How To Reach 10+ Generations In Your Sims Legacy Family

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[00:00:00] Gloria from Yellow Llama Co.: Welcome to Sentimental Simmer, a podcast made for emotionally attached simmers and storytellers with wild imaginations. I’m your host, Gloria, and I run Yellow Llama Co, a planner shop made to help simmers play with purpose. Every week, I talk all about things, sim life planning, storytelling, and memory keeping. I’ll also brainstorm new ways to obsess over our pixel people, whether they be in the Sims or another live sim game. And now let’s get into it. Today, we’re gonna talk about the biggest struggles we simmers have when it comes to legacy family gameplay, actual multigenerational gameplay. Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. We love legacy family gameplay, but as with most endeavors in the Sims, it’s hard to stick long enough with a family to even call it a legacy. I gotta be honest. I don’t recall ever getting further than generation 5 in any

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of my save files. I’m super proud though because where I did reach generation 5, It was when I was playing on long lifespans, and it took me years to get there. And that was in a glitchy Sims 3 save file as well. But, really, ever since Sims 4, it’s been quite a challenge, really, to even make it past generation 1. Things start off exciting at first with a new sim, embarking on a new adventure. Maybe you decided to start your legacy with the arrival of a new pack, so the so part of the appeal is trying out all the new things. You play through a couple generations, and then, you know, things start to get stale. It starts to feel like the same will grind every time. It’s harder and harder to come up with new things to do, And, yeah, it finally just starts

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to feel like any other. And then you go on, like, your 20th hiatus and forget what they were all about when you get back. Yeah. It’s really the ultimate achievement, I’d say, apart from building. I I’m have so much respect for builders. But I also have a lot of respect for anybody that manages to play multiple who generations in a legacy gameplay. It’s really a huge achievement if you ask me to grow a long standing legacy family of, like, 10 plus generations. I often find myself asking, like, how on earth is that even possible? Like, how can you keep from getting bored and, you know, entering, you know, yet another Sims hiatus before growing the family of to any significant length. There are ways, you know, to add more meaning and impact our legacy families, which can help keep them exciting. You know, as we’ve

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discussed, playing a legacy family with a set path and direction can help. But I think what is key is really creating continuity across generations, keeping that red thread. So how can we finally grow Our family legacy to actually deserve the name the title of legacy. Let’s dive in. So I think with any Sims game and also with any life sim game. I think what will keep it from getting stale and and keep it fun is that narrative storytelling. I think that is So vital and will definitely keep things entertaining. You can be messy. I think sure. Far away, if things get stale, My last resort is always to add some drama and some conflict or some tragedy of some sorts. There’s actually this random generator called the Sims 4 Wheel of Drama that will if you just spin the wheel, it’ll spit you out a

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nice little what do you what do you Hold, like, conflict trigger that you can add to your game. For example, I I just clicked on it once and played around, and it was it gave me the option to have a baby with Everyone your sim knows. I mean, if that’s not gonna add some conflict and some drama, I don’t know what will. And, you know, you don’t have to do it to Key but it can inspire ways to, you know, add some life back to your, legacy. Or, you know, you can make your family lose everything when things get too good. Like, after, I don’t know, 4 generations, they’re, like, living in in luxury. They have a lavish lifestyle. They got the biggest house. They own everything in town. You know? They’re untouchable. That could be boring. So I think if you introduce a death,

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if they lose their home, if they lose their money, their job, maybe the heir is lost To the family, there was the only heir to the throne, and they got like, they’re panicking now, like, oh my god. Who’s gonna continue the family? That can add to the story and inspire, you know, ways How your sims kinda, like, has have to adjust now. They have a something in their way. Or how can you come up with other fresh ways to play that still feel right for the family. Like, it’s always fun to inject some conflict, but how can you maybe tell the story or continue telling the story in a new way that isn’t just, you know, being messy. Nothing wrong with that, but how? So I advise, you know, just go back to that Template that I shared in that episode about legacy family paths,

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where can you add conflict to the family path that would make sense to that family path or maybe, you know, family culture,

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I I described also as

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something that’s dynamic, that’s always changing. Maybe a tradition changes for some reason that is relevant to the story. Maybe they decide to change the way they dress. Why? Or maybe a partner that you’ve chosen to join the family. Maybe they have a significant negative or positive influence on the family, and that also changes the way the family culture looks like or the way they function. Another way you can keep your legacy family interesting and exciting is to up the stakes. Like I said, I was playing on a long lifespan, and maybe that was my issue all along. If I were to play on a short lifespan, My generations would progress far quicker. Right? Sure. I’d have FOMO and because time is moving so vast, but That also makes it more exciting at the same time because of that urgency. And so definitely turn an agent

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on as well. And how about not using cheats? That’ll definitely make things tricky because you can’t, like, cheat up their motives. You can’t make things work easier for them with a job. You know, if they have, you know, bad motives and And they go to work every day in a bad mood. They won’t get the promotion. They won’t earn the money. It’ll just make things a bit more difficult. And, again, definitely take advantage of those spin the wheel things to just randomize basically what happens next. Also, why not introduce some long and short term goals that affect every SIM session? In turn it makes you feel like every SIM session has its own purpose and a reason to continue. If you have only long term goals, like the family wants to own every Venue possible, that’s cool, but that might not actually be possible until

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generation 5 or so. Give them something to look forward to, not only In the future, which I think is important to do, but also short term, like, literally short term as in the next time you play in the game so that you it’s like a cliffhanger for every time you, But before you end the session, already think of ways you can continue what you just now did. Give yourself a reason to open up the game again and play this particular family.

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So that could be aligned,

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of course, with the legacy family paths that we’ve talked about. You could have a bucket list for each sim or, you know, for the heirs in particular. This can be big goals that, you know, will be fulfilled within their lifetime, or you can have smaller goals that they need to fulfill within their life stages. And for example, in the digital sim life planner that I created, I have a template for just life stage goals where you have a bucket list, but you also have space for different areas in the sim’s life to come up with their little life stage goals. So they have, like, an overarching goal of some sorts. And in each life stage, they’re working towards that in different areas of life. For example, career and education or in their social network. They’re socializing area. And so my advice there is definitely to

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break bigger goals down into smaller goals that can grab your interest now in the next, session so that you’re even motivated to continue playing that family. And, also, another, tip is to just keep things fresh. We tend to play the same storylines over and over again. You’re a human being. You have certain interests. You have certain preferences, and that might end up reflecting itself in the way you play the game, in the way you create your sims. And so try to reflect on that every time you start a new generation, maybe even every session. How can you do things differently than you would usually? What are other story lines you can explore with a new generation? What are different jobs you can try out, different traits that you never use, or maybe you can create a sim with conflicting traits? How can you Shake things

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up for yourself to keep things new and exciting. That way you’re not just basically playing the same generation over and over again. And also, totally okay, Why not just take breaks? Like, be okay with taking breaks. Like, plan them in. You’re in this for the long haul because, you know, Simmers for life represent. So what difference will it make if you do a 3 month hiatus now? You got that hiatus is gonna come Whom or later, you might as well do it with a good conscience. Right? And that’s why I think it’s so important to keep track of your Sims and what they’re doing and and their storyline. Because that way, when you come back, you can jump back right into the game and right into the store. You know exactly where you left off, And you can, you know, start the next session, continuing

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on those short term, long term goals. You know exactly where they’re at, and it’s not like, who are these things? You know? They’re not strangers to you. What can also help is if you just share your game with others, your your family, legacy gameplay. It’s kind of like Keeping you accountable even, you know, people will see what you’re doing, you know, when you post your stories online. It could be, you know, via social media, in a blog, on the forums. You’re very welcome to join the Llama Club on heartbeat to share your stories there. It’s a a community we have of just sentimental simmers that love the game, love telling stories, and we inspire each other. And so you’re very welcome to join there and and to share what you’re doing. I think speaking your legacy family into existence, showcasing it, people will, you know,

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start following it and and asking maybe about how things are going. And so that can help you keep up with it as well if maybe you’re in a funk. You can also use that as a way to connect with other simmers and Get inspiration for different storylines. You can follow other people’s legacy gameplay, and that can inspire your own. So definitely being an active part in this simmer community can help your own gameplay as well in different ways. So I hope this will help you finally grow the, Let’s say 10 generations strong legacy family you’ve always dreamed of. I sure hope it’ll help me as well. If you’re an OG and you’re like, what are you talking about? I’m at, like generation 118. This is easy peasy. Well, please comment on that. Please share us your magic, And please join the community on, on heartbeat

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in the llama club, and let us know your secrets. And share your family because, I mean, I think all simmers will agree with me. There is nothing more satisfying than a full family tree, like, of really, like, Deep family tree. A gazillion generations. That’s just goals. Fingers crossed. I hope this helps. In the next episode, we’re gonna be talking about the best tools for Legacy family gameplay, including family tree apps. So you can definitely look forward to that. Until then, Happy Simming!