Need some advice

[edmek55555]

So I haven’t played the sims much since 2, so I could use some help with an experienced sims 3 player. I don’t like using cheats and I enjoy actually working my way up to a big house. However I also enjoy exploring the world and talking to other sims and such.

The issue is, to pay bills and such, my sim has to have a job. On days that he works he pretty much only has time to work and take care of his basic needs which doesn’t leave much time to explore or talk to anyone. It is almost too realistic in that way and even basic things like eating food takes an hour or so.

Any advice on how to be able to explore more frequently and talk to people without all my needs going to hell?

[igazor]

If not averse to using mods, you may want to consider NRaas Relativity. The mod is not cheating really, but it's purpose is to change the way time passes so that routine tasks take less (or more) time relative to the game clock. Thus things like eating and taking care of basic needs take less game clock time and there tends to be more sim time in each day to get things done.

Sounds like your sim might be happier with a self-employed job or profession with no set hours, though -- the Ambitions EP has several if you have that one in play. You still have to work hard being a gardener, writing books, painting, being an architect or stylist, etc. but on one's own schedule and without the need to disappear into a rabbithole for many hours each workday. Plus for many of them where the job is to provide services to other sims in town, you get the chance to interact with and befriend them along the way if desired.

[B✪✪tsy]

If you keep playing you will build up points that you can spend on buffs and enhancements. Such as steel blatter, dirt defiant and many more buffs. The easiest way to make money is by painting, no need for a job if you have level 10 creativity (except for story progression). It also helps if your character starts with the creative trait. If you have more household members with max creativy trait and let them pain all day then you are rich in no time.

[edmek55555]

The working from home thing seems like a good idea. My character isn’t big on creative stuff but is there any money to be made in tinkering outside of occasional opportunities to repair peoples stuff?

[igazor]

There is a self-employed handysim career, but it requires the NRaas Careers mod and its Self-Employed add-on module.

[cruinne]

You can get by. You can also be self-employed as a fisherperson or farmer.

Something I like to do for my Sims to make money if I don't want them to work is to run around collecting rocks, meteors, flowers, and bugs and sell those for cash.

[Rich Cat]

If there's something I've always complained about, is the way 'needs' work in the game. They just go low very very quickly and give you no time to do anything that you already have to take care of the sims again, and when you fill up one of the needs, some of the others are already low again, not to mention that eating, going to the bathroom, etc. takes around an hour each because of the clunkiness of the game. This means you pretty much get a job, and play the game only for it, because you have to prepare your sim(s) for the job (cancelling all the secondary activities you could be doing in that precise moment), then make them go to job (more time of the day wasted), and when he comes back take care of him again because his needs are low already, and as soon as you get him ready, you need to take him to bed and make him sleep just to repeat the process in the following day. Even worse with more than 1 sim in the same house.
I've been playing this game for many years (only recently bought it on Steam) and so far you're the first person I find, to have the same problem as me. I tried that NRaas Relativity mod in several and different ocassions and I could never manage to understand it nor configure it the way I'd like, since you have to change some numbers and I don't know the magnitudes they represent and etc. I just wish the needs were slow like in Sims 4. I have like 9 EPs, and I could use 0.01% of their content due to not having time in-game to do anything other than going to work or taking care of essencial needs of my sims. This is one reason that makes me not play the game sometimes when I see it on my library, my first thought is: 'Oh but it's the same sleep-eat-pee-work loop everyday, how boring!'...

[edmek55555]

Originally posted by Ramiro.:

If there's something I've always complained about, is the way 'needs' work in the game. They just go low very very quickly and give you no time to do anything that you already have to take care of the sims again, and when you fill up one of the needs, some of the others are already low again, not to mention that eating, going to the bathroom, etc. takes around an hour each because of the clunkiness of the game. This means you pretty much get a job, and play the game only for it, because you have to prepare your sim(s) for the job (cancelling all the secondary activities you could be doing in that precise moment), then make them go to job (more time of the day wasted), and when he comes back take care of him again because his needs are low already, and as soon as you get him ready, you need to take him to bed and make him sleep just to repeat the process in the following day. Even worse with more than 1 sim in the same house.
I've been playing this game for many years (only recently bought it on Steam) and so far you're the first person I find, to have the same problem as me. I tried that NRaas Relativity mod in several and different ocassions and I could never manage to understand it nor configure it the way I'd like, since you have to change some numbers and I don't know the magnitudes they represent and etc. I just wish the needs were slow like in Sims 4. I have like 9 EPs, and I could use 0.01% of their content due to not having time in-game to do anything other than going to work or taking care of essencial needs of my sims. This is one reason that makes me not play the game sometimes when I see it on my library, my first thought is: 'Oh but it's the same sleep-eat-pee-work loop everyday, how boring!'...

Yeah, outside of mods that is definitely the game. You could create a family and have one person be a sugar daddy but that’s not how everyone wants to play.

[B✪✪tsy]

Originally posted by edmek55555:

Originally posted by Ramiro.:

If there's something I've always complained about, is the way 'needs' work in the game. They just go low very very quickly and give you no time to do anything that you already have to take care of the sims again, and when you fill up one of the needs, some of the others are already low again, not to mention that eating, going to the bathroom, etc. takes around an hour each because of the clunkiness of the game. This means you pretty much get a job, and play the game only for it, because you have to prepare your sim(s) for the job (cancelling all the secondary activities you could be doing in that precise moment), then make them go to job (more time of the day wasted), and when he comes back take care of him again because his needs are low already, and as soon as you get him ready, you need to take him to bed and make him sleep just to repeat the process in the following day. Even worse with more than 1 sim in the same house.
I've been playing this game for many years (only recently bought it on Steam) and so far you're the first person I find, to have the same problem as me. I tried that NRaas Relativity mod in several and different ocassions and I could never manage to understand it nor configure it the way I'd like, since you have to change some numbers and I don't know the magnitudes they represent and etc. I just wish the needs were slow like in Sims 4. I have like 9 EPs, and I could use 0.01% of their content due to not having time in-game to do anything other than going to work or taking care of essencial needs of my sims. This is one reason that makes me not play the game sometimes when I see it on my library, my first thought is: 'Oh but it's the same sleep-eat-pee-work loop everyday, how boring!'...

Yeah, outside of mods that is definitely the game. You could create a family and have one person be a sugar daddy but that’s not how everyone wants to play.

Yeah if you have like 3 or 4 family members with a job then playing the game becomes a micro management job itself. I always limit it to 2 jobs in the household max or it stops being fun.

Imo the most anoying thing about money in the game is the rent money that you have to pay manually every time at the mailbox. I often play on the future map, because you don't have to pay rent on that map.

[marstinson]

Originally posted by B00tsy:

Imo the most anoying thing about money in the game is the rent money that you have to pay manually every time at the mailbox. I often play on the future map, because you don't have to pay rent on that map.

There is an autopay mod for that (NRaas Story Progression with its SP Money add-on from nraas.net, I think), but I spend the 15K LTR points for "No Bills Ever" (World Adventures required, if memory serves). If it's just the trek to the mailbox to deal with the bills that's getting your goat, you can ignore the bills for a couple of days and you'll get a message the day before due that has a button to "Pay Now." Clicking it pays the bills with no mailbox interaction needed.

[B✪✪tsy]

Originally posted by marstinson:

Originally posted by B00tsy:

Imo the most anoying thing about money in the game is the rent money that you have to pay manually every time at the mailbox. I often play on the future map, because you don't have to pay rent on that map.

There is an autopay mod for that (Story Progression with its SP Money add-on, I think), but I spend the 15K LTR points for "No Bills Ever" (World Adventures required, if memory serves). If it's just the trek to the mailbox to deal with the bills that's getting your goat, you can ignore the bills for a couple of days and you'll get a message the day before due that has a button to "Pay Now." Clicking it pays the bills with no mailbox interaction needed.

Ahh I don't have that dlc so that achievement is not on the list in my game. Problem with that pop-up massage of paying the bills is that it is often only visible for just a second cos of all the other pop-ups in the game.

[marstinson]

Originally posted by B00tsy:

Ahh I don't have that dlc so that achievement is not on the list in my game. Problem with that pop-up massage of paying the bills is that it is often only visible for just a second cos of all the other pop-ups in the game.

The notification slides out of view after a few seconds, but if you click on the little blue tab that sticks out from the upper right corner of the screen, all of those messages will be piled up in there. My major gripe is that they need to be cleared out one at a time and there are a half a metric crapton of them if the game has its way about them (metric is 10% larger than Imperial, btw), so this is a definite case of TMI on the game's part.

Story Progression will add to the number of those notifications if you go that route, so one of the first things you'll want to do is to click on Town Hall or any computer and select NRaas>Story Progression>General Options>Stories>All Stories and turn that down to something reasonable like Blood (relatives), Friends, and/or Romantic Interests. You could also turn off all stories and just let SP do its thing without notifying you.

[igazor]

On the game mechanics itself and time management, I will point out that most careers with work schedules at rabbitholes are 5 days/week in the beginning. You get 2 entire days off plus holidays (if you have Seasons) to relax or work on other things and if you save up for it you can take a vacation (if you have WA or the NRaas Traveler mod) during which time essentially stands still and no work is required. Your employer thinks they are being quite generous in that regard and will not stand for claims that your job is too demanding on your time. No one is irreplaceable, let's discuss this at your next performance review, blah blah, etc. :)

Okay, but seriously. Most careers at the mid-range and higher levels are not 5 days per week, but more like 4 and then 3 and the shifts tend to get shorter as the pay levels rise. One of them most notably the Military career (that is very demanding at first) only has one shift per week at Level 10. Of course it's an 18-hour shift, that's to simulate the notion of going up into space, and you do have to prepare for that or your sim will run out of energy and not perform well, but then they still have the rest of the week to themselves. Other careers are a bit more balanced. The Culinary one for example has three short evening shifts per week at the higher levels. The Medical career is also less demanding on time but that one is a trade-off because higher level medical professionals are expected to carry a pager, report to the hospital for emergencies that happen on their days off, and will find that sims around them get sick and need their assistance often when they go out into the world for something other than work. The trade-off is that the pay at the higher levels is really high. Plus you get the illusion that you are really helping out your fellow sims who need your assistance when it is called for.

On NRaas Relativity, it's just one setting to change at first to gain more time throughout the day to get things done. NRaas > Relativity > Set Speed > (change this to 19). That will run the game clock in such a way that routine tasks take around half of the sim time to complete than standard. Some of us find that's a bit too fast and prefer a setting more like 23 there, but the difference between the two would be subtle. All of the rest of the mod's settings should be on their defaults until the player gets used to the difference that Set Speed makes and are for fine-tuning things like motive depletion/restoration and skill gains. It's not necessary to understand and adjust them all in the very beginning of using the mod unless one finds that all of the sims in town are running their motives too low, too early in the afternoon/evening. We are there at NRaas to help with such fine tuning as needed.

On the twice weekly bills, those are not for rent as unless you have a mod that provides other scenarios, sims always own their own houses and residential lots. The bills are property taxes. Owning more things and higher end, more expensive objects and lots causes the property tax bills to go higher. Being frugal (with or without the associated trait) and making do with fewer or cheaper versions of objects and lot build attributes produces lower tax bills. After a while if a sim has saved up some cash, you can have them invest in community lots and be able to generate extra income from being partners or owners of such commercial enterprises for which you only have to send a sim around to these investment lots one day per week to collect their investment dividends. That can help offset what could otherwise be obnoxiously high property tax bills to cover their by then probably more expensive cars and hot tubs, the larger better apportioned and decorated home they may have moved into, the artwork and better quality appliances and electronics you have had them acquire, etc. It's a pretty simplistic view of things, my taxes in real life do not increase because I have purchased a dishwasher or a new stereo/computer with cash (although my utility bills might go up a bit), but it's all part of the balancing act of the game for those who choose to engage with these daily challenges as our sims progress through their lives.

[Rich Cat]

Originally posted by igazor:

On NRaas Relativity, it's just one setting to change at first to gain more time throughout the day to get things done. NRaas > Relativity > Set Speed > (change this to 19). That will run the game clock in such a way that routine tasks take around half of the sim time to complete than standard. Some of us find that's a bit too fast and prefer a setting more like 23 there, but the difference between the two would be subtle. All of the rest of the mod's settings should be on their defaults until the player gets used to the difference that Set Speed makes and are for fine-tuning things like motive depletion/restoration and skill gains. It's not necessary to understand and adjust them all in the very beginning of using the mod unless one finds that all of the sims in town are running their motives too low, too early in the afternoon/evening. We are there at NRaas to help with such fine tuning as needed.

Is the mod only going to modify how the time goes? Or is it gonna change how fast 'needs' go lower aswell?

[igazor]

Originally posted by Ramiro.:

Originally posted by igazor:

On NRaas Relativity, it's just one setting to change at first to gain more time throughout the day to get things done. NRaas > Relativity > Set Speed > (change this to 19). That will run the game clock in such a way that routine tasks take around half of the sim time to complete than standard. Some of us find that's a bit too fast and prefer a setting more like 23 there, but the difference between the two would be subtle. All of the rest of the mod's settings should be on their defaults until the player gets used to the difference that Set Speed makes and are for fine-tuning things like motive depletion/restoration and skill gains. It's not necessary to understand and adjust them all in the very beginning of using the mod unless one finds that all of the sims in town are running their motives too low, too early in the afternoon/evening. We are there at NRaas to help with such fine tuning as needed.

Is the mod only going to modify how the time goes? Or is it gonna change how fast 'needs' go lower aswell?

By default, most of the motive rates are set to change relative to the game clock speed. It doesn't do any good to save game clock time on each meal, or shower for example, if your sim then gets hungry four or five times per day or has to then take three showers if they aren't rolling around in the dirt or in trash dumpsters in between. Energy is not relative by default so that sims will still need 8 hours of sleep in order to be fully refreshed (without higher quality beds or the Meditative Trance LTR) but that can be changed as well.

Each motive can be adjusted further with the Delta and Decay settings. Standard would be 1 for each, numbers lower than 1 like 0.6 or 0.4 can be tried for slower Decay, higher numbers than 1 for faster Decay. Deltas are only relevant while a sim is doing something to relieve low motives, like while they are eating, sleeping, or having fun. But I wouldn't suggest adjusting these until one sees how things go just on a different clock speed first. There's many ways within the mod to achieve the same or similar effects, so if I don't want my sims waking up at 3 am all across town feeling all refreshed or dropping from exhaustion in the middle of the afternoon when they aren't necessarily exercising or doing things that should deplete energy that quickly, I would wait until I see these things actually happening before making further adjustments.

[GunsForBucks]

You can make a gatherer sim who loves the outdoors and make a living off picking up rocks and harvesting wild plants.