I often tends to slack off to throw parties or outings (due to I play the families through at a faster rate than many tends to :P), I wanted to give it a new try because my founders are now elders and plan to throw parties as many of the founders want to throw anniversaries and family gatherings. I don't usually find the actual parties hard to manage, my problem is: Inviting them over.

By only close relatives, my royal family for example has 37 sims, including all life stages but excluding distant relatives. I usually keep track my households sims by simple spreedsheets, mainly organized by maternal bloodlines and to keep the thread shorter since its a bit irrelevant to the main question/topic. This is how it looks like (still some things to fill in, be played or edit): SPOILER
Even with unlimited visitor/sims hacks, I don't think anybody would want handle 30+ relatives visitors (and possible friends) at the same time, so I need to narrow it down....or hold several parties? Obviously you cannot invite toddlers and the spreadsheet showed are just an example of how large my families usually are (and had split it up in six households now that four generations is popping up. .) It's much easier to decide when you have only a couple of relatives.

I invite family and close friends. I have even invited toddlers to a towns Christmas party by using Inge's teleporter. The most sims on a lot I ever did was 52 and it crashed. I tend to not have more than 10-20 now.

I always invite them all and see which ones don't bother turning up.

You could always invite the ones with the strongest relationships to the party host- or maybe those for whom the host has no red memories!

Do they have close relationships with all of their relatives?

Otherwise I would base it on how I would decide in real life:
1. invite siblings/parents/kids, provided none are estranged
2. depending on the type of party, invite either close friends or cousins next

if 1. already are to many sims, decide by relationship.

Let them bring their partners, and if it's an afternoon event maybe kids, in the evening make it more formal without kids?

Wow, that is some detailed spreadsheet! It makes my brain hurt just thinking about what it must be like to keep up with all those details!

For me, who I would invite would depend on the type of party and the main goal in throwing it. Just like in real life, some gatherings are for family members only. Others are for close friends. Then there are those gatherings among friends & acquaintances who have similar hobby/religion/business affiliations.

Is the party to celebrate a child's birthday? If so, I'd narrow it down the 20 or so of my Sims' closest blood relatives.
If the reason was to get to know the Sims better, say to go from friend to best friend ... then I'd invite 20 or so of those friends.
Maybe my Sim wants more business contacts. In that case, he/she might teleport in a bunch of Sims who don't know one another.
If my Sim just wants to have fun, the I'd invite the Sims with the highest relationship score -- unless my Sim's fun included breaking up a relationship. In that case, they'd invite the couple and the cheating partner's lover(s).

BTW, I think the most I had on a lot was 30-35, but I did not try to control that many. I think the most I had in the control panel at one time was 12-15. My lot didn't crash. But I often had to click each Sim icon twice to get it to change the active Sim.

SIMelissa.
I find those simmers who have multiple spreedsheets such Excel more hurtful.
Fortunetly, I'm near sighted, so I can handle smaller fronts, using Wordpad Ariel 8 on Windows Mode, and I don't find it hard to keep it up, I've already de-clutter the list as I can't fit in everything even on front 8 and don't want to use multiple spreedsheets for a Sim. :Rofl: Randomizing Warwick The-Health-System and tracking Skills are the only ones that I need to continue working on, the others I just type them down when the kids are born and decide asp and ahead after I saw their personality and just need to check them to refresh my memories.

Sims on Lot, I generally prefer playing lots with about 12 at most, but occassionally playing huge edit "Break and Breakfast" type of Lots with 30 sims (to example have them socializing between school, first love and uni transitions). My game doesn't crash but lags when play this lot on Free will on, but otherwise works fine. But playing actual sims on a lot and having Visitors of that many I am not sure. For community lots, I usually have 10, but find that few for big parties as many of the founders has many relatives, even with the regular epidemics that happens in my hood. (2nd Gen lost 90% of their wives )The first generation had 3-8 kids in average, so, while Im on the very beginning of Gen 4. Lost count, but think I've 600 playables now devided into 6 Social Classes. The Royalty with 37 Sims is the "smallest" one.

Oh, for the anniversary, I would first invite the couple's children.

Then I will just throw a bunch of parties and invite all the rest to at least one of them.

Depends on the party.

If it's an anniversary party invite/teleport in all the children and grandchildren (including toddlers) and any significant others who have actual relationships with the the old couple. If it's an adult birthday party, those family members and friends who are closest to the guest of honor. If it's a toddler birthday, invite any friends or family who have kids, and teleport in the kids. Child to teen birthdays are usually thrown by elder siblings and consist of friends (including related friends) with younger siblings they can bring along. I don't normally have teen/adult birthdays, but off-to-college parties are thrown by the sim leaving and will include everyone they have a significant relationship with, mostly teens and young adults.

For parties thrown just to have a party, I generally arrange the prospective guest list in relationship order and start from the bottom, so the host can maintain relationships that have begun to decay due to lack of contact. But that varies with contingent circumstances. Say the host just got engaged, the party might be to celebrate that and she might invite those people she particularly wants to meet her fiance, like her parents, favorite aunt, and favorite siblings. If the excuse for a party is a promotion, maybe they should all be work friends, no family at all.

If you're concerned about size, I would invite parents (if applicable), siblings, and direct descendants only- children, grandchildren. etc. Branch out from there- invite their children's spouses, then sibling's spouses, then nieces and nephews, then sims who are BFF with both of the couple, cousins, etc. You can always not invite people in the child and teen life stages and pretend it's an adults-only party.

I had a royal wedding of sorts in my hood. Two wealthy and well-connected families. 30+ guests. Crashed my game 3 times before I finally got everyone there and the correct clothes and seated. And this was on a community lot. I do not recommend this for your own sanity.

Reading this make me realize that I don't throw enough parties in my hood.
And spreadsheets are evil. I'm doing it all by memory.

Spreadsheets is for work.

One can never throw enough parties

seldom have my sims host parties. but when I do, the number of guests do not exceed the number of controllable sims in the household. would generally sort the list by relationship.

I have 15 to 20 sims in my main households generally within a few seasons of playing anyway so don't need too many more people to come!