Setup Rotational Play for TS3

Sims 3 Tutorial Gameplay

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I play all my Sims games rotationally because I’m a control freak so here are the mods and settings I use to make that happen in TS3.

How Does It Work?

Unlike Sims 2, Sims 3 does not naturally stop time for inactive households, so you need rules. Instead of replying on the day to know when to stop your rotation, you must keep track of how many days you've played in general with each household. Each rotation can be 1 week, 4 sim days, or be a total weirdo and play 1 day per household. It's your choice!

Some people also like to play seasons-based, meaning you'd play one household for an entire season. Of course, depending on how long you set your seasons to, it can take a long time to get through each household.

Mods needed:

• Nraas Master Controller
• Gives you more control over your Sims and town.
• Nrass Woohooer
• Expands and changes the romance system.
• Nraas Story Progression
• Replaces The Sims 3’s default Story Progression with a more customizable system that controls what happens to inactive Sims.

What Is a Caste?

Castes are custom groups that allow you to give different households or Sims their own StoryProgression rules. Instead of applying settings to your entire town, you can create groups with specific behaviors and restrictions. For example, you can create a “Played Households” or "Rotations" caste for families you actively play and protect them from unwanted StoryProgression changes, while allowing unplayed townies to continue living their lives normally.

Nraas Story Progression Settings

Start by creating a new caste. You can do this by clicking on City Hall or any computer in game and going to Nraas-->Story Progression-->Caste Options. Click on "Add New Caste" and name it something like "Rotations". Now, You want to make the following changes before saving this new caste:

• Career: Allow Progression = False
• Caste: Priority = 5
• Flirt: Affair Adultery Chance = 0
• Friendship: Allow = False
• Household: Allow Move as Family = False
• Household: Allow Move Solo = False
• Money: Allow = False
• Money: Allow Inventory Management = False
• Personality: Allow = False
• Personality: Allow Occult Change = False
• Pregnancy: Allow Adoption = False
• Pregnancy: Allow Can Be Pregnant = True
• Pregnancy: Allow Participation = True
•  Pregnancy: Newborn Last Name = Father
• Pregnancy: Unexpected Base Chance = 0.
• Push: Go to Hospital Chance = 0
• Push: Go to Jail Chance = 0
• Romance: Allow = False
• Romance: Marriage Name = Husband
• Romance: Marriage Name: Same Sex = Coin-Flip

Managing Story Progression

With the game's normal story progression on, the town feels alive, sims get married, have children, and move all on their own without player input. This sounds great for non-rotational gameplay but can cause unwanted changes to your inactive households if you want to have full control.

Using Nraas Story Progression, you can achieve the closest thing to TS2 style rotation. Just keep in mind that once you set your settings and begin playing, you can no longer mess with any story procgression settings (this includes changing lifespan lengths) as it will mess everything up.

After you've created the households you want to play in rotation, you must add each family into the "rotations" caste to ensure that they do not progress without you there. You can do this by clicking on each household's icon in map view, go to Nraas-->Story Progression-->Caste-->Rotations. This will add the entire household to the Rotations caste.

How To Switch Between Households

Switching between households is done using Nraas Mastercontroller. Before you switch households, it's important to add your current household to the rotations caste so that they will not progress without you playing them actively. You can click on your active household's icon in map view, go to Nraas-->Story Progression-->Caste-->Rotations. This will add your household to the Rotations caste. Once you've done that, go to your next household and again, in map view click Nraas-->Mastercontroller-->Make Active. Once you've made your next household active, take them out of the rotations caste. You can do this by going into Nraas-->Story Progression-->Caste:Manual-->Select "rotations"-->Delete/reset to take your household out of the rotations caste.

Tracking Your Sims

I have another article about how to track rotational gameplay here with a blank spreadsheet included for you to start using.