I used to play that each Round = 7 sim days. In fact, Rounds 1-5.5 followed that schedule. Seasons were just haphazardly thrown in there. Whatever season was on when I started playing the house is the season that started the cycle. I never fiddled with changing seasons. Then in 2008, I came across Laura’s blog and was blown away by her realistic aging and seasons gameplay. So I adopted that new system for 2 families before I stopped updating the blog.
The 2 sim day play schedule fits into my real life much better, seeing as how I have a 2 year old to chase after! So I have decided to keep that system for the new Fortune Shores. Let me be more specific:
Rounds
1 simday in game equals 1 year in real world time. Each round consists of 2 simdays played in game, which correlates to a 2 year span. Therefore, each round = 2 years. I like to follow the traditional school year as my basis for when a year starts and ends (at least in the sims game I do), so each round will start in August of the first year and continue through July 2 years later (for example: Round 6 = August 2041 through July 2043). This way I can keep the school semesters straight in my head!
Seasons
I have split up my sims calendar into 3 month increments which fall under one of the 4 different seasons:
Fall: August, September, & October
Winter: November, December, & January
Spring: February, March, & April
Summer: May, June, & July
I live in Florida, so if it sounds funny to you that spring starts in February when you northerners are probably still waist-high in snow, it’s because in Florida we’re already reaching the high 70s by then (for the most part)!
Aging
I have also decided to change the Maxis age spans to something more realistic (again thanks to Laura and her genius!). So the age spans in Fortune Shores look like this:
baby = 1 sim day (birth to 1 year)
toddler = 3 sim days (ages 1-3)
child = 8 sim days (ages 4-11)
teen = 7 sim days (ages 12-18)
YA = 8 uni semesters or 4 sim days (ages 19-22)
adult = 37 sim days (ages 23-59)
elder = variable (ages 60+)
Birthdays
Each of my sims has an actual birthday (month, day, and year). There is no aging up during their play session. They age on their birthday every year, and only on their birthday. This means that I usually play with “aging off” and then just age them up appropriately when it is their time to do so. It also means special birthday updates! This calendar system also means there will be real anniversaries for my sims as well as any other measurable occasions such as high school reunions and years on the job.
Random Occurrence Scenarios (ROS)
Each round I will randomly roll 5 ROS to happen to 5 random sims. This will hopefully add some fun to the game and also some unexpected realism. I am not a writer, nor do I pretend to be in the least, so these will not be used for story-telling purposes. They will merely add to my gameplay and show up in updates as something that happened in my sims every day life. These random events could be something as silly as flirting with the first person you see to as serious as murder! Although it is yet to be seen if I actually have the guts to kill off any of my sims on purpose!
Miscellany
There are many other ideas and rules that I have for myself, but they are too numerous to put in one post. So, I will make additional gameplay posts as I come across those situations. I’m sure some of these rules or guidelines will change throughout my time with Fortune Shores as I find out what works for me and what doesn’t. So I will be sure to make posts about those changes as they happen.
Read Full Post »
Fortune Shores 