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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 24th Feb 2016 at 10:20 PM
Default What was your longest-lasting neighborhood?
I've never been able to get a neighborhood to survive past the second generation getting to college - either it starts showing irrecoverable signs of corruption, or it just gets so unwieldy that I lose track of things. I'm hoping that, with my frequent backups and making spreadsheets to keep track and such, this one will last longest.

So I'm asking some of you more veteran Simmers - what was the longest-lasting neighborhood you've ever had? (Either by amount of play-hours or number of generations). And what tips do you have for us lowly peasants? (I'd say 'noob,' but I'm pretty sure I'm past that stage by now. And 'lowly peasants' sounds better.)
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Scholar
#2 Old 24th Feb 2016 at 10:26 PM
My longest neighborhood made it to the second generation before I lost it to a computer crash. Since I been playing less for various reasons, I haven't had any neighborhood get to even that point yet.
Field Researcher
#3 Old 24th Feb 2016 at 10:26 PM
The one I'm still playing that I started in 2008. I don't think tips really apply since the way I play wouldn't be much fun for a lot of people. Just enjoy yourself and don't delete things that shouldn't be deleted.
Forum Resident
#4 Old 24th Feb 2016 at 10:39 PM
The one I'm playing today... can't remember the others, there as been so many, it's been over 10years. Usually the computer breaks and I lose everything, and get a new computer and start again. The cupboard under the stairs knows better than me.
Top Secret Researcher
#5 Old 24th Feb 2016 at 10:44 PM
Me too, 2008, then some in 2009 (all premade neighbourhoods and I'm still playing them) and recently I have started playing some newer, custom hoods too.

In generations, let's see.. fourth generation is the farthest I've come I think, with Cyd Roseland's great grand daughter among other sims.

I wouldn't speak about veterans and noobs, what I can say is, make frequent back ups, that's really the most important thing.
As for keeping track, well I have notebooks^^ (one per neighbourhood) and I document my hoods on dedicated blogs, so I can reread what happened in the previous weeks before playing a rotation.
And yeah, rotations! When you play each family alphabetically for the same amount of time (a week at a time for me), well it's easy to keep track
Top Secret Researcher
#6 Old 24th Feb 2016 at 11:05 PM
I've had my neighborhood since 2011 I believe. Of course I don't always play it, I've gone times where months would go by and I wouldn't touch the game.

Unfortunately I don't have any tips because my hood is corrupt but I'm still playing it until it finally gives out on me. *knock on wood*
Undead Molten Llama
#7 Old 25th Feb 2016 at 12:28 AM
I tend to play long-term in general. When you do, you have to be more scrupulous about avoiding corruption things and part of that is, yes, backing up often and checking things out with the Hood Checker, etc. Although, to be completely honest, I think that even if you're ultra-scrupulous, corruption is going to happen if you play a neighborhood long-term. The thing to remember is that, often, even if your neighborhood is corrupted, you can still play it for a long time.

For instance, my current "main squeeze" (the one in my sig, actually...although it's being documented on my Simblr these days, not LJ), which I've been playing for, like 2.5 years of real time now, got corrupted about a year ago when I was monkeying with things without having backed up in a long time (STUPID!) so that I didn't want to restore. When I next opened up the neighborhood, some graves were gone and one lot was gone entirely, along with its occupants. (Thankfully they weren't "real" playables, just player-made "service Sims," but, nevertheless, deleted Sims.) I was going to stop playing it and start over, but then I decided, "Meh, screw it, I'll just play it until it dies." I didn't even try to "save" it with the Hood Checker or whatever. I just figured I'd let it live out its life span, however long that was going to be.

Well, I'm still playing it. Its fifth generation (if you count the founder, Ben Long, as a "generation") is being born right now. Yeah, one day it might all of a sudden become an unplayable BFBVFS (and for some that happens very quickly) but for now it's just particularly crashy (especially when the relationship file has to be accessed, like if a Sim is making a phone call), so I've learned to save often, and people have weird wants sometimes. (Wanting to flirt with wolves seems to be popular. Personally, I think it's amusing when a werewolf Sim rolls that want. ) Anyway, my point is that corruption isn't necessarily the end of the world, and sometimes I think people let their fear of it interfere with the simple enjoyment of just playing the game.

Anyway! Next topic!

Big, long-term neighborhoods do get unwieldy without some bookkeeping, yes. Because I don't like to do tons of bookkeeping and because (since I play all the households in rotation) I don't want it to be forever before I see the household on the bottom of the list again, I like to keep my population controlled. The contradiction is that I really like big households. I've played communal-polyamorous households with 30+ household members, lots of kids. It's challenging and fun. To me, at least. And even in "regular" households, I let Sims breed as they will unless/until they reach their ACR-assigned "Ideal Family Size." And those Family Sims can have some very big "ideals." So, my balance is that when a neighborhood hits a threshold either in terms of number of playable Sims or number of households, then plague strikes them. I have RealSickness in my game (which makes sickness much more deadly), and I "seed" sickness randomly. That way, my population gets culled but I don't choose who gets killed. And because my population is usually reduced by at least 25% after a plague, the bookkeeping becomes more manageable and the household list is shortened. Even so...Yeah, I couldn't play without my spreadsheets!

And one last tip. I don't know if you, Hate, have a problem with maintaining interest in your neighborhoods long-term, but for those who do: I've found that the best overall strategy is to have a "hook" that keeps you interested in a given neighborhood as a whole, not just in particular households. Me, I never play premades so all of my neighborhoods are custom, built and populated from scratch by first me and then by the playables themselves. The most successful of them in terms of longevity have a theme of some kind, designed from the get-go to keep my interest engaged. Many people use challenges for this, but I find that goal-oriented playing isn't really my cup of tea. So for me, sometimes the "hook" is creating a entirely new rule set or way of playing for it. One of my neighborhoods is an Air Force base, and its rule set is based on trying to simulate a real-life military structure/lifestyle (My dad's side of the family except for my immediate branch of it has been Army and then Air Force once the Air Force existed for generations, so it's something I'm familiar with) around the game's rather goofy Military career. It's not one I play often, but it's age-modded (so that life spans are much longer) so it moves slowly. When I need a change of pace, it's one I like to play.

But sometimes the "hook" is just a little thing. Like, my current "main squeeze." Ben Long, the townie, was its founder. The entire purpose of the neighborhood is to see how long (HAH!) his distinctive nose would remain in the population before it was bred out. To that end, the rule is that all of the playables must be related to Ben by either blood or marrying-in. Any kids that happen that aren't "of the blood" (like when a "non-Blood" playable gets alien-abducted and knocked up or wants to grow a Plantbaby or whatever) don't get to breed and are sent to the neighborhood's monastery at teenhood. So the neighborhood's family tree is...Well, pretty amazing, since it has all the playables on it in one big, messy glob. Plus, inbreeding has started now...which makes the whole thing even MORE messy. And that, in and of itself, is interesting, to me, to look at and maintain. But beyond that, because of the neighborhood's purpose, there's a sense of anticipation when each generation is starting to age up, to see who has The Nose. And then as they grow up, I really hope that those who have a good Nose are interested in breeding (I don't force it), so I have a vested interest in playing and keeping an eye on them. That anticipation, in turn, makes me want to keep playing the neighborhood.

So yeah, if you want to "play long," I really think it's vital to have a "hook" that engages you. Otherwise, it all kind of gets repetitive after a while. And I'll shut up now.

I'm mostly found on (and mostly upload to) Tumblr these days because, alas, there are only 24 hours in a day.
Muh Simblr! | An index of my downloads on Tumblr.
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#8 Old 25th Feb 2016 at 1:25 AM
That's a bit of a question to ask round here - there are a number of long-term players around (and I see some of them have been posting already). Little Carping came into being when the game was released (2004) though I did remake the neighbourhood in 2007 - that is I made a cleaned up version of it with empty templates and moved everyone in (then updated everyting in SimPE - everything).

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
Field Researcher
#9 Old 25th Feb 2016 at 2:09 AM
I've been playing my current (and only) neighborhood for 5/6 generations now, since November of 2012 in real time. I don't do anything unusual, methinks - avoid VFTs, clean up trash, etc. semi-regularly with the batbox, and have a few of the standard recommended anti-corruption mods.

I play in strict weekly rotations and record most things in detail, from vital records to romances to occupations, using notebooks/binders, excel, and graphics and family tree software (although my public blogging has stopped for the moment.) i have a hair under 200 active sims at the moment and really don't find the record keeping burdensome, since i like that sort of thing.
Lab Assistant
#11 Old 25th Feb 2016 at 4:37 AM
My longest neighborhood is currently in its second generation, however there are so many families, apartments, houses and businesses that it's really hard to keep track on all of the families equally. That being said, I don't play TS that often anymore, so that could also be another plausible explanation.
Mad Poster
#12 Old 25th Feb 2016 at 6:47 AM
The four and a half year old unpatched, unmodded one that one day vanished into space in a big, fiery ball (although I somehow had not seen the spectacle). I was on the fifth generation and there were more than 100 households, scattered over the main (custom) hood, downtown and Bluewater Village. I did not know about VBT's and probably did every single one. I started that hood in 2005 on the Isla Segunda terrain and called it Hanging Rock. I made 12 Sims, but the bin Sims were also played, all of them.

I did not have a single piece of custom content.

I learned to play around problems. If a Sim reverted back to teen, I simply chose "Grow up." If the lot was not working properly, move to another one. (Bulldoze the non-working one, it is in the way now). Flirt with Crumplebottom, let us see what she does (that one did not work, but I tried). The Ottomas twins grew up, went to Uni, got married, had children, grandchildren and great grandchildren - and, weirdly enough, gave me less problems than some other Sims. Quitting without saving solved a lot of problems!

I apologize for bringing up my hood every time this question (or something similar) is asked. It was the best hood ever, and I will miss it forever.
Mad Poster
#13 Old 25th Feb 2016 at 9:07 AM
Veronaville!

I've been playing it ever since that day (29th November 2012) when I opened up the game for the first time, created Andrew Jones and his mum Gloria, and moved them into 19 Chorus Court. What pleases me most is that I've never lost a Sim in all that time; all the Sims who have ever lived there are still alive and healthy (apart from the teens being plagued by acne that is!). Some guardian angel protected my Sims from fire, famine and pestilence, while I was learning to play properly. Today Veronaville has 29 playable households and 3 sub-hoods (Downtown, Bluewater and Monopoly Game Town by d_dgjdhh). I see the Sims there, especially the ones who have been with me from the beginning, as close friends that I look forward to meeting up with. I feel I know their little foibles and idiosyncrasies.

Like Justpetro I apologise for always answering these questions the same way, but how else can I answer them? I just love those Sims! :lovestruc

[EDIT]I'm still in the first generation, and most of my Sims have never even aged up, but that's the way (Aging off) that I like to play!

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
Forum Resident
#14 Old 25th Feb 2016 at 10:38 AM
I made my family funder in 2009, but the hood itself (Pleasantview) may have been around longer depending on what computer it was first installed on. Now I haven't played it for seven years straight, there has been some periods when I couldn't play or simply fell out of it. The family is on its second generation (not counting the funders), and some of them have become adults at this point. I would probably have come further if there weren't so damn many of them xD

I am Error.
Mad Poster
#15 Old 25th Feb 2016 at 11:45 AM
Oh, goodie, a topic that I can really get into!

There has been one neighborhood that I played back in 2008, and it never left my heart, really. I burned it to disk a long time ago, in hopes of making it better. Thinking that perhaps the time would come when it wouldn't explode in a fiery ball and would play better with time. I resurrected it time and time again to play it a bit more.

it had all the PV premades, townies, downtownies, etc. I added some newer characters into it over time. I kept making back up copies for the future.

It's the one I'm playing now-Bellefleur. it's on the third generation, but moving slowly.

All I can say is thank goodness that there are mods/fixes for neighborhoods that can save them from extinction, or else it would have been dead a long time ago!

Receptacle Refugee & Resident Polar Bear
"Get out of my way, young'un, I'm a ninja!"
Grave Matters: The funeral podium is available here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/e6tj...albits.zip/file
My other downloads are here: https://app.mediafire.com/myfiles
Test Subject
#16 Old 25th Feb 2016 at 11:59 AM
I am playing since 2007 and my current game and neighbourhoods since 2011
2 custom NHs, Uberhood made by HP, all originall maxis NHs with empty templates

what keeps this game alive is the same what keeps me alive

I need a new car before June, so do all my fortune sims, they need to work for these and those before this and that happens

I want to see my son successful in his live, going to college, having no problems, growing up problemless, so do all my sims

I want to master the latein language before I die ( wont happen in soon future ) so do all the knowledge sims

2 hacks I am really more than thankfull for:
- No 20k handout
- half salaries
you need 2 generations atleast to finish and furniture a normal house ( I let only 1 sims, max 2 go to work, no rushing into promotions)

playing rotations helps too a lot, but without pressure, some housholds need 2 weeks entourage, others only 10 days, sometimes 3 sim days are enough to update a household, keeps sims in similar ages but also different ages as we dont have spouses and friends all same age ( great for college, cause no dorm will stay empty, always some freshmen will join)

Furthermore I stopped having my own plans for sims, cause that caged me in one playing style, just doing the same thing over and over again, now every sim has a LTW as his golden thread, it is his goal, but not the only focus, they have some wants with a lot of aspirations points, I see this as the actual big project in his life, so main focus on this goal, sometimes they change it the next day, I see it as a failed dream, boring or not interessting for their life stage anymore, so next goal will pop up, their wants and goals are a lot more interessting then my plans

I am not english native so I hope it was understandable :P
Scholar
#17 Old 25th Feb 2016 at 3:48 PM
For me that would be Desiderata Valley from 2007. The families of Desiderata are in Generation 3 to 5, with a population of between 90 and 160 Sims over the years. The neighborhood is corrupted and I see the effects occasionally. My advice is, should it happen to you, do not worry overmuch and do not abandon a long running project because of corruption. It will kill itself some day, so there's no need to hasten that end by deleting it prematurely.

The funny thing about Desiderata is that I consider the neighborhood my "main neighborhood" in Sims 2, despite it being played the least. The classic period was ca. 2009-2012. But when playing the premades in other 'hoods I compare them to their "real" versions in Desiderata and when discussing how I handle things in my game I always think about Desiderata first and everything I do elsewehere I consider the exception from that norm. Also because the neighborhood is that old, but the families haven't changed much (Gen. 1 still around in some cases), those sims feel a lot more real than those from my other neighborhoods. It's the place that's always there for me, like my home in the world of the sims. And even stranger, it isn't even a nice place, to the contrary. When no outside force threatens the Desideratans, the noble clans tend to stir up trouble amongst themselves. However, I gave the dominant culture in Desiderata an unconquerable hope and will to go on that I feel I often lack irl.
So my second advice should probably be "do not get that emotionally invested in a fictional world". I'm not about to heed it myself, though
Mad Poster
#18 Old 25th Feb 2016 at 4:00 PM
I don't see the point in playing a fictional world you're not emotionally invested in.

I play very slowly, with elixir as needed, starting with CAS families that had children, and have had several interruptions. My longest-running neighborhood is Drama Acres, and the next rotation will probably see the death of the last CAS adult, who has two great-grandchildren.

Which probably explains why I'm letting myself be interrupted.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Mad Poster
#19 Old 25th Feb 2016 at 4:36 PM
I'm not really sure. I feel like I had some neighbourhoods for years when I was a child- but then again, it could just be because time felt longer back then. It was back when I'd create a new family every single play family and never play the previous ones again, so often if I stopped playing a neighbourhood it was due to corruption so bad I couldn't enter the neighbourhood, rather than losing interest.

I've been playing my megahood for around a year now, and the first born in game sims are still only in their teens, whereas my previous neighbourhood was in its third generation by 3 months in! Then again, my megahood is a lot larger, and I have a lot less time now. I had another neighbourhood, 80 houses all in the main hood and no subhoods, it was populated by my friends simselves and that lasted a year - after that it became ridiculously corrupt beyond belief and in the end my laptop ended up breaking (not sure if that was related or not). I played that neighbourhood for a year. So I guess usually my neighbourhoods last around a year until they implode or I lose interest. So far, I still enjoy my megahood though - because each subhood is completely different and interesting in its own little ways, and now that I know not to do VBT corruption is a lot more avoidable.

~Your friendly neighborhood ginge
Instructor
#20 Old 25th Feb 2016 at 5:43 PM
I think my longest neighborhood lasted for 3 or 4 months - real life time. In Sims time - if the founding fathers were generation 1, I had about 16 generations and played about 350 Sim days, thanks to keeping the population never outside 3 or 4 houses, and once just let 2 Sims be born in 1 generation. I absolutely loved that little village and its inhabitans, until everything ended, not because of corruption, but because too many playable Sims showed up and I couldn't get myself ready to kill them.
Mad Poster
#21 Old 25th Feb 2016 at 6:37 PM
3 real years of play-time. 2012-2015. 22 in-game generations, 1,066 Sims, 11 Subhoods (excluding 'stealth'), 814 Lots. ...RIP Paradiso de Manana.

Because the earth is standing still, and the truth becomes a lie
A choice profound is bittersweet, no one hears Cassandra Goth cry

Top Secret Researcher
#22 Old 25th Feb 2016 at 11:18 PM
Quote: Originally posted by maxon
That's a bit of a question to ask round here - there are a number of long-term players around (and I see some of them have been posting already). Little Carping came into being when the game was released (2004) though I did remake the neighbourhood in 2007 - that is I made a cleaned up version of it with empty templates and moved everyone in (then updated everyting in SimPE - everything).

I have done exactly the same, empty templates and SimPE wise. My current neighbourhood dates back in 2007-8, although the whole first generation, and some from second generation, Sims have kicked the bucket.

Kiku Heaven [a.k.a. Pleasantview renamed] had the first 4th generation Sims last week and now I'm debating with myself whether it is time to be less sentimental over my second generation Sims and let them go. Tough decision.
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#23 Old 26th Feb 2016 at 12:41 AM Last edited by maxon : 26th Feb 2016 at 2:42 PM.
It was hard to say goodbye to Little Carping's founders but they've all been gone a while now. I got over sims dying - I kind of see it as a natural cycle now though I do play v.e.r.y. s.l.o.w.l.y. and am still playing with their grandchildren. Or I should say, last time I played which was quite some time ago now.

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
Top Secret Researcher
#24 Old 26th Feb 2016 at 1:00 AM
V.e.r.y. s.l.o.w.l.y. becomes really sloooooooow when you have to play 180 Sims => your Sims + their children + their grandchildren, etc.
(What I hate more than letting a favourite Sim die is a pet's death. One word: heartbreaking.)
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#25 Old 26th Feb 2016 at 2:42 PM
Pets are made of adamantine in Little Carping. You'd never know it to look at them but they are.

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
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