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Alchemist
#26 Old 4th Jun 2025 at 6:50 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simsample
In my new hood, I have some rules that were different from previous hoods.

...
- Sim Sample is not allowed in this hood! Absolutely not. At all.


I'm curious .. how is Sim Sample takin not bein allowed in the new hood? Relief to not be bothered and allowed to relax in peace or that life is not revolvin around them .. or somethin else entirely :P
There's no bread, lemony cake
retired moderator
#27 Old 4th Jun 2025 at 9:27 PM
Quote: Originally posted by CaliBrat
I'm curious .. how is Sim Sample takin not bein allowed in the new hood?

I think he's angry about it, I've noticed an increase in the number of odd socks lately so I think he's hidden one from each pair.
Mad Poster
#28 Old 4th Jun 2025 at 9:32 PM Last edited by HarVee : 4th Jun 2025 at 9:46 PM.
I've a bit of an old rule here, but it's less to do with gameplay and just preference - The music speakers for a lot have to fit that type of lot. If it's a clothing store it'll be either new age or pop. RnB or metal station for bars, techno for clubs, etc.

Although with my newest 'hood (Old Town, 2049) I've bent the rule a bit. I put the Sims Unleashed zydeco music on the world station, so just about every lot will have zydeco playing. And if it isn't that then it is definitely Jazz or big band.


Quote: Originally posted by simsample
I think he's angry about it, I've noticed an increase in the number of odd socks lately so I think he's hidden one from each pair.

Sim Sample hates socks. He's always wearing shoes with no socks in my 'hoods!

Because the earth is standing still, and the truth becomes a lie
A choice profound is bittersweet, no one hears Cassandra Goth cry

Alchemist
#29 Old 7th Jun 2025 at 9:19 PM
I just thought of a new rule I'm gonna try/ use ...

When a child/ teen ages up you get the pop up askin about aging up XYZ townie ... these are child/ teen sims that your child/ teen has met .. it's usually a 50/50 if I say yes .. but I think I'm gonna make it so that it's a definite no if the child and townie are not friends or have at least a 45 points friendship .. if it's between 25 and 45 then will be 50/50 (prob die roll).. and lower than 25 will be a no

Anyone else have any rules in regards to agin up townies?
Forum Resident
#30 Old 7th Jun 2025 at 9:51 PM
I only age them up if they're best friends or (in the case of teens) in love. Otherwise I end up with no remaining townie children/teens once all my playables have grown up.
Forum Resident
#31 Old 8th Jun 2025 at 4:21 AM
I have different rules for different neighbourhoods, but one constant (at least so far) is that all deaths are final - I don't do resurrections. Though a few sims have been saved from death by a lucky family member.

I also have various mods that make school/university grades harder to get, and (mostly) play with a rule that a sim must want to study - though, depending on the sim, this can be interpreted fairly liberally. A sim with a career LTW that requires university (and that I think has the kind of personality to think long term) will do their homework (and potentially uni work) even if there isn't a want. And at university a fear of failing the semester counts as wanting to do enough to not fail.

Because I come from a country with three year degrees, I also have a rule at university that sims who have a GPA of less than 3.0 when they reach the start of their fourth year have to drop out.
Mad Poster
#32 Old 8th Jun 2025 at 5:38 AM
I keep making new townies in CAS, so there are always plenty of them, even though loads of them have become playable.

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
Mad Poster
#33 Old 9th Jun 2025 at 7:09 AM
Rules?

I guess I may have some:

1. If there is a good reason to have a house party, then there is a house party. Good reasons: sim has gained a skill point, made a new friend, gained a new badge, has been promoted, wants to talk, has a new grandchild. Good reasons, all of them.

2. Sims need to go to community lots to skill. I have not built those libraries and gyms and music lots for fun. At home, families do have bookcases and TV's, which they can still use if all else fails.

3. Fit and sporty sims go jogging every day. Except on the days when they don't.

4. Nature sims go hiking 3 times a week (it could be more, it could be less, I don't keep spreadsheets).

5. Rotational play - of course I rotate from family to family, but I will play one family as long as I want to before I move on. I don't care if the seasons, or the ages, or anything else for that matter, are not in sync.

6. Supernaturals are boring, and curing is quickly done (I may at times allow a witch or two to fly around for a day or two).

7. Death is part of life and the hood moves on after a huge funeral (and of course, the funeral dinner, which is just another excuse for a party).

8 Business owners are supported by the other sims in the hood and also have to support each other. That includes having a business lunch once in a while with a group outing of business owners.

9. Aging off is definitely against the rules - one of the things I truly enjoy is going through the various ages with my sims, and their children, and their grandchilden, and their great-grandchildren. In most of my hoods most of my elders have been raised by my since they were born (some married townies). But sometimes, turning aging off is handy too

I like to think I have mastered applying my own rules to my game
Forum Resident
#34 Old 12th Jun 2025 at 3:29 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Justpetro
Business owners are supported by the other sims in the hood and also have to support each other. That includes having a business lunch once in a while with a group outing of business owners.

I love this idea! Definitely going to snag it for my BACC hood.
Mad Poster
#35 Old 13th Jun 2025 at 8:16 AM Last edited by MMAA : 15th Jun 2025 at 2:10 PM.
A few other game-play rules I have:

-Rotational game-play: 1 Day = 1 Year

-Uni Rotational game-play: 1 College/Uni Year (2 Semesters with standard Maxis duration) = 1 Day = 1 Year

-If a Sim is pregnant, aging is turned off until (after) the Sim gives birth (because pregnancies last for 9 months - which is less than a year)

-No Irish twins! If a Sim rolls a want to have another baby, the first/current baby must grow up to be a toddler before trying again. (That gives me a 2 Sim Day = 2 Years age gap - by throwing a birthday party.) I've tried Irish twins before in this game and, for some reason, it's way more chaotic than having twins, especially when throwing birthdays parties...

-Townies/NPCs do not age up until they are made playable.
Forum Resident
#36 Old 14th Jun 2025 at 11:13 PM
I made one up to make good and bad age-ups meaningful, sorta like in TS3 where traits depend on certain factors: if a sim ages up well, I give them an extra personality point in whatever category I want, but if they age up badly, they lose 1 nice point (or 1 neat if nice is already at 0).

Except toddlers: toddlers will only get an extra personality point if they also learn all toddler skills, otherwise no potty skill gets -1 neat, no talking skill gets -1 outgoing and no walking skill gets -1 active, and these all stack.

Although I'm forgetful as all hell so a lot of times I forget this, but I try to pay attention and get more genetic/current personality differences since I never remember the encourage interaction even exists
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#37 Old 14th Jun 2025 at 11:57 PM
Quote: Originally posted by CaliBrat
I just thought of a new rule I'm gonna try/ use ...

When a child/ teen ages up you get the pop up askin about aging up XYZ townie ... these are child/ teen sims that your child/ teen has met .. it's usually a 50/50 if I say yes .. but I think I'm gonna make it so that it's a definite no if the child and townie are not friends or have at least a 45 points friendship .. if it's between 25 and 45 then will be 50/50 (prob die roll).. and lower than 25 will be a no

Anyone else have any rules in regards to agin up townies?


They have to be friends to age up with them is the only rule I have. I don't allow the game to do it though as they will have no aspiration. I teleport them over, make selectable and age them with the simblender.

I also have a very old mod by AncientHighway that ages any NPC by a day at 6pm if they are on the home lot. It does not normally have much of an impact except for cafeteria workers since they are there every day at 6pm. I have had 3 of them die of old age.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#38 Old 15th Jun 2025 at 1:03 PM
I've re-adjusted a rule I've recently implemented in the modern hood:

College costs $20k a YEAR for all YA's.

That means you have to be able to fork over $80k for the entire 4 years of college per child! In a family of 2 children that will be $160K!

Parents must prepay for the children's expenses for what they can afford-either part or in whole for each year. That means once the parent is completely tapped out, either they or the child(ren) must take out loans to cover what is not paid for.

This will definitely cut down the amount of money any family has and the game play reflects a little bit of real life in the US:

https://www.bestcolleges.com/resear...ost-of-college/

Receptacle Refugee & Resident Polar Bear
"Get out of my way, young'un, I'm a ninja!"
Grave Matters: The funeral podium is available here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/e6tj...albits.zip/file
My other downloads are here: https://www.mediafire.com/?r=wbmnd#myfiles
Test Subject
#39 Old 15th Jun 2025 at 3:37 PM
I love reading everyone's rules, and it helps me add to my own! Here are some of my gameplay rules:

Loan rules: If a sim takes out a loan for a house, they have to make payments on it every round
If they go a round without paying, then they get a warning
If they go two rounds with no payment, then they lose the house and have to move out to an apartment or with family

Homework Rules
Sim children and teens do their homework based on their wants
Once a sim child comes home from school and does not have a homework want, a roll can be made based on their school interest.
Ex: If a child has six points of interest in school, then they have a 60% chance of rolling to do their homework

College rules
For a sim to go to college, they need to roll a college want the day they turn into either an adult or a young adult
If they do not wish to attend college, then they age up to an adult and go ‘traveling’ while the rest of their generation attends college
Mad Poster
#40 Old 15th Jun 2025 at 6:03 PM Last edited by FranH : 15th Jun 2025 at 8:26 PM.
Because I have Squinge's 'College in the hood' I always play my YA's from home, but I've tweaked a rule about semesters and placement because why should pixels have to sludge through meaningless classes when they can be put in advanced classes when they have fulfilled all the required skills for that course?

So now if a YA enters college, and they have all the requirements down for that part of the semester, they will be given advanced placement until they are put in class they have NOT done all the coursework in.

Mary Sue Oldie became a college student but she has done all the first 1 1/2 years worth of course work in her chosen major of mathematics, and thus she is starting out in the second half of the Sophomore year.

I just don't like wasting my or their time with repetitious courses they've already done.

Receptacle Refugee & Resident Polar Bear
"Get out of my way, young'un, I'm a ninja!"
Grave Matters: The funeral podium is available here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/e6tj...albits.zip/file
My other downloads are here: https://www.mediafire.com/?r=wbmnd#myfiles
Theorist
#41 Old 15th Jun 2025 at 8:47 PM
I hope to get back to playing Sims after moving sometime this summer.

And some of my old rules I think I'll revive will be:

1) Population Controls (to avoid getting too many Sims) that depend on the primary aspiration of the Sim pairing involved:
Non-Family X Non-Family: One Child (unless it's twins)
Family X Non-Family: Up to two children (3 if the second pregnancy is twins)
Family X Family: Up to three children (again, 4, if the third pregnancy is twins
Very, *very* rarely the lifetime wants for "marrying off six children" and "having six grandchildren) will be granted.
(children with multiple partners get handled according to,again, aspirations, wants, ages of the Sims involved, and how many children each partner already has, in general with very few exceptions, no Sim should have more than four children)

2) Witch/Warlock/Magic/Resurrection Rules:
Only the daughter of a witch can be a witch, and the son of a warlock can be a warlock
Only witches and warlocks can revive Sims, often for a price.
Revived Sims never come back completely as they were, they always have their personality altered (reversed or in a lesser way), or might even lack their memories.

3) No College, because I don't like playing it, instead Sims get degrees through the lot debugger as appropriate for character/story reasons (pretty much only if they are going to go into a college career) and there's 10 days added to the Adult lifestage that act as a "young adult" age.

4)Every Sim must be immortalized on some family tree in the neighbourhood, even if it is only through something like a third cousin twice removed. This sometimes required Sims who have no interest in having children to have children.

5)Unless I have a storyline or characterisation in mind, aspirations are randomized when a child becomes a teen.

6)Sims and families I don't want to play anymore are moved to empty lots at the edge of the neighbourhood and just artifically aged along with the rest of the neighbourhood each rotation until they either die or I feel like playing them again. They are considered to have "moved away" to other cities/states/countries/whatever, which means they can still be called over for things like family reunions.

Avatar by MasterRed
Taking an extended break from Sims stuff. Might be around, might not.
Scholar
#42 Old 16th Jun 2025 at 10:52 PM
Some new rules I'm working on regarding aspiration.

I've worked out my own system of assigning aspiration based on astrological sign, but sometimes I want to shake things up, and also I feel I get too many Pleasure Sims for some reason, so here are the rules:

- Sims with the Pleasure aspiration who actually go to college and progress through to Junior year will choose a new aspiration based on either personality or traits. This represents them "growing out of it."
- Because I have a mod that randomizes LTW not based on aspiration, all Sims who receive the grilled cheese LTW will change their aspiration in college--unless they happen to actually be grilled cheese Sims.
- Aspiration failure may result in a Sim trying to change their aspiration, in which case they will get grilled cheese and will thereafter be considered "insane" -- i.e., not controllable.
- Romance Sims who roll the want to get engaged or get married will change their aspiration, again based on personality or traits.
- Romance and Pleasure Sims who remain single may live Downtown in groups of 4-6. They will not have children unless it's via risky woohoo. I will randomly take one Sim in the house on a date each day with someone of their choice.
- Knowledge Sims who are not in a committed relationship or who are gay and are not likely to have children may also live communally in learning communities (inspired by the Curious brothers and the lesbian learning commune that developed in Veronaville).
Mad Poster
#43 Old 17th Jun 2025 at 12:21 AM
I seldom tolerate witches, vampires, etc. I do allow zombies (if I use the all-zombies university, Quadington). But these have their aspirations & interests (and sometimes personality) changed. Actually I usually change that (plus skills) on everyone! So that "bad boy" zombie who never WANTS to study, or go to class - gets to flunk out, move into a run-down hotel in the Main hood, and die (although if someone loves him or her, they can father a child before they die). Whatever Maxis makes randomly, I "correct".

Stand up, speak out. Just not to me..
Inventor
#44 Old 28th Jun 2025 at 9:18 PM
Repeated assault/battery (shoving, slapping, poking, throwing water balloons unwelcome, etc) = county jail (Simlogical) or juvenile detention center (also Simlogical but with both prison and school mods)
Starting a fight in public = county jail or juvenile detention center
Starting a fight on the job = fired
Starting a fight at home = Possible county jail and removal from household
Caught dining and dashing = county jail or juvenile detention
Caught counterfeiting = Federal prison (can teens do this? Sounds like justification for a DJJ residential program if so)
Kids taken away by social worker = *Minimum* of county jail for both parents for first offense, state prison for second offense.
Stealing newspapers or vandalizing = County jail or juvenile detention
Anything in a chance card that would result in jail IRL = Appropriate disciplinary action (county jail, state/federal prison, juvenile detention, etc)

Witches are druggists, with evil ones essentially being street drug dealers and good ones essentially being pharmacists. The evil ones risk criminal penalties.

I'm sure I have some other unwritten rules I'm forgetting.
There's no bread, lemony cake
retired moderator
#45 Old 28th Jun 2025 at 10:40 PM
@bnefriends I love these rules, but I fear I would not have any sims left out of prison! Mine all steal gnomes and fight at parties, such a rude bunch of sims.
Inventor
#46 Old 29th Jun 2025 at 4:05 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simsample
@bnefriends I love these rules, but I fear I would not have any sims left out of prison! Mine all steal gnomes and fight at parties, such a rude bunch of sims.

I don't leave them in county jail very long, maybe a day or two. It's just like in real life you don't go to jail very long for simple battery (at least where I live; usually people go get their picture taken and they're out on bond in a few hours; I've seen this happen even to professionals and such and as long as there's no aggravating factors like victim being a minor or pregnant it doesn't turn into a big deal). Same thing with petit theft, but for some reason that's seen as a more serious matter).

Child neglect I feel is a more serious matter.
Instructor
#47 Old 1st Jul 2025 at 6:17 PM
I agree with many others that this is a really inspiring thread - so many new ideas for the next hood (provided I ever get to play a next one after this). I change rules according to what neighbourhood I am playing and I *love* thinking up rules - then I am less good at sticking to them. I have my favourites, and sims I love get away with anything. Right now I'm recovering from a difficult time in the spring and early summer, so my new neighbourhood has no rules about toddlers learning anything, and there are contraptions (aspiration and careeer rewards) everywhere, and I cheat sims up to gold to use them if I bloody well want to. But some of my favourite rules stay, like:


- Both sims in a couple roll baby wants means a baby comes and the wants stay locked til it comes. Also if one of the two rolls a baby want, rolls out of it, and rolls it again within the same round.

- A sim wants to adopt a pet and a stray shows up on the lot the same day, means we adopt that pet. I cheat relationships up if I have to, but I like trying to get them up high enough to adopt.

- Community lots get built successively according to what sims want and who they seem to be. Julien Cooke really likes cooking competittions, and is now all set to take over the "Cooking Like Crazy" club for sims with a cuisine hobby. Esben ad Alma Stakset are probably moving to the posher side of town now that he's a Rock God and they will take over the village pug, the Hag and Hare, and run it partly like a restaurant.

- Sims causing me (and their fellow sims) problems on community lots while they're not playable, and nannies, butlers, etc who cause me problems on their job, get punished by spending time on roofs or in other inaccessible spots, and get really silly makeovers to keep for three sim days or until I have almost forgiven them. If they get a sim child taken away or cause a disastrous fire, it's plastic surgery for them.
Alchemist
#48 Old 5th Jul 2025 at 12:46 AM
What an inspired thread. I may borrow some.

I'm trying to get back to the game.
I like randomness and a bit of a challenge. I don't do spreadsheets thought.

The rules I'm sticking to after years of playing :

- Aspirations and turns-on/turns-off are rolled.
- No resurrection even if you're my favourite sims. I don't like it but I deal with it.
- No 20k handouts and no money cheats.
- No aspiration rewards (well Rainelle Neengia has one due to a random occurrence scenario).
- Sims must buy fire and security alarms from businesses (fire and police stations).
- Sims start with empty fridges. They grow their own food or buy it from farming families.
- Education is free. Teens go to college if they have at least 10/20.
- Children and teens go to the playable school.
- Fights on commlots are punished by being smited thanks to SimManipulator.
- Freewill and aging are on.
- ACR rules regarding love and babies.
Mad Poster
#49 Old 5th Jul 2025 at 6:39 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simsample
@bnefriends I love these rules, but I fear I would not have any sims left out of prison! Mine all steal gnomes and fight at parties, such a rude bunch of sims.


What will be done with a sim who goes out to steal her gnome back, and comes back with not only that stolen gnome, but 7 more? There seems to be a bit of a trend in my hood...
Alchemist
#50 Old 5th Jul 2025 at 6:55 PM Last edited by CaliBrat : 5th Jul 2025 at 10:11 PM.
I actually WANTED thieves and vandals ... I felt that teens who snuck out might do so not just to "go out" with a girl non desirable by their parents .. but to maybe cause some michief and mayhem .. and Whoward took up my want and made it a reality ... ohhh but this gives me another idea *goes over to other thread to post*
Anyways, if ya'll wanna check out a cool mod check this out
https://www.picknmixmods.com/Sims2/...eakOutLoot.html

Edit: so this still has me thinkin .. I think I'm gonna do this manually (until/ unless someone does mod it) .. will be one of my rules .. that if cop brings teen (or maybe even a runaway pet) home they'll have to pay a fine
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