cathytea 7:35 pm on September 5, 2014

Reflections after Day One gaming session on Legacy Challenge

Playing a legacy is so different from playing a non-challenge game! There are so many limiting factors: finances, normal (as opposed to long) lifespan, tight work schedules… and the requirement to meet a spouse or significant other, then procreate or adopt!

Whether playing a legacy or non-challenge game, my prime directive is to help my Sims self-actualize through directing their lives in accordance with their wishes, goals, and desires. With that in mind, I prefer to wait until my Sim wants to initiate a romance, get married, or have a child before I’ll bring such events about.

I’ll make sure that my Sim has opportunity to meet lots of Sims in order to find someone interesting, but I always hesitate to start a romance with another Sim unless my Sim wishes it.

This makes playing legacies so hard! I made Cedar Bough a Romance Sim with the lifetime aspiration of finding a soulmate in the hopes that this would help her meet up with someone. And, with only about ten days left in young adulthood, she has yet to wish to have any romantic interactions with any of her acquaintances.

She does seem to like guys a lot! During group conversations, no matter whom she’s talking to, she’ll usually single out a guy she’s interested in and gaze at him.

She has, currently, only one friend–a male townie. And while she likes him as a friend, I don’t sense any sparks yet.

I feel the pressure–but she’s quite relaxed and happy! She seems like she’d be happy living out in the field, alone, for the rest of her life!

Thoughts on TS4

I really enjoy The Sims 4. Playing it is relaxing–not overwhelming or overstimulating, as TS2 and 3 could sometimes be. And the Sims are so interesting! Cedar has (already) captured my heart. She does quirky things and she loves to talk!

During a group interaction, she got the “I can’t believe I said that!” moodlet! This is totally her–she just lets loose and acts silly, then wonders what she’s done later.

So, I’m looking forward to many happy days playing TS4. With my own busy schedule, I’ll rarely have more than an hour or two to play at a stretch, which means I don’t anticipate burn-out. I seem to quit always looking forward to the next session of game play.

vellson 4:24 am on September 15, 2014

I totally agree about ts4 being relaxing! Ts3 and 2 were just too much at points. I prefer ts4 anyway, I’m enjoying playing it more than I ever did with ts3 and 2. Playing a legacy challenge is an amazing way to introduce yourself to the game. I can’t wait for expansion packs and everything else that comes next. x

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Robinson Family | The Sims 4 2:33 pm on January 16, 2015

I agree on TS4 being a lot more relaxed. I always felt I had to micromanage TS2 and 3, but with 4 you can definitely let loose and give the Sims lots of freedom. The little treasures within the programming really shine through when one relaxes off of their Sims in TS4.

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sunnyshay 11:04 pm on January 26, 2015

I somewhat agree with the game play being more relaxed but I do find myself micromanaging them occasionally, They can’t stay away from the radio. But if the game play is so relaxed because its so limited, you don’t have freedom to go next door w/o a loading screen like in ts3 and there’s yet to be a plethora of extra content like there is in the last game.

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- cathytea 11:20 pm on January 26, 2015
  
  You know, this is the first version of Sims that has really inspired me as a writer. I played around with a few things with TS2 and 3, but never wrote much–and I think that’s because I was so into gameplay! I wanted to play more than write. But with TS4, it’s the writing that inspires the playing (plus, I do love TS4 Sims–the Sims themselves–so much!) I’m thinking of when I was a kid. My most inventive games were those that I played with rocks and pinecones!
  
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mase 5:58 pm on April 7, 2015

is your world that you made this sim empty? like all the other households are evicted & what not? so that your family can expand and move on … ?

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- cathytea 6:57 pm on April 7, 2015
  
  No, with the Legacy game, I kept everyone in town. In fact, Cassandra Goth became a good friend of Timothy Milton! The only game where I evicted everyone is the game called Playable and the world I used for the S-GAS Transformation thread. All the others have the original premades living in them.
  
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Shannon SimsFan 10:41 am on May 11, 2015

As a player that loved Sims 2 and played it pretty intensely for 7 years, I agree, Sims 4 is more relaxing. And the reason I never moved to Sims 3, was that the sims never came alive for me. I loved the quirkiness and individuality of my sims 2 sims. But Sims 4 competes very well with that– the children are definitely even more loveable in Sims 4 than they were in Sims 2. I do still miss the personality point system.

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- cathytea 3:48 pm on May 11, 2015
  
  Oh, yeah! I love that personality point system! I think it might be behind the scenes in TS4… maybe. I adore TS4 children! So individual and expressive. I love being able to watch the faces, too, and see how everyone’s feeling. It’s good training for me, I feel!
  
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theplumbob 10:01 pm on June 29, 2015

I sure have a fair bit to catch up on with this legacy, but I’m looking forward to it! I usually play my games legacy-style, but I never rush into procreating, I’ve often had legacy heirs not have children till pretty much the last minute since I wait for it to feel right. I know that many players tend to get their legacy sims married and jump on the baby making asap, but to me that would take the enjoyment out of the game – much like you I do want my sims to live a life of their design rather than turn them into breeding machines.

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- cathytea 10:05 pm on June 29, 2015
  
  Yeah. I usually leave the big decisions (like who to marry and when to have kids) up to the Sims. Makes it interesting! 🙂 Glad you’re reading! Hope you enjoy the journey.
  
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mmmcheezy225 3:43 pm on October 4, 2015

I actually played TS4 for a bit but couldn’t get into it, mainly because I am a *huge* control freak and I felt like there were a lot of things from previous games that were missing in TS4. It just felt a lot harder to play multiple families at once in the base game, BACC-style; I only began to have fun with it once I focused on only one family. Also, my laptop is old and therefore loves TS1/TS2, really really likes TS3, and despises TS4. 😦

However, I’m more than happy to watch other simmers play the game! It’s not bad at all, just different, and I think I prefer TS2 for that reason. TS2’s chemistry system also helps me a lot when I’m “choosing” mates for my sims, and hopefully that’s something they could bring back into TS4 to make romantic interactions more organic and less forced.

I’m excited to see how you play your legacy challenge in TS4! 😀

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- cathytea 3:53 pm on October 4, 2015
  
  I do miss that chemistry that TS2 had! I feel that TS4 has it–it’s just behind-the-scenes, hidden coding. I have a very old laptop, too–a Toshiba running Vistas which about maybe 7 years old? Maybe older… It sort of could handle TS2, choked on TS3, but does great with TS4! I know that many of the TS4 Simmers miss the neighborhood rotation features of TS2. I’ll be doing a neighborhood rotation once I’m done with the legacy, so I’ll see what I think of it! Thanks for reading and commenting! 🙂
  
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  - mmmcheezy225 3:57 pm on October 4, 2015
    
    Really? My laptop is around the same age, but it’s a Dell. What settings do you run TS4 on? I tried running it on medium/high settings because the lower graphics don’t render well on my screen, but it just kept crashing. Maybe my video card is too old…I’ve heard it doesn’t like Intel chipsets. I’ll have to give it another try someday when I’m feeling brave.
    
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    - cathytea 4:05 pm on October 4, 2015
      
      I think I’m using the laptop settings–I don’t think I have any of the graphics set to High. I like the softer, hand-colored (as opposed to plastic/high light reflective) look of the medium to lower settings. It runs super on my Toshiba.
      
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silverdaybreak1 12:34 pm on November 28, 2015

Puff, Puff. Running down the ‘comment’ stairs nearly wore me out. (just kidding). Here I am a year later commenting on your thoughts of Sims 4, I like the game, too as the Sims are much more expressive and have lots of new things to do. Although I find that all three games have their own endearing qualities and unique features that keeps me playing them. I did make it to generation 10 in my first two Sims 3 legacies: Eternally Faithful with the Steel Family and ‘Surgeons of Hope’, although it did take many work-around stories and salvaging family members to work through game glitches and crashes but did it. Now you did it in Sims 4. My Celtic Heritage family is into generation 6 with the Bartons in Sims 4 but I’m also playing another line of their family in Sims 2. Except for my Valley Venues and SCIS legacies, each of my legacy families use 2 of the 3 Sim versions. I choose a second heir/heiress at some point to branch out to another version and recreate them for those games.

Bye they way, Cedar is a lovely Sim and will try to read more of your legacy as time goes on.

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- cathytea 12:41 pm on November 28, 2015
  
  Congrats on completing two legacies in TS3! And on getting to gen 6 in TS4! Aren’t gen 6 Sims amazing?
  
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friendsfan36 12:34 pm on February 13, 2016

i find ts4 more relaxing too. im not relaxed at times because sims are unpredictible but my sims are.

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- cathytea 12:46 pm on February 13, 2016
  
  I think that colin would have me nervous if I were playing him! 🙂
  
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  - friendsfan36 1:10 pm on February 13, 2016
    
    i played colin 2 ties once in mylegacy and once in a regular game. if i rember right he got angry both times which was funny he had walls the second time.
    
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Miki 8:00 pm on March 23, 2016

Those who are seeing clicks and likes 13+ months later.. don’t mind me.. .. I just added this to my reading list. Can’t say how far I’ll get or how quickly I get ‘there”– but if I forget to click a “like’ after a chapter, just consider it “implied”!

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- cathytea 9:18 pm on March 23, 2016
  
  Glad to have you reading! 🙂
  
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  - Miki 10:08 pm on March 23, 2016
    
    🙂
    
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writergirl378 6:30 am on October 10, 2016

That definitely sounds like Cedar–using her mouth before her head! 🙂 I have both Sims Three and Four and agree that the latest installment is more relaxing than the Sims Three. My Sims Three has been lagging lately, and I bet it’s because of all the mods I have! There are so many! I can’t wait to read the rest of Cedar’s story.

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- cathytea 8:43 am on October 10, 2016
  
  Glad you’re enjoying this ! Thanks for commenting!
  
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soulgal7 1:33 pm on February 18, 2018

I really did like Sims 3 a lot and that is where I started reading all these legacy stories. But, I do love TS4 and am looking forward to more expansion packs to make it even greater.

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