The Sims 4 Guide: Making generational gameplay more fun

Don’t use cheats

OR use cheats only as needed.

The game is far more fun when your Sims are left to survive (or not) regardless of their needs.

Save your Sims as a last resort, but consider letting your darlings die that slow death in the snow or heat for the sake of figuring out your save without them.

Playing with cheats early on helps you learn to play the game overall. It’s easy.

Forcing myself to play without cheats most of the time has helped me strategize how best to help my Sims meet their needs.

I’ll even leave my game playing in the background while I watch TV, clean my room, do laundry, shower, cook, etc. some days!

I don’t leave my Sims alone when Infants and Toddlers are involved, though, because they’re bound to die without my intervention — and I love raising Sims Toddlers!

Each generation improves with new DLC

I buy new Sims 4 DLC once every few months during sales. Kits are cheap and genuinely feel optional, so sales don’t matter.

But the real gameplay expansions bring something new to my forever save that keeps it fresh: each generation improves.

You know how our ancestors had limited access to technology, skills, research, professions, education, etc.? That’s what playing generations and upgrading my game slowly feels like.

• Generation 1 had access to baseline education; nothing else.
• Generation 2 dropped out of high school to raise Gen 3, but learned how to parent better than the last gen. One triplet son froze to death in the pool.
• Generation 3 went to prom, graduated from high school and actually had a life as a teen!
• Generation 4 attended university, obtained a distinguished degree! She grew up in a save where people actually care about the environment.
• Generation 5 is already destined to grow up enjoying more luxuries than the previous generation due to increased support and resources.

This leaves a lot to be desired of the packs, like technology and innovation improves with each generation. It feels more realistic and prevents me from feeling fatigued or bored of having all the packs.

(It’s also better for my budget!).

So, per my stories, I can legit say that a previous generation didn’t have access to parenting classes the way current ones do. They had no idea the baby milestones were important for development.

Toddler Sims can freeze to death in the snow?? Oopsie!

Which generation will be the first occult member? And to which occult? 🤔 Or might they remain human??

Seriously, though, this realism deepens the narratives of previous generations and shows the gradual stability development.

I myself am a first generation high school graduate. Being able to create this story for my Sims is pretty amazing.

Intertwined lives

I don’t just play my main household or one family tree.

I also play The Sims 4 households (sometimes). Or I’ll delete them and add my own.

My Sims’ lives intertwine with each other. A friend might see a Sim cheat on their partner, or might decide to take their friend’s partner for themselves. Maybe they have a kid with the friend’s partner, then stop contacting both of them.

Loads of drama potential exists in The Sims 4, you need only spend time developing it. I utilize cheating in my game a lot because it’s easiest.

Matriarchy

A twist on patriarchal generations, each Sim generation must have a surviving female to continue the bloodline.

This idea came to me after watching Grimm.

My longest generational family presently is from the same Sim I started playing The Sims 4 with: Castille Soap.

(But I did “restart” the family tree via a new save because I accidentally triggered incest on Wicked Whims one weekend. So I would be on Gen 5, but I’m Gen 4).

I decided to consider “Make Baby With Science” having a sperm or egg donor, even if the male Sims will get pregnant (I consider that a surrogacy).

Even if there’s a same-gender couple, the female must have a child through genetics. So adopted children cannot be heirs. The genes are really working for me, creating pretty female Sims, so.

For my matriarchy, the first or last female Sim born in a generation becomes the next matriarch. If she dies, she can (and should) be revived OR reincarnated for a second chance — unless there is great story for it!

Sometimes, I don’t like the next matriarch. But I don’t kill my Sims in this generational play unless it fits the story.

I definitely recommend having an heir and a spare!

The house they were born in becomes their generational house, which can be renovated over time. The house can be moved to different worlds, but the household must remain in it.

Once I buy Cottage Living, I may change my mind about this. I love the house/environment I’ve created for my Sims up to this point, but also want to explore more worlds and living situations long-term. So my one-house-forever guideline may not stick.

The next generation remains with the present generation and all others must move out, unless the storyline allows it, provided there are at least 2 slots for the chance of twins.

Generation 3 consisted of two sisters who lived together, each had a daughter, and so on. However, the matriarch was still the oldest (Lia Yamazaki) and the next gen still her daughter (Zuri).

While I did prefer keeping the matriarch’s surname, I allowed the change to Yamazaki when Gen 2 married a Sim from the Gallery. I was tired of Soap, O’dell and Soap-O’dell.

Other family

Get to Work makes building romance at work possible. In this case, your Sim has a family at home, but also at work.

A Sim who can be impregnated will struggle to hide their external family-building, so it’s definitely a plot for Sims who can’t get pregnant!

Aside from spending time together at work, your Sim may spend time with their other family on weekends or take long vacations away from home.

How long will they be able to keep this up before their children meet and realize they’re related?

Play the extended family

Extended families make The Sims 4 more fun even in base game because the main household stops existing as an island.

Give your main household cousins, aunts, uncles, in-laws. I love fleshing out in-law relationships!

Realistic events

Divorce your Sims. Sometimes for no reason.

Some couples, I will keep. But even if I initially liked a spouse, I won’t hesitate to break a couple up if I think it’ll help progress the game.

A Young Adult couple having a baby out of wedlock and that baby being raised by its grandparents whilst the deadbeat parents avoid all responsibility? Yesss.

Lia Yamazaki, Zuri’s mother, was born to one of those parents. 💁‍♀️

• Marry high school sweethearts, then have one of them cheat.
• After marriage, your spouse changes and abuses your Sim.
• Break up another couple to marry a Sim, who then leaves your Sim for someone else.
• See what happens when Character Values fall in the red before your Sim ages up into a Young Adult.
• Forget your Sim’s birthday by not giving them a birthday cake.
• Cheat in uni and convince other Sims to do your homework.
• “Abduct” a Sim kiddo via “Add to Family” with the shift-click cheat, “Adopt as Care Dependent” and raise as your own. How might everything play out??
• Host & attend reunions to let family drama commence. Go on family vacations for that drama, too. Building relationships and story is easier when extended families are together.

Self-exploratory journey

Think Rumspringa, but outside Amish contexts.

A coming-of-age trip.

After college gap week.

After graduating high school/university, send your Young Adult Sim on a 7-day vacation to another world.

This world may cater to their interests (e.g. Active Sim vacationing in Sulani) or be the complete opposite of something they’d like (e.g. Outgoing Sim going to an indoor retreat/getaway, where they must build skills and will go stir-crazy).

By this point, my Sims usually have at least 5000 Satisfaction Points and can buy the Re-Traiting Potion. Depending on their moods during and after the vacation, I may decide to change their traits.

Zuri Yamazaki went from being a privileged rich Snob to a Child of the Ocean during her vacation in Sulani. It really humbled her. She grew closer to Makoa Kealoha and got pregnant.

(In my defense, he had no place being married. Genuinely, what in the effervescence is THAT?!)

The question changed from “How do I refrain from getting bored with two high school sweethearts yet again?!” to “Is her lesbian marriage gonna be okay since they have Neutral Compatibility and the Snob trait connected them?”

(Hint: No. Makoa was too hot to not.)

So I have reason to return to these Sims’ lives in my forever save, since her return from her self-exploratory journey created a cliffhanger.

Undoing generational trauma

Start with a pregnant (mods) or runaway teen. I had my runaway pregnant teen living at a remodeled Copperdale High, then building a house using Simoleons gained from selling paintings or hacking the rich.

This storyline works best with High School Years, Parenthood and Growing Together. Seasons adds challenging functionality, since you don’t want your Sim freezing to death!

Have the toxic parents befriend people outside their household, from other households you play, to add realism to the save. After all, this is how it goes in real life.

I give the first 2-4 generations the “Hates Children” trait.

That trait adds more realism, since unresolved generational trauma often includes hating children, even if you don’t realize it.

Once a Sim with the Hates Children trait is able to raise their offspring with 2/4 green circles, I stop adding it and continue the bloodline as I see fit.

I may merge it with another bloodline, depending on my interest in maintaining the two.

Well-off Snob offspring

Previous generations worked hard for their money. They went from §0 to the millions of Simoleons the family has now!

Um, well, future generations don’t care. So perhaps you have a generation of Snob Sims who completely change the tone of that entire family tree.

And they give birth to other Snob Sims. And at which point does the Snobbery wear off? Might they lose their fortune?

Widow drama

Widow is most fun for me when the widow is a Sim who’s horrible to her family, but great to everyone else.

If a parent is neglectful and doesn’t lock doors because when they were kids, they were fine wandering outside and now you’ve got Seasons…hunger is the least of your Toddler Sim’s worries.

Or maybe your starting Sim is already tired of their new, useless spouse, not bringing in any money with the part-time job. Or the spouse Family Oriented and spending too much time with the kids.

One way or another, that spouse has got to go.

And once they do, your initial Sim finds a new spouse. And your old Ghost of a spouse is major jealous. Maybe they decide to take that new spouse for themselves, ultimately turning that spouse into a Ghost, too.

Or maybe the initial Sim gets bored of the next one again.

Can’t undo generational trauma without collecting a few skeletons in the closet.

Work enemy-to-lovers

This one’s more of a challenge ’cause it’s hard to develop romance when two Sims hate each other.

While you could play this in base game, Get to Work actually includes it. As your Sim goes to work, you may eventually run into a notification about a work enemy. Otherwise, you can make enemies while going to work with your Sim, too.

Once you have a work enemy, try building the relationship outside of work. Make jokes. Have drinks. Find common ground.

Wicked Whims (mod) makes falling into bed together easy 👀 but I understand if mods are a no-go. I don’t even play with mods anymore myself.