Do you set specific schedules for your sims or households? This could be time, days, or anything else you can think of. Why or Why not?

Some examples of specific times are for: Eating dinner, doing homework, bedtime, etc.

If you run businesses, is there set business hours you go by?

Some example of days: certain meals on certain days, like pizza for dinner on Fridays, or family outing on Saturdays, Sunday clean the house day, etc etc.

Love to see your input

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For me, I'm pretty lenient and I don't use schedules. My business run whenever the owner's needs are good enough to send them to work. Sometimes my family skips dinners if they aren't that hungry. I sent them to bed when they are tired, etc.

I try to have a weekly family day, usually on the weekends where the family goes out to a community lot. The only things that has a set time is their default wake up time, 6am, and when its 6pm when a sim is able to grow up. I buy the cake right away when I see the message so that usually happens at around 6 30pm.

Good lord, no! Conditions change so much from day to day, and I can't be watching the clock all the time. What I do is decide what I want to accomplish with that family that day - I leave the game paused when I open each lot, so I can check everybody's relationships, skill/job/school situation, aspiration level, most recent memories, and so on; then I review the last session by referencing the story album. Some days, as when a toddler and a child are both scheduled to grow up on a week day when one parent doesn't get home till five, require some high-level juggling and planning, while others are occasions for hanging around the house giving my sims room to run themselves. Some days are for focusing on a certain household member, and others are for giving every individual a task (make friends with X; go on an outing; get that last skill point; finish the novel) and managing their time well enough to get it all done.

I have no sims with businesses and have not yet run one.

I only do when I have a small family. But right now..? Heavens, no.

I'm playing the Planet Express crew (everyone except Bender, since I don't have OFB yet. I must say it's rather white bread without him.) and since there are 7 people in the household (I have one Sim of my own) and they all have different work schedules, things to do, etc etc, there is no way they can have a planned meal, or all go to bed at the same time. Each Sim does have their own personalized schedule, though. For example, Professor Farnsworth wakes up around 5am and goes to sleep around 7pm, but Fry wakes up around 12pm and goes to sleep around 2am.

When I used to have OFB (old computer, can't remember where I put the disk) my businesses ran a really tight ship. There was an exact schedule to be followed, and sometimes, karaoke night!

I pay more attention to the clock than I used to, and try to structure what seems like a "normal" day to me based on the Sim's profession. Most of my families are decidedly ordinary middle class citizens who go to bed sometime between 10pm-1am and stay there until 6am or they are fully rested (whichever comes later, unless the alarm gets them up for work/school). I'm helped in this by a mod that accidentally enabled me to send Sims to bed no matter how tired they are.

Just getting them on a similar sleep schedule was a great help in increasing the number of family meals a household has in a given week, though this isn't a requirement in any of my households. If most of the household is hungry (or there are kids), someone will serve a meal. Otherwise, all Sims fend for themselves.

I am not particularly strict about what time I send business owners to their community lots, except that it needs to be in the daytime. Except for downtown businesses, all retail lots have to close by 9pm. My Sims can choose based on their needs whether the business will close at 7pm or 9pm any given day.

I used to reserve Sunday as a family day and send households off to church or other highly respectable, potentially dull community activities in their given subhoods, but hitting the same community lots over and over quickly made that an optional activity. I do try to send my teens and unattached adults out on Friday and Saturday nights, unless they have a loner-type personality. And teens cannot date on school nights (although they can sneak out, if they express the want).

Last edited by mangaroo : 4th Dec 2011 at 1:59 AM.

I do have a specific way of playing. I play one day rotations and I aim to play a normalish day for the type of sims I am playing. I arrive on lot at 6am - all sims will be in bed (unless they are working some awful night shift). I have Ingelogical's Sleep Later hack so the sims, if left to their own devices, wake up at various times over the following three hours (unless they are very tired and then they sleep in). Whether they pee, wash and have breakfast before they go out depends on what time they wake up and when they need to be out the door (this would not pass muster in my own home). If a sim has a business, they go off to work to open the business at the appropriate time. So most shops and schools are open by 9am though pubs will be open at 11am and so on. Businesses also have a set closing time and I stick to it. Schools close between 3-4pm, shops 5-6pm, pubs 11pm, clubs 2am. The sim can only earn the money from the business that they earn in the allotted time - no through the night or multiple day openings. Some sims are quite different though. Fergus Crims, on the criminal career track, is often out late at night behaving badly while Leonard Church, my vicar, shuts up the church after Evensong and is back home by 9pm and often in bed before 10pm. And pleasure and romance sims are often out late at night partying along with the vampires. Whatever happens, they are all at home at 6am and in bed when I save the lot. I save at 6am because they are all usually in bed at that time. It means if I do something that causes a reset, their energy motives for the following day are not completely messed up. I like their energy to drop steadily throughout the day (I allow a small boost to get them through the evening because the energy drop for most is too much to manage an entire day). I will manage this, if necessary, by adjusting the amount of energy they have.

When I played Sims 1, my Sims woke up at four a.m. every morning to begin their prework routine -- peeing, showering, and eating. I was a tough taskmaster. Strangely, when I started working my first job, I became a lot more lenient. The only reason my Sims have careers these days is for storytelling/roleplaying...I like to be able to say, "That sim is a police officer," or a lawyer, or a convenience store clerk. Also, in those days I had parents alternate the days they stayed home to tend to the babies, but now we have nannies...and teenagers.

Some of the ideas in the original post are really interesting, like having pizza nights and such. My uni sims in the Greek houses start each year with a turkey dinner, something I started after reading the Harry Potter series and grew to like the idea of feasts to celebrate occasions. It helps the newcomers to the house make friends. I like to have Sims who are early birds, or night owls -- for variation. Mostly I'm easy-going, though. My families tend to be like little communes, with few jobs...people don't need money, really -- they grow their own food, and selling the odd painting every now and again takes care of bills. I let them sleep all day and hang out all night if they want to.

My sims are loosely scheduled in that whatever they're doing is roughly appropriate for the general time of day, but it's not a by-the-hour thing. Bedtime for most school-age and day-working sims may be any time between 9:00 and midnight. Homework gets done sometime before bed. Meals happen when someone is hungy. It's a bit unfortunate that it's rare for everyone to be hungry at dinner, what with late lunches at work and school for some or all.

Weekends are even more unstructured. There may be some skilling done, but weekends are mostly for socializing with friends and family members not part of the household.

Like Maxon, one thing I'm strict on is leaving lots between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m. It's the perfect time because everyone is home, any ghosts there might be are asleep (I've heard it's not good to leave a lot while ghosts are haunting), and the day is just poised to start with everyone fresh and ready to go. I love it!

ETA:

Sounds like Heaven!

My rotations are single day (sometimes 2 if I want to get a baby born etc). I always save and exit at 5:30 am to account for resets also. I use 5:30 because this is when I wake sims who have work at 8:00. I just use the wake up option on the bed. I have never found a need for an alarm clock. Everyone else is up at 6:00 automatically or whenever their energy is full. Teens who snuck out get manually woken up when the bus comes if they're still in bed.

Businesses are not run everyday, but when they are open it's usually from whenever they arrive to 7:00 (dark). Sundays are family days and extended relatives are invited over. I let the family mostly autopilot so they choose who to connect to, though I might direct someone to serve a meal as needed. Bedtimes are whenever they get to orange level. If they nap on the couch and it's after 8pm, they are woken up and sent to bed. Mealtimes are never scheduled, but sims who are auto heading for the fridge will have the action cancelled (if I catch it) and be told to serve one instead. I have a hack where they put leftovers away rather than clean the plates. They also take out leftovers automatically instead of making new food.

Sometimes Saturdays are days kids and teens will go to the parks or community centres together.

When I have a household with kids I wake everyone up a 5am (that's 2 damn blasted minutes to get ready, okay?!) and immediately have someone make breakfast, they eat, kids go to school, and there is no lunch for anyone. The kids get home, and eat a snack, then everyone eats around 8-9pm. I'm not a "traditional" person, but I think it's absolutely adorable when families eat together and talk, especially since growing up me and my family always ate in our rooms when we were hungry. However, if the household is entirely adults, everyone does their own thing, and I try to stick to playing just one person, I guess to get a more realistic affect (like that you can't control EVERYTHING) But my Sims get tired to damn blasted fast so I have to periodically boolprop their energy motive... Sssh, don't tell anyone!

All I know, is Sims usually aren't allowed to make their own meals. I prefer for them to make group meals, especially since the majority of the PE crew can't cook. Seriously. Zoidberg almost burnt the apartment down. (Yes atomic super-men are living in an apartment! In Belladonna Cove... Renamed to New New York!) But at the same time, it's convenient. But they never clean up after themselves!I should've made Scruffy. Damn blast it.

Since people are working almost all the time (I think the latest someone gets home is when Fry comes home around 5am, but then Amy and Professor Farnsworth have to leave in an hour, etc, etc.) I can't really give them a day for everyone to hang out, but when they've done good I give their boss the good ol' "call in sick" excuse. But that's very rare. Generally, I just send Sims on outings and whatnot, for some select Sims with around the same schedule.

At the first day of spring my sims have the Valentine's day (there's no winter, that's why in spring). I've downloaded a chocolate box, they always open it and eat the chocolates, which are heart-shaped in my imagination. That day is reserved for dating, a sim must offer a date to somebody.

The first day of summer is New Year (yeah that's weird), and they eat Roast Beef, because it's the only "rare food" in the game. Cooking it is not allowed at other days to keep things fresh.

Businesses are run from 9-10 to as far as 21-22. Sims can work that much, unlike people.

I'm now trying to establish the household rotation shedule, which I've never done before, but I'm not sure if it's going to work out. Playing a few generations of one household non-stop is far more pleasurable to me than playing one generation and switching over to play another household, to keep all households in sync. But there are problems with such an approach, even though it's pleasurable. For example, right now I'm trying to play the Goths, who haven't been played for a long time, and I need 4 more generations of them to make them sync with other households. It's sad and annoying a little, because the Goths can't invent anything new and get prizes for 4 generations to come, as according to my game the prizes for new inventions have already been grabbed by other households that were played previously.

About the only scheduling I do is what time Sims get up for work/school. If they're active, about 5 hours before they have to be at work/school, if lazy, 3-4 hours, and that depends on if there are any other needs, such as fun or social, that need to be met.

I know this is an old thread, but oh well:

If my sims have kids they all get up at 5am, or sometimes 4am if there are lots of them, get dressed, make beds and have breakfast. Sometimes I adjust this time if I find them waiting like half an hour befroe the bus arrives, or not having time to finish their breakfast, but mostly 5am is about right. For sims without kids it depends what time they work, and if they don't work or not until later in the day, they generally don't get up until 7am.

My sims always have breakfast, but never any other meals; I just use boolprop to drag up their hunger. Occationally I've had a family dinner where relatives wil be invited over, but it doesn't happen often.

Bedtimes depend on what the sims are doing and what their work scheduals are. Mostly they go to bed between 9pm and 1am. In most families kids have bedtimes, which aren't often consistent with friends their age (for example, Lennox Tomlin goes to bed at 7:30, whereas his cousin Josette goes to bed at 8 since she has two younger brothers who go to bed at 7:30 and 7, and I wanted alll the kids to go to bed at different times)

I play one day rotations and always exit the lot at 6pm (or just after if someone's aged up) since that's the time sims naturally grow up if you don't grow them up the day before they're meant to)

Actually, I do find that as I play each family, they do develop a schedule of sorts. Of course there can always be things that pop up and just ruin any scheduling, but those sorts of interruptions are what makes the game interesting.

Scheduling depends on the household and how I feel at the time....
In some normal households I will forbid the sims to go to sleep until dark.
In "special" households like a farm or a victorian house, the shedule will be very strict. On a farm I used to play, everyone got up at 5 AM and did chores, including gathering eggs from the chickens.
In this one Victorian house that I lost in The Great Reinstall, I had a very strict schedule. All the servants got up before everyone else and did their respective chores (maid cleaned and lit the fire, nanny took care of the baby, cook started breakfast) then the mother and child son would come down and eat breakfast. The servants woud join them once their chores were finished. Then they would do their respective activities, the cook preparing lunch, the mother practising piano or painting, the son and his toddler sister playing in the day nursery, the maid still cleaning, and the nanny watching the children. Lunch would be eaten and these activities woud continue. Then supper would be eaten. Occasionally the mother would invite over friends and have a "dinner party". Then I would get everyone bathed and to bed and tried to make sure they /stayed/ in bed. I think I might re-make that family, even though I'll have none of the CC or mods. They will become a legacy Victorian family.