So, for the longest time when I played TS2 I would play households of one or two, which were my favorites. When I played families, I would use maxmotives all the time. Maybe I'm just a micromanager, but I find it hard to keep up with 3+ Sims in a household. How do you do it? Do you designate days that each Sim will get the most attention? I just find it a little overwhelming, honestly!

Right out of CAS, Sims need a lot of help learning things. However, the more you play them, they start to learn things on their own - for example, if you make them make their beds right after getting up, they'll start doing that themselves. If you have them look after their needs, they'll do that as well.

The pause button is your friend. Pause, look at their wants and motives, and plan accordingly.

Maxmotives is helpful when you're still figuring out things. Don't feel bad about using it.

As long as they get some sleep and eat they are alright. They do not have to be max green all the time, in fact if they are the game becomes boring. Sims 2 has extra animations for failure. If they get to the toilet late for example, they get upset and everyone around them laughs at them. They hold this memory for ages, and will cry about it. In gameplay terms, your nearer to getting your gloomy sim. Sims also take care of some of their own needs if you allow them. They might go play chess with a friend, thus getting up their social, comfort and fun at the same time, stick in a pretty picture and environment goes up as well. Choose activities that satisfy more than one need, and managing them gets easier.

My sims eat twice a day, and go to bed before midnight, so that deals with the sleep and eat thing, other needs and wants I fulfill depending on how I think the character would act. I play to the personality, rather than just concentrating on needs. Couple of tricks/tips from the prima guide.
1. Sims have who are in desperation become more difficult to manage, and make bad choices.. (playing in the bath when starving to death)
2. Season have bonuses to help you out, autumn they like to study, summer time they want to socialise
3. Personality matters, lazy sims need more comfort, outgoing sims need to socialise more, active sims get more fun from basketball
4. Age matters, children need more fun, elders need more comfort.
5. If you got appartment life, get them aspiration bonuses to slow down need decay.

Energy is a killer on community lots, so I mod the coffee pots to allow them to give more energy.

Well firstly are you remembering to tick all the need perks? When you make a new sim or they gain a heap of aspiration points you may get a new perk to tick, things such as slower bladder, more energy and comfort.

Next check what you have bought for your sims. Do they have the very best bed that they can afford? if you look at the objects in game you will see they come with numbers so the bed might say 4 comfort 8 energy-that's a good bed, your sim will gain lots of comfort and energy quickly in that bed. but if the bed says 3 comfort and energy you know it's an uncomfortable bed and they wont sleep well, so they will need much longer to get energy and comfort up.

Fun, a lot of new players don't know how to raise this easily so they invest in a TV. Really not that fun. if you have a single sim who is broke by a $12 lawn flamingo or the cheap kids painting for the wall and have them view it, the flamingo they can also kick. if you have a couple click on the other sim and find play>red hands and watch the fun zoom up. For rich kids after school give them a pool and a pool slide and likewise the fun will zoom up (or red hands)

Some type of sims are easier to keep plat or gold than others. However what you choose to fill is a form of training. So lets say your sim wants a friend and you fill that, that will train them to roll more best friends and friend wants. So be selective in wants that you fill.

Use max motives if you have to, but personally I find that super boring. Sims really aren't hard to keep happy once you know what you are doing. Do not play speed three unless they are asleep, check motives, are they turning yellow? Do something about it now not later because sims take longer at getting things done then most people realize. Its no good waiting until nearly red to eat, bath and then go to bed because the energy will bottom out before you can do it all. Start sooner. Do not hide there motives, go around and check your sims often don't just let them go off doing whatever and forget to check, especially if they are glued to something they can't leave until desperate- eg painting. Check them and tell them to go meet those needs if a few are half way down. Don't expect a sim with low fun and comfort to do what you ask, take care of those things first, really you will find it less frustrating then blaming them. Likewise a sim whose aspiration is low will be harder to manage as they will stop to worry, cry or have a breakdown and they may also refuse to do things. So keep them at least green and remember to lock in any good want that shows up. Couples are easy simply tell them to have a date at home and both will be plat in no time. A dream date not only raises aspiration but all their needs too.

Like you I'm a micromanager, and like you I can find large families a bit overwhelming, especially if they include toddlers. But I've never once used MaxMotives, and I'm not even quite sure how to use it. I do however make a lot of use of the Pause button, and quite often use SetHour to give my Sims more time. I think twice in total I've used the Sim Manipulator to bring a Sim's hunger motive up to 50% just in case a Sim died of starvation. Once was at the start of my first pregnancy and the other one was when they had forgotten to order a food delivery in my Simlogical school. I make the unusual claim to have never seen the Grim Reaper in my four and a half years of playing, so I reckon I must be looking after my Sims OK, even the ones in large families.

As for wants, I don't slavishly follow all their wants, but I do try to fulfil all their reasonable ones. I count as unreasonable wants to have 10 babies, see the ghost of the Sim they've just fallen out with, or "be saved from death". (I protect them from death instead!) Wants for romantic interactions when the Sim is already in a steady relationship, I see as temptations, and do not usually attempt to fulfil. I often concentrate on one or two Sims when playing a large family, but I frequently press the Pause button and check round the lot that everyone else is OK.

I have done the 10 babies one about 3-4 times. Not these days though.

I leave the whole UI open along the bottom and switch frequently from one sim to another during the day, so it's rare for anyone to go into aspiration or need failure because I failed to notice in time. Sims who are in red or low green aspiration, or have some reason (such as pregnancy, low active points, or high fitness) for accelerated need decay get extra attention. Sims who are in platinum or gold can be left to their own devices a lot of the time. By the time they decay down into the green, I'll have the other household members up high enough to be ignored for awhile. If a sim needs individual special attention, a community lot visit may be in order.

Bear in mind that, unlike many games, strategy varies a lot from sim to sim and house to house. If sims are sloppy, I don't worry about their environment score until they do. Many of them cultivate neat friends so they can be influenced to clean the house! A 10-point active, maxed fitness sim burns calories like a pregnant lady; a 10-point active, maxed fitness pregnant lady burns calories like the heart of the sun. Such people go fishing and garden a lot, so they have sparkly food and juice on hand in emergencies. A 0-point active sim doesn't have time or energy to waste on gardening; her time is better spent sitting at the chessboard or in the hot tub socializing and having fun. A sim who owns a business has different play priorities than one in a rabbithole career or one who is committed to a life of leisure, and the leisure sim who is living off a trust fund has different needs from a "leisure" sim who is living by farming, freelance writing, painting, busking, etc.

Being flexible in your approach to the game pays huge dividends in enjoyment. And remember - the sims can't tell when you pause the game to think about something, get oriented, or orchestrate the solution to a crisis by crossing out the fire dance or conflicting intentions to pick up the toddler and queuing useful actions for everyone in the household. There's no hurry. And you'll need the pause button and the motive cheats much less as you grow more accustomed to the game, develop strategies, discover new features, and find your comfort level.

There's nothing wrong with being a micromanager. There's nothing wrong with playing small households. There's nothing wrong with using editing tools, mods, or even cheats to get the game experience that's most fun for you. Relax. If the worst comes to the worst, you can always quit without saving and try again.

These are really great tips, guys. I've been playing for almost 10 years, and I feel like such an experienced player still when I'm trying to deal with needs! I guess it kind of feels like cheating to me to pause and re-orient, even though I suppose that's exactly what the feature is there for.

Like everyone says, the pause button is a really big help. You can pause, go through each sim in the house and find out who really needs attention and who will be all right for awhile. Don't underestimate queuing actions, either. If Joe needs to potty, needs to shower and needs to eat, queue those things up while paused. Pause is good.

The thing to keep in mind is that sims don't have to be all green all the time. Going into the yellow or orange on hunger isn't going to hurt them - in fact, when you're trying to kill a sim, it can take them a couple days to die of starvation. I really don't worry about stuffing their faces to keep hunger fully green. For instance, having yellow hunger won't stop a child from playing, doing homework or hugging Grandma. A kid's hunger has to be lower than midway down for the Social Worker to show up. (With Childs and foods, it helps to take a little time to have a teen or adult load some leftovers into the fridge, so you can direct a hungry child to get leftovers without having to interrupt other sims' activities to cook a meal for the kids.) Don't forget a sim can have a snack or an instant meal on a busy day, which are faster than cooking.

Being uncomfortable isn't going to kill sims, neither is being dirty. Being all the way red on energy won't kill them, just make them pass out and if they're a playable, you just wake them up and tell them to get in the bed, dum-dum. The only times it's good to make sure their needs are fairly green is when you want to improve the chance for a promotion today - but aspiration level probably has just as much to with it; and when you want to make somebody repair something electrical. A sim whose needs are all high green shouldn't die from a mere electrocution, but if their needs are very low, they're more likely to die of frying. I really don't worry about environment score until it goes completely red from either rotten dishes or a lake on the bathroom floor. I don't worry about fun until it's at least yellow or orange either, and if they/I am busy, I just have them kick something. Raises fun very quickly; Pescado used to call kicking stuff the sport of kings.

One of the best sources of fun for sims is other sims. A quick tickle, a game of red hands, punch you punch me, all handy ways to raise fun, work better than a lot of fun objects, and they also raise social. If you grab the Interact Without Greet mod from MATY, a sim who lives alone can have a chat with walk-bys to raise social, without having to greet them, which lets them in your house to eat all your pizza and mess up your clean bathroom.

A sorta quick way to raise comfort is to take a bath instead of a shower. I'm pretty sure it raises comfort faster than sitting on a even a really nice piece of furniture.

You can also make it a little experiment for yourself. How hungry does a sim have to be before they will autonomously break away from an autonomously chosen fun activity to go eat? (But keep in mind, if you leave them completely alone, sims will sometimes cook food even when they're not really hungry but just bored and standing in the kitchen. Take away their toys and see how long it takes a sim to cook food they're not really hungry for.) How low does bladder have to get before a sim will run to the bathroom, instead of walking? How low does comfort have to be before a sim will just sit quietly in a chair, doing nothing, to improve their comfort? How long do the dirty dishes have to sit there before some sim will autonomously clean them up? Actually, in any house with kids, I rarely have a problem with the dishes sitting around; the kids will clean them up autonomously. Maybe I need some sloppier families.

Edit: Forgot to address wants. Don't completely ignore low points wants. Eating a lunchmeat sandwich may not be worth much, but every little bit helps to keep Aspiration level up between fulfilling bigger wants. So go ahead and let them play catch, or serve a meal, or whatever little thing rolls up. It doesn't cost you anything and helps keep them happy.

I pause a lot. (No, seriously, that's my entire strategy.)

Like the others, I do use the pause button to stop and evaluate what's going on a lot of the time. Although I will say that with the help of some very intrinsic hacks (which is sort of cheating, but lighter) the pixels will start to actually behave themselves and take care of their own business if given enough space to do it in.

I do address the wants panel more than the fears one-if there's an ambitious, go-getting pixel who wants to get a promotion and actually skill for it, I'm inclined to let them do that instead of the chores.

But they usually don't need more than a helpful nudge most of the time. Unless they've got other ideas in mind, as well..like calling up someone to have some fun and games without doing anything at all.

Ah, curses, ACR! Always ruining a quiet planned evening of studying that cleaning skill!

When they wake up in the morning, I pause, take a look at everyone's motives by hitting space bar, which a good keyboard shortcut to get from sim thumbnail to sim thumbnail. I select a series of actions for them to do to get any red/orange/yellow needs into green. I also lock any wants I know that can be accomplished that day or if they roll a serious lifetime want like marriage or kids I will try to lock that instead so it won't roll away. Then I un-pause and let them do their thing. If something happens where I need to alter their series of actions, I will ex out of the actions and go make them greet someone or answer a phone, or take care of a baby/toddler if needed and then re-queue what I did before unless I need to re-evaluate the situation and queue up something different.

I also try to make combos or that idiom 'hit two birds with one stone' to raise their motives or fulfill wants. So if Sim Simmerson is low on social and fun, and maybe their sister is low on fun and wants to joke with someone - I would have the sister tell Sim Simmerson a joke and then send them to play pool together which will raise both low motives and fulfill that want. If Sim Simmerson has a low bladder and maybe is a light green on hygiene after playing pool, I will make them go to the bathroom and then shower just to get both motives back to high green and not worry about taking the sim to the shower later.

Make use of the leftover feature and make meals feature; these is a time saver (and money saver if you are worried about finances) for large families. Kids can get leftovers out of the fridge themselves and not wait on adults to make it for them and Preggo sims don't have to waste time making cereal and can just reach in and get a plate of multiple meals. Preggo sims needs tank so fast, thank the plumbob above for leftover meals.

Don't forget the kids easy bake oven if your family has kids and a low on funds or time, kids can keep themselves fed as well as gaining cooking skill with that thing. I don't think it costs a thing for kids to bake those muffins either.

I also suggest keeping something like pizza or leftover birthday cake in a pregnant Sim's inventory. You can pull it out in a pinch and it fills up a good part of their hunger motive in a few bites.

As soon as I enter a lot I pause to check how everyone's needs are and to see if they have any aspiration rewards that I can dole out. I then let them go and check on them constantly. If they go into red because I've been busy, so be it - it's all part of the story of their lives. (Of course whenever I want to kill off a Sim by drowning, for example, they're green or platinum.)
Pause is your friend, especially for large families!

I first check off the free time aspiration things for needs so their needs don't decay as fast. And like others have said the pause button is my friend. I mostly just go around and around on the sims, click on one sim, fulfill needs if need be, go the next etc. Just taking care of one sim at a time. If free will is on they should take care of their needs if they get dire enough. Also if there are babies or toddlers in the family free will tends to be off, or they won't leave the babies alone! I'm just like...I know about the baby...i'm paying attention to the baby...relax you silly sims. In large households i'm finding I like free will (unless there are babies/tots generally) and the pause button. It gets easier over time taking care of the sims. I just go around from sim to sim all the time, take care of one, possibly tell them to do things, go to the next. That's what I do anyway

Oh and the cake or pizza in Sims inventory helps too, especially the pregnant sims like Ihate said! I also tend to make meals ahead of time and save them as leftovers so sims can just get food when they are hungry.

The larger the household, the more the pause button is my friend.

Having come to Sims 2 straight from the original game, in which maintaining needs is frustratingly hard, I don't really get the popularity of checking the FT motive perks. The needs are so easy in this game, compared to the original! If the needs don't decay fast enough you lose the resource management element of the game, or at any rate it becomes too easy. But if you need it, you need it.

And of course, I did starve poor Vidcund to death that one time by accident...that was more about inexperience and the horrible routing in the Curious Bunker than it was about my ability to manage his motives, though. I wasn't prepared for the need drop in pregnancy, I underestimated how much nutrition he could get from a burned meal, and I couldn't figure out how to stop him from taking the bowl all the way out to the card table out front, or understand why he did when all those desks were right there. In Sims 1 they could eat off of desks as well as tables. Every time I've played the Curiousi since then, the first thing I do is get them a survivable dining arrangement.

I agree to the pause button and the other suggestions, two tips from me then:

Gelatin has saved many lives in my game, so it is often out for kids coming home hungry from school, and pregnant sims eat a lot of that too, since they don't have to prepare it. That actually helps to make some time available for fun - which is very important and helps to keep sims out of going into red depression. Red Hands, like Jo says. It raises the fun quite a lot. So does playing peek-a-boo with toddlers.

Sleep - If my sims are very tired, they go to sleep, but I will wake them up when they have reached almost half full energy so that they can eat and shower, and then back to bed. Pregnant sims in my game have a lot of short sleeping sessions when needed.

So did I, which is why I am always surprised that people need maxmotives. But for new players or those that have trouble with needs I think ticking need perks makes a lot of sense. I still tick them even if I don't really need them, ingrained habit.

As to keeping the hunger at bay-SimWardrobe's modular buffet is quickly becoming a standard item in my houses-with its' automatic refill option, pixels don't have to starve to death when too tired to cook for themselves.

Although it is expensive to buy it, I figure the cost is repaid through the life-saving it does. Plus the fire department appreciates that it's not always on call to put out fires that should not have happened in the first place..

Sims 1 was so hard! I remember I had this active sim - he was always hungry and tired, yet insisted on running in circles around his house

I usually give first priority to pregnant Sims, then to hungry babies, all toddlers, dirty babies, and children, in that order. Remember a Sim's icon turns yellow when their motives are getting low, so you can keep half an eye on that and go to check on a lower-priority Sim if they're obviously unhappy.

If you have University, give every teen and older a handheld gaming device so they can take care of their own fun when they're at a loose end without hogging the bathroom to play Pirates. Even my Victorian Sims have these -- the need for fun is partly cultural, and I'm sure people used to cope perfectly well with a lot less fun than Sims and modern western humans expect. The dollhouse seems to give the highest fun for children and toddlers, so if you can afford one, it's better than a toy-box. A toy oven also enables children to satisfy their own hunger while learning to cook and having fun.

And yes, definitely pause larger families as you check to see who needs what most urgently. Humans can make intelligent decisions about who gets to use the bathroom first, or who is going to care for the toddler or cook dinner; Sims can't, so it's okay to pause while you have that 'conversation' with them. I also don't worry too much about micro-managing the Ottomai and other very large families; I just make sure they stay fed, and if they won't otherwise do as they're told, they'll sort themselves out eventually.

Finally, don't forget there are some good anti-stupid-parenting mods that make a huge difference, since they stop Sims wasting time by endlessly trying to feed a baby that isn't hungry or bathe a squeaky-clean toddler. Dora and Peter Ottomas nearly starved to death while they took it in turns to stuff yet another baby bottle into the mouth of an infant who was already so full it couldn't swallow another mouthful (and if I tried to tell one get something for themselves, they couldn't because the other was standing in front of the fridge with a baby!); they survived only because I got the lessbabybottles mod in the nick of time, I think from MATY.

Since you've been playing awhile and know what does and does not work for you, it's worth your while to go to sites like leefish's board and Cyjon's website and do a systematic search for mods that can remove elements of the game that aren't fun for you, add features you would like to have, and help out with things you have trouble with. There's mods for everything from the trivial (the M&G code that forces them to shield their eyes from the sun on going outside, even if this means sticking a suitcase through their heads) to the life-changing (No LTA Permaplat, slower LTA gain, breast feeding). You can make some things easier, other things harder, fix broken code, and add new gameplay options. If you want something and can't find it, that's what the WCIF board is for.

Some things, it's fun to develop strategies for. But sometimes you just want the kid to put his homework down in a place where it can be found again.

To be frank, using maxmotive is more cheaty than anything what's provided in normal accesible gameplay. Forget that cheat code! Get used to taking care sims without it.

Many new players now are coming from the newer games. I can't say about 4 but in 3 Sims needs drop even slower then in 2. Plus gameplay in 3, while more complicated, can be much easer at times. For instance caring for babies and toddlers needs takes much less time since all care based intarations can be done right on the spot and don't require extra objects.