I decided to start a variation of the Prosperity challenge. Created a new, clean neighborhood with new default faces and names. Rolled dice to determine how many families I would start with, and how many people in each family, etc. Kept some of my cheats/hacks because they make the game more fun to me but used dice to determine aspirations and personality in my original sims and in their kids.
The idea was to use randomness to reduce my micro-managing and it's working (a bit).

Decided to use the long term want to determine what career to follow, and then to have them only access the career if it is in the paper or the computer (not using the hack that would allow them to pick anyone they wanted) - but...
I have a few custom careers that don't seem to ever show up in LTW. So they never get used, and everyone seems to be in the same few careers (which gets boring and is why I downloaded the custom ones). But if they follow a custom career there is no chance of achieving permanent platinum. What to do, what to do?

You can pick a custom career when the sim's LTW is not related with a career.

True. And they'll go platinum anyway when they're close to being an elder. Provided that you played them from infancy. When the bar of life happiness (I think it's called that way in English) becomes full, their aspiration turns to permanent platinum.

"Lifetime Aspiration Meter", Babahara.

Very helpful!
Thank you for such awesome tips.
I've never thought about some of the things you've mentioned.

another way is to get Custom content and make your sims like you in real life you know Realistic homes, cars ETC...

It would be so cool to build a neighborhood with one main neighborhood, with whatever your favorite type of supernatural is, and then shopping districts/downtowns with all kinds of supernaturals. Say your favorite is wizards (warlocks, the game calls them). So you make a place called "Wizard Crossing". And then you make a downtown called "Vampire City" or whatever.

Hm... Its slightly already done, but making sims staying IN their category ( example- Human sims staying in a seprate neighborhood ,away from Warlocks/Vampires, etc...)
Is kinda impossible. Maybe if a Hacker/Modder can make the Global Gamemod.

Yeah, I guess. But all your sims would be LIVING in the same place, right? And the lots would kind of fit a theme. So wizards would be shopping at a vampire shop. Maybe they want to shop at a vampire shop, right?

True, but still....Actually, lets hope this inspires game modders! :D
I can understand, yeah, maybe they do wanna shop at a vampire shop.

Wow! I had never seriously thought of making a brand new neighborhood.
It would be sooo much fun too; making brand new characters, building houses to
your liking, writing their stories....What a great idea!

I also think SamanthaSSJ's idea of randomizing certain aspects is brilliant.
Even if I don't set out to do so, I always end up making the picture perfect
family...and as many of you may know, that can get real boring, real fast.
I've stopped using the money cheats, seeing as it makes everything way
too easy. For the first time, I got one of my male Sims to the top of his career! He
even got a 55k simoleon bonus. :D

I'm still guilty of using the boolProp cheat, but I'm trying to cut that out too.
I think I've let only one couple age naturally...isn't that terrible? It's just
that I always get so impatient. xP

Anyways, thanks for all the ideas, guys! They're fantastic! I'm gonna go browse the internet for town name ideas. ;D

"I'm gonna go browse the internet for town name ideas."
There is a thread about neighborhood names here, velvetsun.

Randomness can be fun! As I posted above I was annoyed that my sims LTW were always the standard career wants and never the new careers I had downloaded. But I didn't want to just pick a career because then I would end up with the same stuff I always pick. So I went back to the dice. I made a list of all the careers my game has - the standard ones and the custom in alphabetical order. Divided the list into groups of 6 and numbered each group. I have 4 groups of 6 and 1 group of 5.

When they become teens and I select their aspirations (with dice) I also select their futue career. So I roll 2 dice - the first one is the group number and the second is the career in that group. Obviously if I roll a 6 for the group I just re-roll.

I also use the Sim Blender to reroll their LTW up to 3 times to try to get a non-career LTW. If I don't succeed, oh well maybe they won't have a perfect platinum life. It's about time I tried something new.

Sims don't get a LTW about a custom career. Even with Uni installed you'll need a mod to get a LTW about an Uni career.

Another idea for keeping the game interesting: DON`T BUY YOUR SIMS ANYTHING if you can help it. Let them buy their OWN stuff at other Sims` stores. You never know WHAT they might come home with. If they come home with too much of something, they can give it away as gifts. Open for Business is one of my favorite expansions.

Here's another thing I do a lot to keep my game interesting. In rl, you can go to garage sales, yard sales and whatever to pick through stuff just for fun. So, in the same way, I never let my sims throw anything out, I just stash the old stuff in their inventory. The fun part comes in deciding who gets the old items.

In order to be considered for something in a sims' inventory, the other sim has to know and be friends with the sim that has an item. This also goes for stuff like produce since I try to have my sims with large lots grow more of something than what they need. I let a few families grow extra tomatoes. But they have very few apple trees. It really gets involved keeping track of who has extra stuff and getting them to make friends with different sims that have stuff they need.

I even let them trade decorative trees. I hate having my lots full of trees so I can't see my sims move about in the house or in their yards. But, my hood is a rural hood, so they all have to have gardens and be garden club members. Just before the garden club is called to request the inspection, I pull a bunch of trees out of their inventory and arrange them carefully. When the inspection is done, I have the sims give the extra trees to friends. Most of my sims have trees in inventory that are only used to boost their inspection scores. Of course, I can't find my sims during the inspection because of all the darn trees blocking my view. But they always pass inspection and get a lot of money. Hehehe.

However, I don't allow my sims to make wishes from the well. Not with all the mods available that make it so you don't have to wonder if the well will give something good or bad. One time a well dropped these hideous creatures when my sim wanted friends. That was the last time one of my sims wished for anything from a garden club well.

Thanks for the heads up! I actually picked a name already, but it's not written in stone or anything. Who knows? I might just find something better.

"Thanks for the heads up!"
You`re welcome!

I let my sims start with close-to-nill comforts [must have phone at home] and an artshop that sells paintings, basically nothing but blank walls with pictures from the buy-catalogue stuck on them for sale.

If you don't mind roughing it for a couple of days, and track carefully which sims gets along well with which customer, it becomes a nice gravy-train.
(Roughing it means communal shower, cheap toilet and beds and no food but pizza, and don't even ask about walls other than to stick the toiletries on. Life on a 2*2 campsite with no amenities but cold running water. )

It is not that hard to get 6 customer stars [May I Help You?], and you sell the shop back for an 8K gain, and buy it back again at the bottom-price.

Last time I did that this basic ploy my 3 sims got a jolly nice fortune in very little time. They are now 6 days into their sim-life, and have a family-fortune of 120K or so.

kachin, carreers or even jobs? That is so totally medieval. :D

This post, about a year ago, is exactly what I do! I am sure the stories stared with the game, but now, it's funny...I'm not sure what comes first...the story or the game action! Sometimes, I make the Sims do exactly what I need for a photo...or I will take a really cool photo and then work it into the story. Either way, my mind is working on the 'big picture' the whole time I am playing.

I have gotten bored...or real life keeps me from playing sometimes, but I LOVE this game. I love the graphics, the CC, the concept and the outlet it gives me creatively as well. Don't know what I would do without my Sims!!!

Old cat lady is win.

I actually just came up with this while I was plotting out my 'hood for the Prosperity is Random challenge by SamanthaSSJ.

If you have Uni and you're sick of the studying and getting into university free and with Fs, try this (I'm not sure if there's a mod for this or not):

Before the happy little teen heads naively off to university, ding their household funds for a specified amount of 'tuition' for at minimum the first semester of university. I calculated mine at 2000$/semester, based on the approximation of how much my real-life uni costs me a year (if you want it harder - make it more! Want it more accessible? Make it less!). A prospective uni student's earnings at their job - and any scholarship money they may have earned - can go towards that initial 2000 and subsequent semesters' tuition. Then, at the start of every semester, subtract the next payment (grant money counts) - don't have the cash? Well, in real life, you don't pay the tuition, you don't go to class. They must drop out of university.

Example:
John Smith (teen) wants to go to university and study biology, which will cost him 2000 a semester. His family is a low-income household (less than 2000 in the family funds).

He has a part-time job that has made him earn a total of 900 simoleons (so 2000-900=1100 left to pay). He has also earned 750 in scholarship money (1100-750=350).

Now you have two choices for John (or three, if you choose to implement some sort of student-loan system):
1. No university for you! Your family can't help (if they have less than 350) / won't help (if they have more than 350).
2. Subtract 350 from the family funds and send little Johnny to work hard, study hard and become a fabulously rich doctor!
* 3. This would come into play IF you chose to make some sort of student-loan system. Send John to university, but he's now 350 in debt to the Repo-Man Loans Agency. Any further loans on his tuition are accumulated and must begin to be paid off after graduation (a real realist? Charge 'im interest after grad - the student loans where I study, any way, don't start accumulating interest until after studies are complete).

Keep in mind that while in university, students still have bills to pay - it might keep it slightly more interesting to play, now that they have a heavier load to bear. Studying hard might make the load easier, since they get more grant money, but it won't do much for their social life!

EDIT:
I've discovered that this is apparently something like the University portion of the Build-a-City challenge. I'm not as smart as I thought was, .

Who else out there only has the base game?

LOL, I was going to install just base game on my laptop with zero cc just for funs and distractions at university - but it's got a compatibility issue with Vista. Thinking back, it probably has a patch...

When I get bored I download new Custom Content *lol* or I make a new neighborhood with a theme. I have a neighborhood full of vampires. A neighborhood full of young swingers. A neighborhood that's like Japan with pagodas and only japanese people. I have a Hollywood, where everyone is super glam and all of them are money sims. I also have an interracial neighborhood where EVERY couple is interracial somehow. I also like to make gay couples every now and then, just for a different family feel, I guess.