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Instructor
Original Poster
#1 Old 21st Oct 2020 at 3:47 AM
Default Talk me out of a Megahood, OR talk me into it
Hiya!
About a month ago I started playing Pleasantview for the first time, it in fact being the first time I've played any premades ever. And I've been enjoying it so much I've been considering Strangetown and Veronaville.

But I don't want to play them separately, and here's why. Something in my brain won't let me alternate between games. Like I can't play sims 2 on Thursday and play sims 3 on Friday. I have to play one for months and months until I get burnt out and then swap. I also can't alternate between saves/worlds. I can play rotationally within one world but I'm never able to play like for example Sunset Valley and then also do a separate unrelated family in Hidden Springs. Because once I switch I've committed to the switch and I just am not able to go back and forth. So for this reason, I've been contemplating turning my Pleasantview into a megahood with Strangetown and Veronaville (probably not the others as idc about those sims so much) and then just adjusting everybody's ages to match how much I've already played.
A while back I did attempt a megahood with all the neighborhoods but this was back when I only played my custom family and was an alpha cc person and I really was only using the premades as neighborhood filler. I never brought anyone into my custom family and so I just had loads of sims all over that ended up getting in the way so I scrapped it. But now since I'm playing the premades only, no custom families, I think it might be more successful.

But I'm hesitant because that would be A LOT of sims. With the sims from SSU moved home I'm already up to 25 households in my current rotation, and the only person that's died so far is Herb Oldie. I've already needed to print more sheets for tracking purposes because so many babies. If I did add Strangetown and Veronaville I'd want to add their corresponding universities (although I'd add them sans dormies). So that would make EVEN MORE sims to play. And like, it's not that I couldn't do it. I totally could. And I'd love it. But it'd take so long to get through everybody. I'm also worried I would feel weird about mixing sims from each neighborhood. Like would I want to marry Beau Broke with Hermia Capp or Ophelia Whatsherface or would I be weird and keep everybody separate anyways - thereby entirely defeating the purpose (or at least what I think is the purpose) of a megahood?

So, before just nosediving right in and adding Strangetown, Veronaville, La Fiesta Tech, and Academie Le Tour I thought it best to come on here and ask you all your thoughts. I know I know, it's my game and I should play however I want and all that. But I want to get some feedback, opinions, advice, personal anecdotes, etc before I just do it and may or may not regret it. I do keep a backup that I could go back to should I find myself in that situation. But what do you all think?

Megahood, ye or ne?
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Theorist
#2 Old 21st Oct 2020 at 5:34 AM
My 2 cents ...
Save a back up your N001. Then add just 1 of the two, either ST or VV. Play it for a week or two and let them integrate and see how ya like it. If ya like it and want more then go ahead and add in the one you hadn't added yet. If you don't like it, since you have the backed up N001 you can always go back to it and just play the single hood.

For me, not that I've played it yet, but my combo is Pleasantview, Strangetown, Bluewater, the bin sims, and the SSU students. (No townies) That's plenty enough sims for me
Scholar
#3 Old 21st Oct 2020 at 6:10 AM
I am a lot like you in my game play style, but I use TS4 for building and playing dress-up. If you want to do a mega-hood I'd suggest reworking your rotation length so instead of week long rotations, consider 3 day or 1 day rotations so that you make more rapid progress. Secondly think about prioritizing your sims. Make a list of your households and rank them. They can be secondary characters in other sims lives or you can move them out of the game completely. (after researching how to do so safely).

If you know that you're only going to want to play Pleasantview so long before getting bored and doing something else, ride that. You can come back and play Strangetown or Veronaville later. I can't play long in Strangetown, personally, because of the desert. I keep trying to do desert worlds but they make my eyes hurt.

The Mayflies Legacy- a Random Legacy Story
Field Researcher
#4 Old 21st Oct 2020 at 7:49 AM
I have a similar playstyle, I can only focus on one thing, than I do something else, and then I have to start something new

I would make a backup before adding anything, and then add them, but slowly and one by one. Play Pleaseantview until you get to know all the sims, than add the next neighbourhood to the mix. If I add to many families at once, I'll be overhelmed and probably lose interest quickly.
Mad Poster
#5 Old 21st Oct 2020 at 11:07 AM
I have played all of them together-in a very old (and unavailable now) Megahood featured here.
It's still playable but it takes forever to do one rotation of all the families. I don't play it very often.
But right now I'm starting play on one from meeetmetotheriver, who did one with just PV and Strangetown. That might be a little easier, because it involves fewer pixels.
If you pace yourself and not try to play all of them at once, it can be quite enjoyable.
Remember. your game will still be there at the point where you left off...

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Scholar
#6 Old 21st Oct 2020 at 12:48 PM
You need someone to say no, so I'm gonna be that person Playing a megahood is seems really efforty because you're gonna have to plan out a lot of things and probably stick to them, and if things go wrong, well there's a lot of things that can go boom. But maybe you're more responsible with your game than I am so it might actually turn out fine
Instructor
Original Poster
#7 Old 21st Oct 2020 at 4:00 PM
Thanks for the responses!!

Quote: Originally posted by CaliBrat
My 2 cents ...
Save a back up your N001. Then add just 1 of the two, either ST or VV. Play it for a week or two and let them integrate and see how ya like it. If ya like it and want more then go ahead and add in the one you hadn't added yet.


I don't know why it hadn't occurred to me that I could first try adding Strangetown.....WAIT....and then add Veronaville later That seems obvious but that's actually very helpful advice.

Quote: Originally posted by tunafishfish
I am a lot like you in my game play style, but I use TS4 for building and playing dress-up. If you want to do a mega-hood I'd suggest reworking your rotation length so instead of week long rotations, consider 3 day or 1 day rotations so that you make more rapid progress. Secondly think about prioritizing your sims. Make a list of your households and rank them. They can be secondary characters in other sims lives or you can move them out of the game completely. (after researching how to do so safely).

If you know that you're only going to want to play Pleasantview so long before getting bored and doing something else, ride that. You can come back and play Strangetown or Veronaville later. I can't play long in Strangetown, personally, because of the desert. I keep trying to do desert worlds but they make my eyes hurt.


I'm already playing a 1 day rotation because I find that's easiest for me to keep track, just playing from 8am to 8am or whatever time that family is on. Waiting until I get bored of Pleasantview and then doing one of the others would be my plan if I decided against the megahood. I figure a few months from now, more or less. But I'm also just like in this place of being super excited and omg the premades are so cool why did it take me 16 years that I just want to play them all right now

Quote: Originally posted by enebya
If I add to many families at once, I'll be overhelmed and probably lose interest quickly.


I don't know that I'd lose interest any quicker, but I feel like the longer that it takes me to make any real amount of progress and the less I get done that when I eventually do get bored and do something else that I'll feel like I got nothing done. Ya know?

Quote: Originally posted by FranH
But right now I'm starting play on one from meeetmetotheriver, who did one with just PV and Strangetown. That might be a little easier, because it involves fewer pixels.
If you pace yourself and not try to play all of them at once, it can be quite enjoyable.


I'd not be able to do that. I'd be too aware that I wasn't also including Veronaville and then feel bad for leaving it out because it would be sad I wasn't playing it too with the others because inanimate things totally have feelings and get sad I can skip the other three because they're not the 3 originals but that's about it.

Quote: Originally posted by Noa1500
and if things go wrong, well there's a lot of things that can go boom. But maybe you're more responsible with your game than I am so it might actually turn out fine


You start to get very good at avoiding letting things go boom when you've played this game for this long I've got enough of my mom's obsessive behaviors in me that I'm very meticulous and in-depth with my gameplay. Everything's documented and kept track of and so nothing's going on that shouldn't be. That being said I know that's one reason I hear a lot of people stay clear of megahoods is it can get to just be way too much to manage.
Instructor
#8 Old 21st Oct 2020 at 4:05 PM
I agree with those who are saying to add only one hood first to get the feel of playing a megahood. It may not seem like it, but having a megahood can be really intimidating.

I remember my first time playing an Uberhood, and boy, I was way over my head. I rushed through (2-day rotations) the 8 pre-made hoods and ended up being highly disappointed with how the sims turned out. With my current megahood, I'm playing one hood at a time. When I'm finished with Strangetown, I will add and play Veronaville. When Veronaville is done, I will add Bluewater Village, etc, etc... This method works for me as I don't see sims from the hoods I haven't played, therefore, the pressure of playing them isn't there. I'm taking my time with the megahood, and as a result, having a unique and fun gameplay experience



There's no drama, like Sims drama.

Currently Playing: Sims 2 again!




Forum Resident
#9 Old 21st Oct 2020 at 4:10 PM
I'm one of those people who find the thought of a Megahood very daunting. Too many sims, so little time. One rotation could take a month.

However, at the same time, I adore crossovers and the mixing of different things.

To scratch that itch for me, I only placed Strangetown into Pleasantview and haven't regretted it since. I love the sims in Strangetown, admittedly more so than the Pleasantview characters, and they've added flavour to a town that I began to consider bland.

I'm in the boat of just adding one of the extra hoods, but that's me and my playstyle.

When a game is predictable, it's boring.
That goes for any medium that isn't life.
That's why The Sims 2 is my favourite sims game.
It has elements of unpredictability and everything feels more involved.
The Sims 4 is another story altogether...
Mad Poster
#10 Old 21st Oct 2020 at 4:50 PM
I'm doing something similar with my BACC only it's adding empty terrains and that's not started to happen yet because my town is just getting started with population moving in and that stage is taking at least a few sim years.I'll just do this with empty terrains slowly lover time as my town grows into a city.
Theorist
#11 Old 21st Oct 2020 at 5:22 PM
Speaking from experience here, only do it if you don't care about getting to know all of your sims... seriously. It's nearly impossible to play everyone in a megahood when there are lots of sims in it... unless you have time to play the game a lot that is.

So, I would definitely take the advice of others to save a copy of your neighborhood somewhere first, and then start off slowly with adding additional 'hoods and see how you like it.


“Seize the time... Live now! Make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again.” ― Jean-Luc Picard
Mad Poster
#12 Old 22nd Oct 2020 at 5:06 AM
I would say keep doing what you're happy with for now, and keep in mind for, when the restart bug bites, since it sounds like you might just have the restart bug, that most of us who play megahoods play them without townies, without dormies, with the only non-playable NPCs and Townies being the few that Tarlia/MeetMe2TheRiver left because of their relationships with playables (Kaylynn Langarak, etc), with professors modded to one per major, apartment neighbors modded out, and just vacation locals and maybe tourists--tourists really aren't necessary but they look kinda nice in hotels.

Without townies, the playables are restricted to each other, so since no one's marrying a townie/dormie, the growth stays more under control.

Pics from my game: Sunbee's Simblr Sunbee's Livejournal
"English is a marvelous edged weapon if you know how to wield it." C.J. Cherryh
Field Researcher
#13 Old 22nd Oct 2020 at 1:56 PM
The Megauberhood seems so overwhelming to me.

I finally started Pleasantview (well, like two years ago) and still have some first gen alive (Dina, & Nina), with the teens slowly getting up in years (Dustin, Angela, Lilith and Dirk are all about 50 years old). I did decide that I would also play all the bin sims, although I have only slowly integrated them, as well as the university sims - also slow progress where Jimmy Phoenix is also 50 (he and Angela are married) but Eric Swain and Martin Ruben are only just now tapped to enter (they are competing with 5 others in my Bachelorette challenge for Kaylynn Langerak's hand as I did not make her playable when I started the hood).

I already have SO MANY FAMILIES. The idea of adding entire new hoods sounds like WAY TOO MUCH.

From another perspective - if it's your first time, don't you want to play it "as it was meant to be played" and later go back and see what is different when you integrate other hoods? I think that's what I am doing.
Mad Poster
#14 Old 22nd Oct 2020 at 4:03 PM
I'm playing with a central district and will add a shopping district when that time comes that my town needs to expand to allow more sims to move in and have homes even if they're homesteads in the new farming district.I've just started with my BACC and it's growing slowly which is fine and another couple is due to arrive next spring.
Scholar
#15 Old 22nd Oct 2020 at 8:56 PM
A Megahood is for me one of those things that sounds amazing in theory but in reality, would be totally overwhelming. Just my take. I agree with the others, make a back-up, and add one neighborhood at a time, play them, and see how you like them.

I tend to only use my downtown and shopping district for community lots. I don't have anyone living in either of them right now. If I was going to do this I would probably go Riverblossom Hills and add rural farmland to my hood. That is just me though and the pre-made sims don't interest me so I'm strictly looking at the terrain. Actually that's not a bad idea...hmmmm. (contemplates possibilities).
Alchemist
#16 Old 22nd Oct 2020 at 9:03 PM
Do it! Do it! Do it!

In all seriousness though, how far along is your current Pleasantview? Because the appeal of a megahood to me is the premade kids being able to grow up together and being able to swap partners/traditional pairings. If your Pleasantview teens and kids (Angela, Lilith, Dustin, Dirk, Lucy, Alexander, Beau, and Brandi's unborn baby) are already grown up, went to college, and got married--then I'd say you don't really need to bother and you can wait until you get bored or your hood needs new sims. However, if they're still teens or at least still in Uni--then I'd say go for it. If it's only the adults and Uni premades that are paired off and set into their stories, well, that's not so bad and you can still do some significant integrating via friendships, affairs, work, and their kids/families. It can be really fun setting up rules for travel and then seeing who meets who. You can make it so that each subhood is rather closed off, but everyone can meet Downtown or at University. Or maybe everyone visits the main hood frequently, and all the elementary & high schools are there or in Downtown. You could even set up a little college system so that not everyone goes to the same schools--perhaps some kind of admissions is required and so Angela and Dustin don't go to the same school and Dustin ends up going to school with Jill and Ophelia. So many good possibilities! Take some time to think about how you're really going to play them together, how the hoods and sims will interact.

Now, you could play them side by side as mostly separate places, but if you're worried about being overwhelmed with sims, I wouldn't recommend this. Again, think about where you want the hoods to overlap--at the park, in school, at work, etc.--and let that guide who and how you play. Another tip: some simmers have "sighting" or "relationship" rules, as in, a household doesn't get played until a sim(s) from unplayed households get spotted or develop relationships with the currently played households. In this way you can slowly start to play the subhoods. Example: you don't play the Grunts until the one of the boys shows up on the school bus, coming home with a Pleasantview kid; you don't play the Beakers until Don brings Circe home from work. Or maybe you need two or three connections--the Summerdream household now gets played because Darren met Titania at the hobby lot, Lucy met Bottom at school, and Nina brought Titania and Oberon home from work. Etc. That would also be a good rule if you want to treat the extra premades more like townies. That way you wouldn't feel pressured to play anyone and you'd only do so if the story called for it, or you wanted to play a certain sim, or household.

Adding subhoods in waves also gives you the opportunity to play around with timelines; I see the premade hoods as being concurrent with each other, but that doesn't mean you have to. Perhaps as Pleasantview grows, new threats arrive and the government builds a new military base. Enter Strangetown, and though the Strangetown premades interact with the Pleasantview ones, they are several generations apart. That would give you a mix of born-in-game sims and premade sims to play. Same could be done for any other premade hood you add.

As many simmers have recommended, I do agree that you should back up before you add new hoods, so that if you change your mind later you can revert. That has happened several times to me before--with Pleasantview, too! That's why I asked how far along is your Pleasantview, as normally I'd recommend that you start the subhoods at around the same time. But it can still work. Just remember to give yourself time to catch up with the other hoods. You might want to play them a little bit, to get to know them or set them up a little. Or you might want to renovate their lots or give everyone makeovers, etc. Build that into your gameplay and make sure you're consistent so you can get back to your scheduled rotation.

And if you're only adding one hood at a time, I'd recommend Veronaville first, actually, since you are concerned about having too many sims to play. Strangetown has a lot more sims and storylines. While there are a lot of Capps, Veronaville is really just three families and you might find it easier to incorporate them into Pleasantview. As someone who has been doing a lot of hood planning over the years, some of the things Pleasantview lacks are upper and lower class sims, as most households are firmly in the middle class, at least to start. Veronaville fixes this very well, imo, providing the player with lots of upper class sims that the Goths can mingle with. And because the families are large, a player could easily come up with stories to get a few outcasts/family members in the lower class, or at least in varying financial situations. Strangetown, on the other hand, already has a really good mix of class tiers, but like I said, might be harder to integrate because there are so many sims. I know I get overwhelmed trying to mesh the storylines of Pleasantview and Strangetown together; the sims in Strangetown already have a lot going on. Also, while I like the Smiths, it can be a real dilemma whether or not you want to start introducing supernaturals into a hood. So yeah, I'd recommend Veronaville first.

As for other premade hoods, I can't speak for Desiderata Valley, as I've never played it, but I wouldn't recommend adding Belladonna Cove. Don't get me wrong--I love the hood, but it's huge--in terms of sims and in terms of the actual size of the hood. You could definitely get overwhelmed. Especially if you're someone that needs to makeover lots in each subhood. You could consider it if you want it to be your downtown/city subhood, but otherwise I'd say let that one go. It has really good class diversity and as a hood, has a couple of different neighborhoods and types of sims, so definitely play it if you get a chance, but for your hood right now, idk. But Riverblossom is something to consider. It has a wide variety of classes, but a smaller pool of sims than Strangetown. It could also provide varying gameplay--country vs suburb/city and farm/businesses vs rabbit hole jobs. And, if you don't want supernaturals in your hood, you can cure Rose & Daisy, but you can't really do that for the Smiths in Strangetown. I'm also assuming you've already added Bluewater, too--if you didn't, then that's the one I would do first for sure.

"May the sunlight find you, thy days be long, thy winters kind, thy roots be strong." -Grand Oak Tree, DAO

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Scholar
#17 Old 22nd Oct 2020 at 11:02 PM
Ok, so your question inspired me I guess. I'm now set up to add a clean Riverblossom Hills as a shopping district. I couldn't find an empty one set up for it and honestly, I think I want the sims in this case. There aren't that many of them, I can cure the plantsims if I so desire and I don't want the pressure of having to completely populate the subhood. I like playing rural landscapes and I'm ready in my main hood to branch out. I was debating knocking down the community lots in my Pleasantview and having half the town be rural but this is a much better solution to that.

I hate using the Downtown for residential lots as it looks so grim from lot view. I don't mind Bluewater Village and have already started to build homes there for future use but as more sims become business owners I'd like to keep my options open there.

I'm excited, so thanks for the inspiration. I'm even looking forward to the unknown Maxis sims and I've never said that before.
Field Researcher
#18 Old 29th Oct 2020 at 3:06 PM
I play a Megahood consisting of Pleasantview, Strangetown, Veronaville, Bluewater Village, Riverblossom Hills, Downtown and the 3 unis (as a Mac player, I don't have Freetime and Apartment Life so no Desiderata Valley and Belladonna Cove for me, as much as I'd love to have them). I started with 1 uni and then added on the other 2 a few rotations later. I think once I'm 20-30 rotations in, I might even add some custom subhoods (well, probably recreation ones from other games rather than completely custom). I love playing many families, I'd get bored in a small neighborhood but that's just me. To avoid too many Sims and the population exploding a few gens in, most of my families have only 1 child, except for Family seems who may have more (usually around 3). I also have the no townie regeneration mod to avoid the game creating a ton of townies. But the variety of different families and all the drama that brings is really fun. I love connecting Sims from different hoods with each other.

For example, my Pleasant twins got married to Tybalt Capp and Mercutio Monty - I love how they are rival twins getting married into rival families (and yeah, they just happened to have great chemistry, I didn't even have to force it!). Malcolm Landgraab IV and Dina Lothario make a great couple in my opinion. There's so many interesting pairings you can get and so much genetics mixing. This is really the charm of playing a Megahood. But it's because I'm also more of a generalist when it comes to Sims - I don't have a favorite Sim or family, I like to watch the neighborhood grow and develop. If you like to micromanage each household, it might get overwhelming. And if you tend to have large families, your Megahood might get overpopulated really fast and you'll struggle to rotate all the households.

Like others have suggested, back up your neighborhood before adding subhoods and maybe try adding them one by one with several rotations in between. That way, you can get to know the new subhood Sims better (since you never played those neighborhoods before), it won't be as overwhelming, and you won't get all your Sims aging up to elder at the same time (most premade adults tend to be in the first few days of their adulthood).
Instructor
Original Poster
#19 Old 29th Oct 2020 at 6:05 PM
I ended up doing it, spent two days getting everybody's secondary aspirations, degrees via batbox, etc all set up and documented... And then my brother decided to spring on us the fact that he'd been doing absolutely nothing in school for the last 10 weeks and had a TSUNAMI of missing work and since my parents both work but I'm 24 and not working I've gotten to spend the last 4 days helping him with missing work from 8am til 11pm and haven't gotten to play sims at all in that time. But boy I can't wait to play! I'll hopefully get to by next week!
Mad Poster
#20 Old 30th Oct 2020 at 6:29 PM
@CASnarl I just want to say that you're a great big sibling and your brother's lucky to have you.

Pics from my game: Sunbee's Simblr Sunbee's Livejournal
"English is a marvelous edged weapon if you know how to wield it." C.J. Cherryh
Mad Poster
#21 Old 30th Oct 2020 at 10:13 PM
Quote: Originally posted by CASnarl
And then my brother decided to spring on us the fact that he'd been doing absolutely nothing in school for the last 10 weeks and had a TSUNAMI of missing work and since my parents both work but I'm 24 and not working I've gotten to spend the last 4 days helping him with missing work from 8am til 11pm and haven't gotten to play sims at all in that time.
It reminds me of when Andrew was several weeks behind with his homework, had an F at school, but wanted an A+, and asked Gloria to help him catch up. It took days! She had to help him with all his other needs too.

"Mum, I'm tired." "Mum, I need the toilet." "Mum, I'm hungry." ", "Mum, I'm bored!"

For the last, she would pause doing homework, and play red hands with him until he felt better. Then they'd go back to doing homework. Or maybe make a meal for him. Or make espresso for him so he could go on doing homework a little bit longer. Eventually they'd have to go to bed -- and continue the next day. And somehow she managed to fit in working, eating and sleeping herself. In the end it was worth it. Andrew did get his grades up and got his A+. It helped build the relationship between them into one of the strongest I've ever seen. And, despite her Romance aspiration, Gloria his shown herself to be absolutely A1 as a parent.

Gloria sends you both her congratulations and her commiserations. And she hopes that the experience may have made your relationship with your brother as strong as hers with her son.

Gloria and Andrew are my original two Sims. I've been playing them since I first started to play in November 2012.

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
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