The Sims 2: My Gameplay System

I often have to explain some things about my gameplay rules in the actual gameplays, so I decided to make a video that covers most important things.
Mentioned mods:
Clean stealth hoods → modthesims.info/d/520751/clean...
My lifespan → modthesims.info/d/627910/new-l...
1-day pregnancy → modthesims.info/download.php?t...
Equal genetics → www.mediafire.com/file/hl3w0l...
Extended family (I don't use it) → modthesims.info/d/610804/exten...
Sim Manipulator → simmanipulator.forumotion.com...
InSimenator → www.insimenator.org/index.php/...
Semester changes → cyjon.net/node/116
No “Missed college” memory → www.insimenator.org/index.php/...
Custom bills → modthesims.info/d/532460
~Important Info~
The number of subscribers on this channel is hidden.
I was born, raised and still live in Poland. Hence the accent.
↓My Internet hideouts↓
Facebook: themarticore/
Instagram: / mertikora
The Sims group: www. groups/61395326197...
If you ever want to contact me directly, the best way is to message me on my Facebook page, but email is also fine.

[@juhsouza5468]

my boyfriend thinks i take the sims 2 too seriously, wait until he watches this

[@cassidyp9854]

I thought my mom took the sims 2 too seriously lol

[@julianhcastro]

Same with mine lol

[@rafaelokamura]

@@carambolas6049 puts

[@rafaelokamura]

@@carambolas6049 o certo é shiuuu

[@annaygonzalez2369]

lol agree

[@MaliciousCorpse]

me: I think I invest too much time into the Sims Marticore: opens a gold damn spreadsheet

[@aryanahampton]

When I was a kid I used to like when you could see every townie in the family tree because I didn’t realize it was from me inbreeding 😂

[@blackberry8615]

Annie Skywalker OH NOO 😂😭😭

[@julianhcastro]

I once got a crazy family tree like that, and I adored it! My goal is actually to try and recreate it

[@rachael5300]

That's just an Alabama family tree

[@TheKisshu1997]

Yea, I once married the Singles on like 3 different generations.. 😂

[@kutjaeg1791]

Toto omg 🤣🤣

[@deathbyscience42]

I loved Veronaville. The first time I played it, I got Romeo and Juliet together, of course, they moved out in their own home, got married, had a daughter, then Juliet burned the house down making dinner and everyone died. Good times. I also do the rounds system too. I thought it made the most sense since non-playable families won't age up automatically and it just adds more realism to it.

[@jellicosews85]

LOL- good times. Spoken like a true Simmer....

[@Anna_M_numbers]

I play rounds not accurately, and memories of relatives have not correct order

[@lidac.wurschmidt8955]

Wtf same thing happened to me

[@Christina-nb6ds]

try the story Progression mod

[@ByronPendason]

Sounds like Final Destination esque stuff. They were destined to die, so Fate still got them in the end along with the children who weren't supposed to exist...

[@vamppanic]

this is kinda embarrassing to say but in all my years playing the sims since i was a tiny kid i’ve never been a townie player. i make a family in CAS and then play them into the ground. occasionally marry off a child to a townie then not touch them ever again and keep going down one single line until the genetics/appearances start getting weird. however, i’ve always wanted to get to the know the townies better on both sims 2 and sims 3 so i’ll definitely have to try this gameplay strategy out!

[@NaraKwonPoD]

The sims 2 is legit the only game I care about the premades in. In TS2, I won't add custom fams into the maxis neighborhoods, I use my own. I prefer to play rotational story gameplay in ts2. Now in the sims 3 and 4? In 3, I've occasionally tried a family but do not EVER switch to another fam in the same save and largely prefer my own gams. In TS4 I can honestly say I have never, not even once, ever loaded up a premade family lmao they're so boring

[@realjennyrae2863]

@@NaraKwonPoD ts4 was my first actual Sim game (i played sims 1 when i was super little but I don't count it) and I always just keep my 1 family together. It had never even crossed my mind until today to try playing a neighborhood together but I think I'll try it out in ts2. I got a little bored with just family play anyways, so keeping track of everyone seems like a nice change!

[@NatPatent]

@Jake-Amir Blumenfeldwitz Wait a minute... Was there ever a random townie you had a child with and like 5 generations later you had them meet their great-great-great-great grand parent?

[@pricklycactus6413]

Only just found this channel and I love it!! Glad to see people still play the sims 2 religiously like I do ahhaha

[@Marticore]

♥

[@pauuuuuwa]

I also found this channel recently and I love it. In a youtube space where everyone is talking about whats new in Sims 4 and how Sims 3 was so great its so nice to find a channel like this with in depth conversation about Sims 2. Viva la Sims 2!!!!

[@digi_joamp]

Mee too, keep rocking it!

[@danica4077]

Do u think the sims 2 is the best one of them all?

[@Marticore]

I do!

[@jayak8217]

Marticore: Don't make more than 12 families. Me: Sweats nervously as I count the families in the new town I built from scratch.

[@091nanni]

I have 52 and counting

[@louissteyn6871]

I have a rule in sims 3 where I always have at least one bad or difficult trait similar to the fatal flaw system in sims medieval

[@Marticore]

Omg, same! HEY, EVERYONE HAS FLAWS

[@louissteyn6871]

@@Marticore exactly it makes my sims more believable

[@claudiah.2935]

I watched this while smoking a bowl last night and I was FLOORED by the amount of organization and also the amount of times you quit without saving during a birth so you can get the traits you want. LMFAOOOOOO omg but I have also been known to take physical notes for things I want to do in my game. I love the idea of playing in rounds! TS2 is such a great game regardless, but I definitely will try playing all households in increments. That sounds so fun!

[@erinschloeffel]

This channel is my favourite to watch stoned because it's constant mind-blowing commitment

[@WinxAliNelCielo]

@@erinschloeffel Agreed

[@haesu3786]

Lmao same ​@@erinschloeffel

[@patienceholmes841]

I love seeing how other people play, it’s so interesting to see differences. I’m definitely a lot more random with it. I always end up with so many save files cause I get bored with a family/storyline and just make something totally new. I rarely get more than three generations into one family

[@buildinasentry1046]

Yup same, as a boy I used to just find new weird ways to torment my sims, now I play similarly to what you described

[@billiejoe8074]

I’m so glad I’m not the only person who has a little paper spread sheet and keeps paper family trees. I plan who’s going to get married to who pretty much from their birth unless I change my mind later. I used to have a massive folder when I was a kid of all this I like the idea of the rounds and I’m deffo going to try this so I don’t get to absorbed in one family at a time and loose focus

[@michelinecabb1194]

SAME my sister think i'm a freak x)

[@Baider808]

I don't know why I never thought of doing rounds! How smart! I actually had a notebook for Strangetown to keep track of families and children so inbreeding wouldn't happen lol

[@Baider808]

@@ramu-silly In Strangetown there's a glitch with the Curious family and the alien Single sisters. So they're all siblings but the game doesn't recognize them as siblings so you can theoretically have one of the brothers marry, have children with one of the sisters, and look in their family tree. Now you've got a Targaryan situation on your hands

[@galaxysnot6276]

I think doing rounds is a really fun way to play 😄

[@Baider808]

@@galaxysnot6276 Agreed! I'm going to give it a shot lol

[@Marticore]

That, and also you can marry second cousins, which isn't technically too bad (as irl you mostly can do that too), but it's just weird, lol

[@Baider808]

@@Marticore That's what I thought too lol

[@santiagocardenas9061]

omg i cant believe this is introducing me to a different type of gameplay I mean I religiously LOVE SIMS 2 but I never had the idea of making rounds or years or pregnancy or the 50%/50%. im happy that someone keeps playing to the best sims game ever like I do 😌

[@santiagocardenas9061]

a question: for how much time do you have played the same saving of the sims 2?

[@Marticore]

The same save? That would be my old Pleasantview that I started in 2014, hard to say how many hours I spent on that

[@Rain_theGamer]

I always wanted to grow a story in my sims but i didnt really know how to balance it, this is great tips

[@mipsy916]

So glad I'm not the only sims freak who is tracking these things, playing rounds, checking who is related etc. I use a family tree app where I fill in all the Sims so I can see easily who is connected to who

[@mckemmma]

what is the app you use?

[@mipsy916]

@@mckemmma It's called "Quick Family Tree" the one with the orange pic

[@katalinhajdu3557]

I used to have a similiar system of playing with a family for 3 days and then moving on to the next and the next. But to me some families are more exciting to play with than others and after a while it felt like playing with the less entertaining ones was just duty. At the same time I wanted to keep the ones who were born in the same era to age together. So what I did instead was just making the boring sims age by cheat codes when my main characters had to grow up lol. Great video though I enjoyed it!

[@desireekallenberg3235]

same, which in turns makes me just quit all in all :( but i think i'm gonna do this from the start now instead.

[@NattyRose]

I need to know that cheat! I have some parent that were only made to become granny parents for the main stories

[@24Roxyx]

​@@NattyRoseUsing cheats just slows the game down and opens you up to future glitches.

[@wasagaji]

AT FIRST! For a person whose native language is not English, your speech is very good. I am Russian, and for me it's a bit difficult to understand non-native speakers. This video is also very useful for me, because I'm used to the gameplay of The Sims 4, but I still want to play TS2 and I have been thinking for a long time how can I play the second part of the franchise in order to bring the gameplay of this game as close as possible to the fourth part. Thank you very much for your work!

[@AddBowIfGirl]

Пануфрий Златопьянов Agreed. Love her accent too! It sounds exactly like the Romanian KZbinr, Christina Rad’s accent.

[@MilenaSouza7SS]

What? She's not American? Her speech is so great and fluent! Where is Manticore from?

[@user-uu3dl3nj4e]

Nash Souza she’s from poland her “main” channel is “Merta”

[@nadia5519]

she is english teacher so maybe that's why her pronunciation is that good :))

[@Moonberry94]

Пануфрий Златопьянов I’m also Russian and I really appreciate her efforts in speaking so varied and clear ( I guess, here my “teacher persona” shouts out...), nothing to say about content itself.

[@littlemisscomplicated2499]

Literally... Back in the days... I would design my entire family trees and their homes on some block paper, but this is a whole new level. As someone, who loves lists and stuff, I think, that I will never ever be able to play TS w/o such a system anymore 😂😂

[@kornelia9802]

I'm from Poland as well and have recognised your nationality without even looking into the description box, the accent's really characteristic :)

[@Marticore]

I recommend my Polish channel then

[@dagmiful]

@@Marticore czy mogłabyś podać nazwę? Dziękuję :)

[@rufiarzpogodzinach8382]

@@dagmiful merta

[@jamesy1005]

The extended family tree mod is really helpful! Prevents marrying anyone too related really 😂 also, you can get a mod called no 20k handout which stops families who move out or Sims coming back from uni getting 20k from nowhere. But it lets Sims or families you've made in CAS get this money!

[@Marticore]

WAIT, does she have TWO PLEASANTVIEWS?! Yes! That's how you do it → kzbin.info/www/bejne/nnmUXmyKmLqlbdE Other things I didn't mention, but you might ask about: Skin replacement → www.mediafire.com/file/6w3ez9s8poec2ey/%255Badalae%255D_alexxschmidt_FOTD_%252B_SMB-_Default.rar/file Eyes replacement → www.mediafire.com/file/crz9x8sp7dczgcq/anna_default_eyes.rar/file Other replacements → sims2defaults.dreamwidth.org/ Wider neighborhood camera → modthesims.info/d/305352/easy-decorate-the-neighborhood-camera.html Bigger family tree window → modthesims.info/d/627300/improved-family-tree-ui.html Clouds → lowedeus.tumblr.com/post/151597207546/the-great-sky-of-totalitarianism-redux-redux

[@stebania8974]

hey Marticore, the link of the clean templates you linked here is outdated, MeetMe has restarted the project in their tumblr, this is the one for pleasantview: www.google.com/amp/s/meetmetotheriver.tumblr.com/post/179020464788/clean-pleasantview-templates-rerelease-fixed/amp

[@yessiritstrue5195]

The way I play: (nobody asked but who cares?) - I'm currently playing Pleasantview. I play for 3 days and that counts as a season starting from Fall 2004. If I'm on round 4 I will be on Summer 2005. Usually I allow sims to have 1 baby per 3 rounds unless it is a family sim then they can have two per 3 rounds. Usually, I plan out some of the babies beforehand so at the start of round 3. I will usually set up two unborn kids to keep it even; Example: I will make Darren and Cassandra have a baby and then Jennifer and John and they will get together. The more generations, the less children I allow or I make townies for them.

[@Marticore]

I asked!

[@albaformiga7932]

Thats a good idea

[@mykayla1058]

I get so sad and sometimes almost cry when a sim I feel like I have been playing my whole life dies and my bro is like your too attached to your game he says he doesn't get attached to one's and zeros like that and I'm just like living my life through my Sims

[@mitsuki23otaku]

omg same, I have event tried to play with different families but when I get attached to one household I can play them for (sims) yearsssss

[@breezianderin101]

I can’t explain why I was so exited too see I wasn’t the only one who does this

[@kayleigh1991]

Oh the incest I had in my sims 2 games as a kid was wild 😂

[@hallohello3981]

Howwwwwwwww???

[@olakasen8140]

@@hallohello3981 Because incest in the sims 2 is easyyyyyyyyyyyy.

[@saigen7271]

Its pretty possible in the sims 4, too. Johnny Zest and literally any Landgraab, anyone?

[@nikawlodarek]

@@saigen7271 yeah but technically he's not a Landgraab (not recognised by the game since he's not on their tree)

[@saigen7271]

@@nikawlodarek I know. I just think its kinda funny how EA has made him a Landgraab (his bio in-game) but never added any relationship/family connection. Always found it kinda silly

[@MsPoliteRants]

You've inspired me to actually keep track of my family. I get so confused and right now I'm only at the start of a generations challenge. I even have them all in the same house but because I got the firstborn syndrome, I confused my sims... even after changing their hairstyles lol.

[@SzczesliwyZiemniak]

I remember when I first heard about turn system from you and I was like ITS UNPLAYABLE! But now I can't play any other way XD It was really cool to learn all about your system in such clear way. I think I'll even apply some to my own game ;)

[@Marticore]

I thought you were always this kind of player! :O xD

[@SzczesliwyZiemniak]

No XD Before discovering your channel my last Sims 2 game was when I was still in primary school and back than I only played with one family and 90% of a time it was Caliente 🙈 But now I play with turns, do notes and stuff... I am totally new player thanks to you!

[@nieznajomy3993]

@@SzczesliwyZiemniak wow you are here o.o

[@sinachiniforoosh]

One innovation (?) That I’ve implemented is townification using simblender. It’s a good way to keep track of population, because what matters isn’t townie population, it’s playable population. When I feel like a Sim’s story is finished, they become a townie.

[@Marticore]

And never ages? :O I would never do that!

[@mywatchdoesmath4669]

This was so interesting to watch since I always wondered how other people played their Sims and if they had their own methods. I use the turn-system just like you! Except instead of 4 days, I play the whole week, from Sunday 6am to Sunday 6am, so my sims have a little bit of the weekend to spend with families. I usually work up from the "youngest" Sims, which are usually the college-aged Sims (I play for one year--two semesters), so by the time I get to my elder Sims, older siblings stay the older siblings and younger siblings stay the younger... if that makes senses? I'm also trying to get out of the habit of turning aging off, so parents can be a quarter of the way into being an elder by the Sims come out of the college, so I don't have a bunch of freshly graduated Sims looking the same age as their late 50/early 60 year old parents. As for my neighborhoods, each generation gets their own subhood, but I usually limit it to 6-7 families per subhood, but I might start bumping up the numbers because each generation is getting larger and larger, and I'm a sucker for large family tres. I'll probably eventually circle back to my starting neighborhood and clean-up all the houses from the previous generation so they can be used again. I'm probably going to start incorporating some mods that make the bills higher, because yeah, you're totally right bills are pretty unrealistic and I've totally had my eye on the mod that makes sims pay for college.

[@strigiformez]

my gameplay system is pretty much like yours, but, i add all the sub-hoods. You inspired me to start playing pleasanview again! (it was so boring) so, thank you for this. AND i will start with less sub-hoods (makes more sense, lol) :D

[@suzy_han]

Your english improved so much... its music to my ears! And I love the video ❤️

[@Marticore]

Thank you! 😃

[@oliviafranchiribeiro]

My gameplay is very similar to yours! I also keep a notebook were I write about the life of the families, some notes about their personality, draw the family trees and plan their future. I got so many families that I'm getting crazy haha

[@kneecxle]

wow, and here I am thinking I play in a complicated way with scenario :D with a gameplay system like that it has to be much more exciting and thrilling to play! I guess if I do something similar in my game then it will be impossible to tear me from my laptop until I get completely blind.. as for my game, I like the progressing of family trees :) so if I have the main family I usually play in, I always make sure there’s some progression in the neighborhood as well, like newborns, marriages & etc. As if I’m a perfectionist in every aspect, I’d love every family in my town to be in the exact same season, but as if I’m a lazy human being as well... that would take years to do :D

[@mariamakarova8329]

Oh my god?? I’m not alone?! 😂 I play the game in a very similar way but your system is *so* much better! I’m just so surprised because this is the first time I’ve seen your channel haha, definitely subbing now!

[@KKajice]

I had no idea this is a thing. I am so incredibly happy to have found this channel, I feel so understood. I love to plan my gameplay in all kinds of games, make spreadsheets, and try to strike a delicate balance between perfection, randomness, and fun and try to experience as much of the game as possible.

[@lightshadowed]

I love that you have a spreadsheet! I used to use notebooks and spreadsheets too, but your system is much more contained and organized! If I pick up playing the Sims seriously again, I think I'm going to use this.

[@StarOnTheWater]

I used to be like that, now I just turn every sim I don't want to play anymore into a townie. So mich less pressure 😅

[@sanity6241]

this made me inspired to start playing sims 2 again

[@BexstarDuck]

I have a system similar to this and it honestly makes the game more interesting. I started with a blank desert neighbourhood which I called Palm Tree Valley. I started off with one sim. Every sims day equals 1 years which gets recorded and every time a baby is born... a *palm tree* is planted. Currently 76 years has passed, there are 8 households now and 27 palm trees have been planted. It's amazing to watch it grow and develop.

[@Marticore]

Oh, cool!

[@teletalk101]

My problem is that I constantly get too attached to certain families. I’ll play them from youth through to adulthood, give them a relationship timeline, make them have children, but I can’t bring myself to let them age to elders. I’m always reducing their age so I can keep playing them, even after their kids go to college, get married and have children of their own. And because I don’t let them become elders, they never die, so my neighbourhoods fill up and I have to start new ones, or create nightlife and shopping district neighbourhoods so new families can live there and still connect with old families.

[@viktoriabiryukova7478]

Wow, I have almost the same system, I have a list of families but I play in Verona only:D Now I have the 8th generation, there are lots of pairs really At first I had the 1st born syndrome and it was in your channel where I found out about it, now I try to avoid it :) So, my system is similar to yours: I usually play for 4 days, but it depends on the family I choose first, because I want to have someone grown up there, usually children I have additional lists, for example, I have a list with seniors, where I mark how old they are and the age at which they pass by, then I calculate the life expectancy *hehe sounds strange* Usually my Sims live 80 days, townies that are added and haven’t graduated from college live ~ 65 Then I have a list of teenagers, there I mark how many days they have till growing-up, there I choose ones with relatively the same age and send to college, they study there for 2 round, 2 semester each This creates a chain of students and I need it because I now have several big and expensive houses there and need to have at least one sim there, otherwise I won’t be able to rent it :D I have also retirement age at 70, so not every sim reaches it and it also creates an additional good memory I adore genetics and like to mix Sims with interesting characteristics, usually I pair sims at the age of teenagers, some sims are single There is time when interesting sims have no pair because there are no sims of their age, then I merry them to townies or my sims I try to have even number of boys and girls in my 8th generation, but in the previous ones I had periods when I had only boys and only girls Some sims have the same surnames, then I find nicknames for them, e.g. “The Greens” for the family with one alien sim, one plant sim and one women with golden beige in gardening:D Some sims have specialization, this means that they have skills they pass from generation to generation I also have the same child limit, because at a particular moment you have lots of sims who are relatives and can’t be a courtly, and then their children are also close relatives (I mean siblings and cousins, the game doesn’t allow to pair them) So now I have LOTS of families, they can have only 1-2 children, because I want to lessen the number of families My families are often too rich, so I always look for spending, even wasting money :D now my round is devoted to buying all the clothes in store, in costs good 400.000 simoleons But I think I will use your mode with bills, thanks for the video:)

[@carina2508]

I enjoy how active you are lately 🥺

[@bettsbubbles]

This was so fascinating to watch! I've never heard of the rounds method, it's such an interesting way to play! Also restricting the number of families that are in the main neighbourhood is a great idea. When I played sims 2 back in the day I created my own neighbourhoods usually. In my most successful one I kept a Windows Access database of all the sims in all the families in the neighbourhood with things like their age, career track and whether or not they were single. Was really helpful for me to keep track of everyone and to play matchmaker for my teenage sims! I could run reports and see things like who the single sims were in the town, or how many college age students I had. Was a bit of effort to keep the database going though! I made probably about 40+ families in that neighbourhood. It was supposed to be a legacy neighbourhood but I am too attached to some of them so when I play it now I turn ageing off while I think about what to do next. I can never really decide if I prefer the gameplay from sims 2 or 3. In sims 2 I love that you have complete control over all the families in the neighbourhood, and how connected they can end up being because it feels like there are more chances for them to meet. In sims 3 though there is something quite magical about story progression and feeling the town grow and age with you. I do really hate that you can only really play one family at a time in the same timeline though. Anyway great video, I love seeing other people's gameplay styles!

[@phelanii4444]

I used to have a whole neighbourhood planned out on a few sheets of paper when I was a kid, but sadly never got around to making it. This video has motivated me to finally do it :D

[@roseofdeath8411]

This is so interesting, I love getting to see how others play love watching both you and Pleasant Sims at the moment gives me ideas and time to relax

[@VladaArt]

I do the same thing, though my rounds can be longer like I stay with one family until I accomplish something with them like sim becoming a plan sim or getting certain level of Job! But this is interesting too!

[@nadjakari1752]

I used to have sheets for my sims 2 families as well. But I think yours are so clever! The video made me miss those times!!! 💙

[@GiraffeOfTheSea]

I really enjoyed this video!! I always felt very alone in my Sims 2 bubble (have been playing non-stop since 2012) and it takes up a lot of my time, which is something I've always felt guilty about somehow even though I enjoy the time I spend on it. Knowing that other people also still play, as well as having a 'rounds' system (I have two notebooks dedicated to my play style, one with an 'order of neighbourhood' and the other with arrangements for all my college students) really makes me feel less alone in my Sims ways :)

[@TheAtomicSammi]

I literally just wiped my old neighborhood to start again like this - how ironic! I'm probably a little bit more systematic with moving between households, going from '4 days until x season' until the next one, but much more relaxed with sending teens to college - I just phase all the eligible ones up at the end of the entire neighborhood run & go straight into playing their first 2 years. I had to reset because I lost track of which household I was onto and I felt it would disrupt my progress to guess, but your square system is something I might consider to keep track!

[@HerHollyness]

Wow... I used to think I played TS2 religiously, but I never did this. I don't know whether to admire you or be horrified. This is taking perfectionism to the extreme!

[@cloudbaby8401]

Aaaaah omg I always used to watch you back in the day!!! It’s so great to see that you stay play TS2 🥺

[@Marticore]

Welcome back!

[@kevinsko9696]

15:23 xD Great video. I might take on a few more of these so thanks for sharing. What I also remember taking over from your LP was that toddlers learn Walking - Speaking & Using the Potty in that order. My life changed after I realized this xD I just wish I knew a lot of things back in the day. I added Bluewater Village, Downtown etc. to Strangetown... they drive all the way out of the desert to go to the disco... xD

[@floppyplatypus3463]

OMG i’ve been building a sims 2 town for 3 months now & im finally getting to the part where i am making unique families & this video helped me figure out how i’m gonna make the family’s age together.

[@mrpinkshirt4]

Downtown being available for Riverblossom Hills and etc to me makes sense regardless of the type of environment the town is in. I always imagined my Sims driving X amount of time down the highway to get to w/e sub neighbor. That's just me though.

[@ilaria5091]

This is impressive! I'm going to take a lot of inspiration from your video for my gameplay, I love your dedication hahha!

[@lemeos6551]

This is so cool! The way I used to play was to see how large I could extend a family tree from ONE starter sim. The rules I had for myself were that similar to a basic line of accession through the males only so the family held onto the same surname in that household. This meant that as a side challenge, I had to build the skills and get as far into a career as possible for any daughters before marrying them off and moving them out to start their own families. This is also what I did when there was multiple sons. The first born son would stay in the starter house and continue the dynasty while the others would marry off and move out. (This would prove very helpful later on) It got to a stage similar to yourself where all the sims in the neighbourhood had a similar great relative which I always found hiliarious because 8 or 9 generations into the game, all the sons were basically marrying great great etc cousins. I remember it got to a point where the latest couple of the dynasty only had daughters (6), and I frantically had to go into the neigbourhood to find a male sim that still held the origional name and use him to carry on playing by the crazy rules I set. It was dramatic! lol

[@Marticore]

Looks like a legacy challenge, my favorite one :D

[@MrParticles]

Your system has inspired me to play thr game once again. I was bored of playing with the same family for generations. Thank you, great vid!

[@galaxysnot6276]

I can definitely relate. I used to focus on playing my favorite family to see how many generations deep I could go, but realized it's way more fun rotating around an entire neighborhood.

[@darlingeve5416]

Great video & ideas. I love the idea of not adding all of the subhoods. I'm going to do that. I always add Bluewater Village and never ever go there! I love your videos so much. I especially love your old Pleasantview overview videos. I rewatch them all the time. Thanks for sharing♡

[@belladramatic961]

I love your ideas! I always lose track when playing and end up neglecting other families and I hate it, I always become bored then! Now youve helped me with that. I do play Sims 3 though so I'm thinking of turning aging off and calculating days and when they should age up etc maybe

[@positronixartandlife4545]

Found you from your video on Sims 2 genetics and hopped over to this video. I play in a similar situation where I have a custom town and rotate through all the families, though I have a lot more mods, rules, and lifestyle decisions. Sim aspirations are randomised and between that and personality that affects a lot of things - what non-LTW jobs they get, what their ideal number of children is, what their risky woohoo chance is. I also have extended education options (prep and boarding school, options for masters and doctorates), adoption rules (both for putting a child up for adoption and adopting into the family), info into how IVF (user-directed try for baby) changes the odds of getting single/twins/triplets/quads. There's also various fees and payments (the only education that is free is standard public school which is 'paid' through taxes); skill points gain through prep and boarding school; random rolls for which family name is used when a couple get married; a list of potential spouses for playable sims; a file almost solely for keeping track of which household I'm playing, including when teen sims head to university and when they return to the main neighbourhood. Notes on the bio family of an adopted sim (so they don't grow up and find a close relation attractive), motivation levels which determine how much a sim can learn without needing to have a want for it (which I probably need to reconfigure as I'm not 100% happy with it). Add on to that the fact that I have the main neighbourhood, two shopping districts (one empty), downtown, university, all vacation options - all done when I originally created the main neighbourhood to allow for a lot of expansion. And despite all of that, I only have 24 households across three areas, a bunch of sims moving in and out of university all the time (like you, I add them in when they come of age, so there's often a constant change of who's there) because I play with a long age mod like you and I take long breaks from the game. Maybe I should record something and put it up here to showcase how I play 🤣

[@fluddcappy314]

Nice video! I used to add all the subsections to my towns and on Windows XP it took forever. As much as I love the other three games, 2 is still my favorite one

[@MilenaSouza7SS]

Thank u so much for this video! It inspired me a great deal. Usually, I just play with one to three families, that are usually related. I don't really care about family friends that never age, maybe because I got so used to it in sims 2 and feel kind of annoyed in sims 3 & 4 when my grandchildren grow up but everyone else in the world is a random townie with no history and horrible randomized looks, so I just prefer to keep the original townies alive forever xD But your video really made me want to try a rotation style gameplay like yours, so thanks again for keeping my game fresh, even after 13 years of playing sims 2! I don't think 1 day equalling 1 year is fit for me, tho. I would do something like 1 day=1 semester, because I really enjoy the pregnancy stage and toddlers and babies! I'd get to keep them for around 10 days with this system. Anyway, your system is really well thought and apparently really fun to play!!!

[@itsCazarex]

I also play with rounds, except I make an uberhood, adding every neighborhood as a shopping district, downtown, universities, as well as playing with the families that come with the stealth hoods. Yeah, my rounds are pretty long.

[@robinsea]

usually i don't ply with townies or pre-made families, but i was doing a legacy challenge a while ago and one of my generations married a townie (whos name i tragically cannot remember rn) who ended up being my absolute favorite! he was such a good dad + grandad i was distraught when he finally kicked it

[@VITASIMS]

New subscriber. glad people are still playing this gem of a game. IMO Sims 2 >>>>>Sims 4

[@belisarius6949]

Sims 3 ♡

[@user-ye5ef9de6g]

Wow! I will definitely use the square system 🔥 thanks for the video 💗

[@em-bt9zp]

Ive been loving your videos lately!

[@polalis6739]

I love that kind of videos!! Waiting for the vid from Pleasantview!

[@momosims8020]

I have wanted to play one year as one day for quite awhile now, I am setting up Pleasantview with Strangetown as subhood and I am finally going to try the one year one day, I am nervous I might mess it up but you have inspired me! Love your videos!

[@momosims8020]

I downloaded the mod and the age changer and omg it was soooo easy! It even changed the families in the sim bin which I had forgotten to move in!! I am so psyched!! Thank you so much !! Now I know how old my sims really are !!

[@pauuuuuwa]

Your system is soo awesome. I want to definitely implement some of the rules you follow for your gameplay. I am with you, I don't like seeing families left behind and I think of all my pairings the moment the sim is born. I'm pretty vanilla when it comes to game play, I mean I know I should challenge myself but I gravitate more towards choosing aspirations like Family, Knowledge, and Wealth. More because I HATE cheating so I rarely make any of my sims romance or pleasure because theyre so much more harder. I feel bad for the sim that gets cheated on and their kids. I get irritated when I see sims are more attracted to other sims more than their spouse so I make sure their aspirations and turn ons as well as zodiacs are matched to avoid it.. still it happens!! I hate seeing my sims get attracted to other sims (sometimes even their spouse's siblings) right in front of their spouse! How can I avoid this since I already played with the turn offs as well? I wonder if you ever make partners cheat on each other or whats your opinion on that? Would love to know!!! Weird I still carry some of my morals into this game but I can't help it! Hahaha. Thank you for this video!!! Love it

[@leslie2149]

Very nice video, I like it. Strangetown was the first neighborhood I ever played and I still love it because of the aliens. Now I'm playing a Prosperity Challenge neighborhood. I started doing that because I also like to play a whole neighborhood and play them in a particular order. I keep track of my sims in a notebook (or books). Each sim has their own page with all their info plus things that happened throughout their lives, like if they got money from chance cards or inheritance, and when they died, who they married, etc. I chuckled when you said you don't like to play big families anymore so you keep them small because two of my sims had the marry off six kids want so I let both of them have six kids! And they both belong to the same family! They are going to take over college when they all get ready to go.

[@HeyItzRosie]

Finally I was able to find someone else who actually writes down and puts in names, families, and backstories. I do not have a spreadsheet but I used to have a 25+ page google doc with many different stories

[@newage_apostasy]

YES! I thought I was the only person who set lifespan to one day representing a year, and pregnancy to one day. It just makes so much more sense to me.

[@nemanjahatar]

My gameplay is similar to yours, just because I have learned so much about The Sims 2 from you when I first got the UC. Of course I made some changes along the way, but the notebook is still on my desk everytime I play the game 😂

[@pollydavydova4230]

Finally! Another freak like me! It was so hard to explain the rounds sistem to my friends. And I have a very bad habbit of uninstalling the game, so never reached even the thirg generetion in any town

[@Marticore]

But you can keep the save files 😭

[@timotejgabris9162]

I love that you are making more english videos :)

[@laravermillion3875]

My most played sims 2 neighbourhood is a city I keep going since 2016, using the build a city challenge rule set with some own additions. Damn it's so complicated, I got a folder on my PC stuffed with .txts and additional a traditional notebook 😂 Might adapt some of your stuff too, sounds well thought through haha

[@antoniokaige7919]

I always make duplicate neighborhoods as well because I like to keep the originals untouched and preserved. I play very dynamic

[@CCisRight]

I'm glad I found you because I stopped playing Sims 2 for 4 years and didn't realize how much I'd forgotten until re-downloaded all my content and cheat/mods. I used to play very similar to you except I don't even like Aliens lol. I like things to be fairly realistic. I had no patience with playing the Uni, so I used many cheat mods to get them through it really fast. I'm slowly adding my CC to my game as I have over 12 G and 36,000 files. I just subscribed and look forward to re-learning how to play again LOL Oh I forgot to mention, I always did/do rounds as well... Sims need to age at around the same time. I hate the idea of 2 childhood friends suddenly one being an adult and their friend still being a child... it's just creepy!

[@galaxysnot6276]

Nice video! And thanks for the mod information. I do something pretty similar, but I guess I'm not as calculated as you are lol I play each family about a week at a time and my lifespan is 4 days = 1 year. The population doesn't get crazy big or anything because pregnancy lasts 4 weeks and sims only try for a baby if they roll a want to. I also usually don't add any subhoods and just smash the shopping district, downtown hangouts, vacation lots, and university campus inside the main neighborhood. Pleasantview is my favorite! And I definitely relate to not liking supernatural sims but loving aliens and plantsims 😍

[@alie7358]

Yesss this exactly what we are deserve 🔥 thanks for some mods ideas that i didn't know that exist for my entire 20 years😂❤️ make more videos 🔥👍🏻🙃

[@XA--ly8iy]

Nigdy nie tłumacz się z akcentu, bo naprawdę ślicznie mówisz. Najważniejsze, by pilnować poprawnej wymowy, nie przekręcać słówek i utrzymywać płynność - a ty to wszystko masz :) Nie ma nic gorszego niż ludzie bawiący się w akcenty, jednocześnie robiąc błędy, czy to gramatyczne, czy w wymowie. Bądź dumna z tego, że potrafisz tak sprawnie operować angielskim, mimo że nie jest twoim ojczystym językiem. Twój akcent to taka wisienka na torcie. Działaj dalej!

[@ivankiiashko7707]

I play same way, but in university I use semester tester . Good to know someone is playing sims this way to 😍😍😍

[@juliatheweaver]

Used to do this with my Sims 2 some few years ago. One round was one week. Played with 5 or 6 families. As for the university, the dorms are really great thing to get the young ones to know each other. And I also love the system where you could just move the teenagers to uni right from the neighbourhood. Now, trying to do something similar with Sims 4 but I get bored too quickly. Maybe I've just grown up. Still, Sims 4 has this great feature to choose who should or shouldn't age - your families, the townies etc. Generally, the family I am playing now is aging and the rest are "on hold", but once a game week I turn the aging on.

[@catyatzee4143]

We all have such different play styles! After playing the sims how I do it, I love to hear how other people play, and how other people love the game because it is just so big and diverse! It gives me so many more ideas for playing the game to enjoying it, as well as appreciating what a good sand box game it is Love your style! I never nurture an entire neighborhood, I've always had favorite families. Gonna try your way...

[@Tamsin_bear]

I’ve just started playing the sims 2 again and it’s the most nostalgic awesome thing ever. I also have a system, I play 1 sims week in each household. I love the stories in TS2.

[@olgimskaya]

I don’t know why but I come back and watch this video like once a month it’s so relaxing to me I love spreadsheets

[@CaityRaindrop]

Heyyy, I see you on twitter! I didn't know you had a channel and I've been dying for more sims 2 content I love finding custom downtowns that fit the vibe of the original town, like Veronaville got a old English looking town, Strangetown got one that's based on the ds strangetown I haven't got round to Riverblossom Hills but I'll probably try find something that looks Emmerdale (a British soap set in the countryside)

[@lucianampersandderpy5211]

whenever I played Sims 2 the table was always full of paper with notes about who was who and what I had planned for whom. I needed to have everything in control because that game was so important to me. ^^' still is, actually.

[@MakzPlayground]

I like your system and how dedicated you are to playing in rounds and keeping things equal :) I join my PV and Strangetown together as a megahood and do 5-7 day rounds and then I join RiverBlossom Hills, Desideratta Valley and Belladonna cove together. I keep Veronaville separate though haha. I just add Bluewater village and downtown to my PV cause I like the sims from Blue Water to mingle with the families in PV..

[@lanzinator4734]

I love this level of detail!

[@astrale-l3n]

I thought I was the only weirdo who had rules to play Sims, but you definitely have A LOT MORE rules than I do lol I loved your rules though! Thanks for the insights, I'll totally put some into practice on my game.

[@scythetrill4683]

Omg I thought I was crazy for having a notebook and doing "rounds". I love this system!

[@giomks9046]

I like this video so much LOL i've already watched it 3 times I didn't know I could play like this!! thank you

[@Ce1y]

I like your system a lot! If I can get my game to work on Windows 10, I think I want to try this now that I’m in quarantine.

[@karl945]

i really need to try this out :) i would like to get to know the townies better haha! thank you for sharing this!!

[@brulionbebeb]

Hi! Fellow Polish simmer here. I used to do the exact same thing with sending teens to college separately based on their "age"! To keep up with the ages, I had an ultimate list of kids born in my neighborhood. I'd list all Sims born "in the same year" in one line and then move one down for kids one year younger and so on. I think I implemented this system around the time some of the kids were teenagers already, so I had to use some imagination and just arbitrarily decide on some Sims' ages. I'm preeeetty sure 1 day = 1 year in my game back then, so I had numbers written on the side of my list to keep up?! Idk. Anyways, that was quite a long time ago, my computer has gone through an extremely fatal crash right after I've finished decluttering and organizing my downloads :( Made me miss this game so much! I might dig up my notes later today and weep over it a bit.

[@janiceblaring3062]

I take turns!! But I don’t have patience ugh then the university situation is just messy for me. Trying to find a good system to get really into enjoying this beautiful game

[@PotatoAsh]

I used to do similar stuff (haven't really played in a year or so) and I'm glad I'm not the only one to play that way. -My rounds were per season, so 5 days each, and each full set of rounds is called a cycle. -I used the default times for ages and pregnancies so if I want two Sims to have a baby it would be in the first day of a round so by the end of it the baby(s) will become a toddler (it also works well for when they become teens). I also tend to make at least one more baby within the same cycle so they have someone their age and only have an even number of newborns in each cycle. -Similarly with marriage/moving in, Sims can only move in at the first day of a round (as long as the other Sim wasn't played in that cycle yet) or the last day for a round (if the other Sim WAS played in that cycle already), so the ages are still consistent. -College rounds are each 2 semesters and they go after all the families in the main neighborhoods are played. The rest is pretty similar to yours, I even wrote the cycles on paper rather than in the computer for the longest time.

[@craziestcat5767]

I actually really need this since I'm new to the Sims 2 and would want to have a balanced neighborhood So thank you! This video was just recommended to me and its the answer to all my prayers 😂

[@Marticore]

You're welcome! :D