April 2022 - last edited April 2022
Hi, @kiku72,
You can have multiple save files. I probably have 20, although I only regularly play with 4 or so.
If you pick "start a new game" or whatever, everything is set back to the way it was when the game starts (including Strangerville) and you can create new households and move into new homes and start that new Sim struggle all over again. This is "starting a new game" or "starting a new save." What you do in this save doesn't affect anything in any other saves, which makes it great for experimenting, or just because you have a cool new idea or challenge you want to play. That said, it's a reset and Strangerville will be strange again, Sulani will have trash again, your neighborhood eco footprints will go back to default, any buildings you added to your other save won't be there...
You can also create a new played household in an existing file, by leaving the family you're playing now and playing either one of the prebuilt households or a new household that you create. You can then switch back and forth between the multiple households (this is called "rotational playing," but you don't have to play them all the same amount of time unless you feel like it). (You could also just abandon the first family and play your new family instead, but I never do that, LOL!) This is handy if you're playing out a story where neighbor Sims have a relationship that grows slowly over time, or if you move out your grown children and want to play each of them equally, or if you just have multiple households you want to play. What you do in the world does affect other households, in that when you're playing in one household you can shop in the other household's retail store, or ask someone in the other household on a date, or see your other Sims who are in the medical field at the hospital when you're there to have a baby. Also the Strangerville mystery will remain solved if you complete it, green neighborhoods will stay green, Sulani will stay improved, etc. What your other households do as NPCs might not "stay"--they don't keep retail items they buy as NPCs and don't have the diseases they were treated for at the hospital when you rotate in--but if you fill the romance bar with a Sim in another household, when you rotate into that other household they will have that full romance bar. They'll also have gained skills from activities they did as NPCs (like, if they're in the fitness club). There are a few quirks to this play style--age only active household (or your Sims might age up before you get back to them), choose a time of day to change households because if you do it in the middle of the day they're all missing work and school, it's a thing, stay with your university students until they're done--but I love playing this way!
I hope that helps!
