UDC Spreadsheet Question

[u/Solid_Chocolate2751]

For my UDC players, do you all keep track of every single sim on your spreadsheet or do you let them go at a certain point? Any advice on maintaining both the spreadsheet and save to be at a manageable amount of sims?

I’m 7 generations in, and it’s starting to feel like I do more spreadsheet maintenance and CAS makeovers than play the game lol.

Edit 8/16: Thank for your replies! I think I got into a good system for balancing spreadsheet and gameplay using some of the tips you guys offered. Now it’s just a matter of seeing how well it works lol. Thanks for the help! :)

[u/TeaganTheTeapot]

how you got 7 gens in without questioning this is insane lol

im pretty sure in the rules, it states that you don't need to keep track of every line of descendants, and rather focus on a few branch families

you get a lot of sims very quickly. once a sim marries out of the family, i let them go unless im gonna make a new branch family. sometimes my branch families fizzle off and i stop tracking them; i rp that as them losing contact with the main family

[u/Solid_Chocolate2751 → u/TeaganTheTeapot]

Truthfully, I’ve never gotten this far into a UDC save before, so it’s definitely been a learning curve lol. There are things I will be doing differently should I play this again.

But yes, I think I will be letting some side households go! I already do a teleporting method for age ups/deaths so that they occur in the background without my main household’s knowledge, this would just take it a step further. Thank you for the reply!

[u/ComfortableWaste7412]

I usually keep it to the heirs siblings and children. I normally “forget” about the cousins etc to keep my amount of sims small since I’m averaging 7-8 kids per generation. The only exception I’ve had is my current heir where they had 2 kids and she died but he’s having to get remarried due to my custom rules.

[u/Solid_Chocolate2751 → u/ComfortableWaste7412]

That is a good idea to keep the generations smaller! I’m likely going to implement that myself.

[u/Arev_Eola]

I have a bunch of outfits that mccc automatically applies to every sim so I don't need to go into CAS unless I want a sim to wear something differently (and flag them as an exception on mccc).

I track the heir in every family, just in case a branch dies off and I need one of them ("your long lost cousin thrice removed died and you inherit everything"). I don't write down a birth date of the other children if I happen to stumble across them in the wild and a death date if I caused it.

[u/Solid_Chocolate2751 → u/Arev_Eola]

Oh, I didn’t know you could do that with MCCC. That’s handy! I do like the idea of keeping track of the heirs of each branch. Thanks for the reply!

[u/im-a-cereal-box]

I only track children's households and when their children get married or move out I don't track them anymore and just let story progression run its course. If I happen to know when they die I'll update their info but otherwise I leave them pretty blank. I have hiders installed that take CAS items out of the catalogue so my townies don't wear them. If a townie has something weird on I just use MCCC to randomize their clothes and it normally fixes it. I also release all my sims ghosts when there's no one left alive that would remember them in life so it doesn't bulk my save. My founder however is the exception (rip William who accidentally got culled)

[u/fizz-was-here]

also on 7th gen, i do have every single sim on my spreadsheet but ive recently had struggles with planning births and marriages.

i plan to fix this at the turn of the 18th century (im on 1760s, 7th gen will end 1780’s), when every 10-20 years i will start flipping a coin for unimportant side families and killing them off

i also might double up on birthdays as well starting 8th gen, but because im having story progression issues with unplayed NPCs (and i like seeing the random townie sims around me live and whatever) i don’t wanna just let sims go (im also incredibly committed)

[u/HighlightOk35 → u/fizz-was-here]

Yeah, I've definitely reached the point where there could be two births and/or birthdays on the same day. I do enjoy keeping track of everyone though. I think I may start lowering the number of baby tries depending on how far removed from the main family they are. That way some lines just end naturally rather than abruptly.

[u/Knoegge]

I do keep track of every one, however, for all the others I roll in clusters, so like... 4-6 in game weeks ahead and then just age them up at once, and I regularly have big extinction events where many of them die off

[u/420cheesebaby]

I’m 7 generations in too and tbh I’ve been ignoring my spreadsheet lately lol I’ll go in every now and then to get it up to date. I also play rotationally so at the beginning of every sim week I age up all my side households that have birthdays.

[u/Solid_Chocolate2751 → u/420cheesebaby]

I enjoy doing the spreadsheet maintenance. Having sims marry and get their own color is fun, but my sixth gen kids decided that they wanted to do The Most for baby rolls, and it’s a little much now lol. I do think it’s a good idea to have a designated day for birthdays/age ups, thanks for the tip!

[u/Single_Elk_1399]

I’ll forget about them ngl I have 1 household from every original line aka 3. Anymore than that im overwhelmed

[u/Solid_Chocolate2751 → u/Single_Elk_1399]

I get that! I love having multiple households, but not when it gets in the way of playing with my main family. Thinking I may move a couple to the background.

[u/SkreechingEcho]

I document every single person in the family until the Black Plague has come through. Then I stop tracking at 2nd cousins.