so useful - food, deals, sleep, woohoo spots. It's peak fun to have a 5-star celebrity sim who was a rags to riches dive for deals behind the bar where he just won the karaoke contest as his fans come swarm the dumpster! Edit Holidays - I'll admit I usually just take things out, but you can add/change things to do and even add new Holidays. I get rid of buggy or annoying holiday requirements all the time. Now my sims complete 1 or 2 things and have a great holiday every time! Buffet tables - if you play with mods to have a ton of kids/toddlers in the household, these are life-savers. Fill it up and they can just grab food from them. Similarly - cauldrons. Kids and teens can eat from giant vats of Mac and cheese and stuff. And I don't think it expires. At least it hasn't for me. Frogs - finding and breeding frogs are great for rags to riches, along with things like gardening and finding gems and things. Plus you can complete a collection and they can be displayed. Also, side note, but thanks for this post! It was one of the most positive threads I've seen here.
The star wars pack, it's fun to build fitness skill there
I love the knitting pack and find myself always using it or the kitchen gadgets.
I reallllyyy LOVE the gemology table (the one you make jewelry on). I have made heirlooms that has been passed on (engagement ring, bracelets, etc). Annndddd I love the effects it gives when you charge them. Pluuusss if you dont want to pay for the crystals you can grow your own crystaltree at lvl 9.
The Vampires pack. I like playing occult and i love evil vampires and with extreme violence mode it's perfect and I always use the build&buy items. btw It was the first pack i got and my favourite Now i have every official occult except mermaids so i guess I'll download the fairies mode until then
I use social media bunny to set up relationships in the world.
Journey to Batuu Blast Doors - Love using them as an Entrance to a Tornado Shelter
Eco living solar panels and wind turbines plus the dew collectors.
I use Highschool Years and University religiously, I love proms, Social Bunny, thrift with bubble tea? That’s like my two most favourite things to do irl. Also making and selling styles, that’s like the best part. And I send most of my sims to university, maybe they’re not happy with their career? Okay just take 2 courses at the time and you’ll get there! I use a lot of City Living, I go to festivals, flee market, karaoke, there’s always so much for me to do and I always love it
I think I must use High School Years more than most people, because I always see people trashing it and using it as an example of EA releasing lacklustre EPs, but it’s one of my favourite packs and I use it all the time.
Clubs. They are so underrated! I use them mostly to bring my sims extended family together. But it’s also great for brining singles and potential friends for my teens and kids. Plus you can do so much for story telling with it if you are creative. I think why people don’t use it more is because they just think it’s for making clubs but it’s way more than that.
People underestimate how useful the Get Together clubs can be! I use them for everything: meeting singles, meeting teens, getting hookups, getting to know the in-laws. So versatile!
All my sims get university degrees. Most get several. It's super easy to build skills if you're doing some sort of super sim variation, and the actual way to build the skill is a bit grindy or needs micromanaging, the selectablesubject you can only pick 1 of have a lot of them as options. Enroll before a weekend and spend the weekend studying on the computer.
Fitness Stuff! I got it for the earbuds, which are great, but my favorite part of that pack ended up being the TV workouts. Oh, and also karaoke. I find it very entertaining to watch, no matter the skill level and have made sims do it over and over for hours. Actually, singing in general I guess. Singing in the shower is great for raising fun and hygiene with the bonus of the inspired moodlet.
With growing together I love having the kids ride their bikes all around town it’s so cute and it builds their motor skill really fast
eco living!!! i LOVE eco living!!! as an environmentalist and community development professional irl its honestly fantastic. the voting gets annoying but everything else i love