* Why do you play a megahood?
When I decided to play with Maxis premades, that seemed lke the best way to play with all of them.

* Do you leave out any of the main neighborhoods? Do you attach all the default vacation and uni subhoods?
Strangetown is out, it's an Apocalypse hood. Mostly because of a zombie hack that makes contagious zombies, I don't know how to keep them from showing up on non-Strangetown lots and making zombies out of the rest of the megahood population. So it has to be a separate hood. And I did attach default vacation spots, as well as unis.

SimCity is in, too, a faithful copy of TS1 hood downloaded online, with all lots and all. Now some of my sims, like Burbs and Brokes, have a second home in SimCity. Which is weird, but I just pretend that it's inherited *shrug*

* How do you start your megahood? Do you place all the bin families, makeover your favorite families, plop down a custom Sim who will interact with the Maxis population?
I created an excel sheet listing all families in all hoods and play all of them in rotations. No cumstom sims, thank you very much (too many sims already!), and bin families are placed in hoods.

* If you're doing makeovers, what's your style? Maxis match? Realistic?
Maxis. I don't like when premade sims stray too far from their Maxis looks.

* How do you handle time in your megahood? Do you play with aging off, so you never lose the iconic Maxis Sims, or are you eager to see what the neighborhood looks like in two to three generations with aging on?
A touch of death and finality makes me love my sims all the more. Besides, there's so many of them in the megahood that unless they die eventually I'll never get to play their kids.

* Do you follow the known story prompts (i.e., Cassandra and Don's failed wedding, Vidcund Curious's alien encounter), the storylines suggested by the Sims' biographies and family (lot) stories, or make up your own?
I follow initially. Then couples could break up, sims might discover they're better suited to some other vacation in life, etc.

* Why do you play a megahood?
I think it's interesting to play a story that someone else started. The drama and characterization is already included so I just have to take it where I want. And frankly, I couldnt just choose one hood.

* Do you leave out any of the main neighborhoods? Do you attach all the default vacation and uni subhoods?
Nothing was left out. All default vacation and uni subhoods included, as well as Riverside and Widespot from here.

* How do you start your megahood? Do you place all the bin families, makeover your favorite families, plop down a custom Sim who will interact with the Maxis population?
I place all of the bin families into a house - usually the subhood that they come with. I move all of the Tricou children into a household. I also move Bella back to a town and Kaylynn Langerak. They're pretty important to the plot line and it would be weird to not see them age. It would be weird if they didn't age up too! I move all of the graves to one big lot so that way I don't forget about those later. There are no custom sims in my hood.

* If you're doing makeovers, what's your style? Maxis match? Realistic?
Whatever I think suits their personality.

* How do you handle time in your megahood? Do you play with aging off, so you never lose the iconic Maxis Sims, or are you eager to see what the neighborhood looks like in two to three generations with aging on?
I play each family aging on 5 days at a time so that it corresponds with the beginning of a season.

* Do you follow the known story prompts (i.e., Cassandra and Don's failed wedding, Vidcund Curious's alien encounter), the storylines suggested by the Sims' biographies and family (lot) stories, or make up your own?
For the most part, I keep their stories, or at least their personalities suggested by their story lines. Some of the stories have been revamped with the big neighborhood to consider. I do want to make sure that my sims expand outside of their individual subhood.

Great thread! I myself have been working out various ways to get going in my Megahood, so love reading all these ideas and how others do it

I play a Megahood because seeing all the Maxis Sims interact is so entertaining to me! Plus, bigger gene pools, bigger storyline, etc..

I have everything attached. I considered leaving Veronaville on its own, and trying out a Medieval style thing, but in the end, that stayed too. So all Maxis neighborhoods, Downtown, Bluewater, All Vacay Destinations, and all three Unis, plus Brainania from Mootilda.

I actually stick to Maxis Sims only, and I don't have the Stealth Hoods, so the only family bin Sims I get are from the neighborhoods (like the Singles, Burbs, etc), and I can't say I miss the others all that much, although reading about the Ottomas family makes me want to get them sometimes. I don't put custom sims in there; in fact, I hardly play them much at all, which is strange since I used to only play CAS Sims, one family, plop them in Maxis neighborhoods and ignore everyone else (nowadays my OCD with neighborhood togetherness would just explode at that behavior!)

Bleh. Makeovers. I am so bad at that stuff. Any redecorating or renovating happens within the family as I go, and I usually stay with Maxis looks. Redoing the neighborhoods is better, but I still cant do it all at once, and add things that make sense, and slowly. For me personally, all those custom skins and makeup and eyes make my head ache so my policy for sim looks usually is to change the hair and outfit a little, maybe some makeup or different hair color, if the Sim cheers at the mirror, good to go. I like my Simmies to like the way they look, and I am pretty lazy and clueless with that stuff anyway I always preferred the in-game playing to makeovers and building.

The aging is still my biggest dilemma. I tried the one day rotation and liked some aspects of it, but in the end, I need more time to "settle" with the family, so to speak. I am struggling with finding the fine line between too much time and too little: Maxis time is a bit short for my liking. I am curious for those of you that do aging on a certain day a week (age one day on Sunday, or two days on Wednesday and Sunday or however), how do you account for Uni and pregnancy timing in there? Aging on for the duration of the pregnancy, so normal pregnancies? Or aging on still on one day a week, making pregnancies last..three weeks? That seems a bit long for me personally, but normal pregnancies don't seem right for me on that scale either!

I currently play a non-strict rotation in seasons (a couple of days here and there in families, staying within the same season throughout the neighborhood before moving on) and am considering doing one rotation aging on, one rotation aging off (so one season on, the next season off), or changing to this two day a week aging system, assuming I can make pregnancy and Uni fit nicely.

As for storylines, I do what my sims want and try to lay off and give autonomy, and I make decisions based on their wants and deeper personality, which I gather from what they do when I don't control them, what they talk about, etc..I love finding my Sims' little quirks. So far, the Sims stick to Maxis script with their wants, but I am very, very early in the Megahood, so we will see what they come up with. They always surprise me! And sometimes, I also have a clear vision of what I want from a particular Sim, couple, family, or storyline so then I would control more of the story...well, short answer after all that rambling is I guess it all just depends, but mostly a want-based driven gameplay and story.

Adding onto the rules discussion, I also have a lot of rules, fees, and all that. I will not do my tax system for a while, probably, I want to slowly make my way towards an election first, but I have other fees, job restrictions, added degrees..my Unis are also priced differently based on their reputation and all that. Brainania being a foreign Uni, it will be VERY expensive (haven't decided how much yet), La Fiesta is 7,000, ALT, 20,000 and Sim State, 12,000. I have more scholarships, different entrance qualifications, Masters and PHD degrees (see, Maxis aging is waaaay too fast for someone like me ). I have this all saved somewhere, though it should probably be updated now...I can look if anyone is interested A lot of the interesting ideas, particularly for education and job levels, came from the "Behind the Scenes of Apple Valley" blog, so if you don't know about that blog and want some cool ideas for your Megahood logistics, you can go poke around that blog, too, I found it quite revolutionary and incredibly in depth

I promised in my Introductions thread that I'd make one of these posts, so here we go! But I'm also taking the suggestion of the OP and will post to this other thread with details of each subhood.

* Why do you play a megahood?

Originally, it was because I'd just gotten the UC and wanted a way to easily meet everyone new. But pretty soon, I fell in love with its possibilities for creating a varied world, where every one of the subhoods has its own distinct identity, and yet they were all integrated into a megahood-wide economy. I also wanted to be able to move sims between subhoods so that I could match their personalities and goals with that of each subhood. Households also move from subhood to subhood or just within the same subhood as their priorities change, particularly if a marriage splits up or a nest becomes empty. I enjoy figuring out who would "want" to live where in response to life events and needs.

* How do you start your megahood? Do you place all the bin families, makeover your favorite families, plop down a custom Sim who will interact with the Maxis population?

Considering there are so many already-placed families in the megahood, I didn't place most of the bin families---only perhaps 5, including 3 who were single adults. I moved everyone out of Veronaville and Strangetown before deleting those two and only those two maps---just because I'd played those two terrains so very often, and I wanted a chance to focus on the maps that were new to me. I added no custom sims at all. I figured getting to meet the Apartment Life townies would be newness enough there!

* If you're doing makeovers, what's your style? Maxis match? Realistic?

Hm, I'm not actually sure what those two terms mean. I do have cc clothes and hair in addition to default replacements for many Maxis styles of both, but in this megahood, my cc, including the defaults, is intended to provide a range of looks. So not everyone looks maximally attractive or polished, and some look pretty tacky, but in my head canon, that's a look which that particular sim thinks is great, or at least fine.

I use each sim's Interests (not hobby) panel plus their personality to decide what their look will be. For some sims, like outgoing, fashion-loving, neat, and active Nina Caliente, every day is a catwalk and she has the most flattering and "expensive" styles (cc stuff inspired by couture looks) and changes clothes often, sometimes with pretty daring looks. Others are only modestly interested in fashion or too lazy or sloppy to bother really getting it right, so they have more of an average-person look and would never do couture or high-maintenance hair. And of course, there's those that don't care at all. Nervous Subject mainly wants to be comfortable, for example, so he stays in exactly the outfit Maxis has him in.

* How do you handle time in your megahood? Do you play with aging off, so you never lose the iconic Maxis Sims, or are you eager to see what the neighborhood looks like in two to three generations with aging on?

I use BoilingOil's Slow Aging Controller and am totally in love with it, because it handles aging in an individually configurable way that preserves ACR fertility as I think it should work---no fiddling with the fertility curve needed to suit me! I have it set so that "human" sims only age more slowly than Maxis standard when they are toddlers (about twice the Maxis toddler span) and adults (about three times the Maxis adult span). Fairies have even longer lives (seven times the Maxis span as adults), and werewolves get twice the Maxis elder span but no extra adjustment as adults or toddlers. Plantsim toddlers have standard Maxis spans, but alien toddlers have triple the Maxis span (because the pollination project's intent in my head canon is to keep the offspring on the planet for longer so that they may observe the other sims more carefully).

Extending lifespans this way provides a balance I enjoy between holding on to the Maxis sims and also getting to meet and play their offspring. I change skilling too to match. There's no community-lot skilling EXCEPT for my currently controlled sims (Squinge has a mod that is selective that way), and I have a hack from here (I use version 5) for much harder skilling, to keep learning rates in sync with aging. I also limit skills by age and education, so without wants to top any skill, no sim can manage it except in their one that's directly OTH related.

* Do you follow the known story prompts (i.e., Cassandra and Don's failed wedding, Vidcund Curious's alien encounter), the storylines suggested by the Sims' biographies and family (lot) stories, or make up your own?

I didn't follow the known story prompts; don't remember if they were even still there. I guess I think of those by now as learning tools, and I felt familiar enough with the game to want to let the sims tell me their stories, rather than having Maxis tell me what the story should be. So instead, what I did was set up a structure of how the subhoods would be interrelated and yet each unique from the others, moved everyone around to the subhood that best fit them based on my initial assessment of them, and then kept adjusting from there.

Hmm, I like this thread.

* Why do you play a megahood?

I hate megahoods and wish to torture myself. Duh, cuz it's fun.

* Do you leave out any of the main neighborhoods? Do you attach all the default vacation and uni subhoods?

My megahood has Strangetown, Pleasantview, Riverblossom Hills, Bluewater Villiage. So I did leave out Desiderata, Belladonna and Veronaville. Cuz I never play those 'hoods. I have also attached several custom 'hoods to it, such as Bayside Flats, Sedona, Widespot, etc. I have all colleges attached as well.

* How do you start your megahood? Do you place all the bin families, makeover your favorite families, plop down a custom Sim who will interact with the Maxis population?

I've done all of that, really. Mortimer Goth is married to a blue alien and had twin boys with her. With a megahood, I try not to leave out any Maxis Sims, because that leaves many genetic possibilities.

* If you're doing makeovers, what's your style? Maxis match? Realistic?

Realistic as possible. Usually whatever I think looks good.

* How do you handle time in your megahood? Do you play with aging off, so you never lose the iconic Maxis Sims, or are you eager to see what the neighborhood looks like in two to three generations with aging on?

Learned a long time ago that aging off is bad unless you just play like one family that never has kids. It got really bad in one 'hood of mine where I had aging off. I am now letting my Sims die, as painful as it is.

* Do you follow the known story prompts (i.e., Cassandra and Don's failed wedding, Vidcund Curious's alien encounter), the storylines suggested by the Sims' biographies and family (lot) stories, or make up your own?

Sometimes. With Pleasantview and Strangetown I almost always follow the script, except Johnny Smith goes to college. Although in my megahood, I believe I had Johnny and Ophelia get married as teens with a special arch and sent Ophelia to college and aged Johnny up. Whether or not she stays faithful...well...

* Why do you play a megahood?
I wanted to play the premade sims... But all of them... At the same time! I've always been interested in having the premade from each town meet in a non-game corrupting way.

* Do you leave out any of the main neighborhoods? Do you attach all the default vacation and uni subhoods?
Nope. All unis and vacation hoods are in! But I played uni differently at first because I didn't want all the young adults to graduate within 4 rotations - so some ages are inconsistent (eg. Mitch Indie is like 10 days from becoming an elder but Marla Briggs is barely graduated).

* How do you start your megahood? Do you place all the bin families, makeover your favorite families, plop down a custom Sim who will interact with the Maxis population?
Placed all the bin families down and then started. Some sims got make overs but that wasn't until a few rotations in - some premades in Belladonna and DV I wasn't as use to and decided to get to know them first. I never make my own sims in premade hoods - my sims can't even marry non-maxismade townies or adopt generated babies.

* If you're doing makeovers, what's your style? Maxis match? Realistic?
Semi-realistic I have some sims I haven't made over at all, some with maxismatch clothing and pooklet hair. I have semi-realistic skin and eye defaults. They all look quite nice.

* How do you handle time in your megahood? Do you play with aging off, so you never lose the iconic Maxis Sims, or are you eager to see what the neighborhood looks like in two to three generations with aging on?
Very eager to see what each generation looks like. I always thought that when I get bored, I'd only let sims have 1 baby each until there's only 1 sim left which is a combination of all premade sims.

* Do you follow the known story prompts (i.e., Cassandra and Don's failed wedding, Vidcund Curious's alien encounter), the storylines suggested by the Sims' biographies and family (lot) stories, or make up your own?
Sometimes. I've played premade hoods so many times that some stories don't need to be repeated. Cassandra always marries Darren - so this time she didn't. She married Timothy Riley and Darren married Brandi Broke. It depends how often I do it, and if I want to change - Vidcund always gets abducted, because I always want alien babies.

* Why do you play a megahood?
It began when I tentatively started playing the premade 'hoods instead of custom ones. Back then I considered all Maxis neighborhoods to be in the same world. So when Desiderata had a problem with aliens, Strangetown would, too, though perhaps to a different degree. When I learned about Maxis 'hoods converted to subhoods that solved the "one world" problem and allowed for more freedom of play.

* Do you leave out any of the main neighborhoods? Do you attach all the default vacation and uni subhoods?
After the first exitement vaned, I tend to connect only about three neighborhoods. Veronaville and Belladonna Cove are least interesting to me.
To my mini-Megahoods I always add a downtown or business district, one uni and all three climates, but they do not need to be the Maxis ones.
And I should perhaps add that I consider (recreated) Riverside a Maxis 'hood, not a custom one :lovestruc

* How do you start your megahood? Do you place all the bin families, makeover your favorite families, plop down a custom Sim who will interact with the Maxis population?
I play each family for one day until everyone I want to use is housed and made over, starting with the households that are in need of the biggest changes first. So when I needed more elves for my setting, I first gave all the sims I felt they fit the bill their elf-ears. Or if when my backstory was about winning an international soccer comeptition, I loaded the households with prospective candidates to put into that career first.
In between setting up the households I make over the community lots.

* If you're doing makeovers, what's your style? Maxis match? Realistic?
Maxis match.

* How do you handle time in your megahood? Do you play with aging off, so you never lose the iconic Maxis Sims, or are you eager to see what the neighborhood looks like in two to three generations with aging on?
I play on normal time, though I play many neighborhoods, so time in each individual one progresses slowly. I rarely get farther in than Gen. 3.

* Do you follow the known story prompts (i.e., Cassandra and Don's failed wedding, Vidcund Curious's alien encounter), the storylines suggested by the Sims' biographies and family (lot) stories, or make up your own?
I use them as starting points and try to come up with different developements everytime. There are some staples like Ginger Newson alsways being a gamer girl. But sometimes she percieves herself as Gavin's sister, then again they were adopted too late to make that connection and end up dating instead and in other realities they never met, because their original families never died (or at least that last scenario is one I have in mind for sometime soon).
I also like to watch how different setups change the premade's stories. Ripp Grunt, for instance, might grow up vastly different from what he would have in standard-strangetown, if he befriends Justin Cleveland (who was enrolled in a cadet program by his mom more or less against his will). Or if he meets Don Lothario! As a romance sim Don is the perfect role model for our Ripp, because he is also a doctor, what requires dedication and focus, something Maxis Ripp is lacking.

* Random thoughts
I also almost always throw in custom households sooner or later. My prefered method of playing megahoods, however, is to start with a custom neighborhood, add a Maxis one as business district and then have cloned Maxis sims chosen from different neighborhoods move in. Often these premades are a variation of their originals, for example a divorced Mary-Sue with only one twin or adult Ripp Grunt in a threemating with the Picaso couple.