The Sims

[snarkypotato]

Man I haven't played with my sims in forever. I'll go through stages where I'll be playing for months at a time, then take a couple of months off, then play with them again and so forth and so on. My favorite part of the game (besides downloading stuff) is the genetics. I love breeding my sims. I'm shallow though, I won't breed sims if their children will end up looking funky.

Before I marry a pair of sims off I'll go to a testing lot and use the boolprop testingcheatsenabled cheat to move the prospective mates in. then I'll use it to get the chick pregnant, speed up the birth and then grow up the kid so I can see if they’re okay looking. Their children don’t have to be raving beauties or anything, but some sim’s genes are just not compatible and their kids end up looking deformed. When I’m done I’ll just exit without saving.

My favorite sim is the very first one I ever made, Sydney Spykowski. She has some good genes because all of her kids have turned out good looking. The Spykowski clan has completely taken over Pleasantview

ETA: What sort of naming conventions do you all use for your sims (if any)? Sometimes, for my large families, I’ll have all the kids names start with the same letter. Jack, Jamie, Julianne, Joseph, Jenna etc. Now in real life it kind of horrifies me when parents do this, but it helps me keep track of my sims throughout the generations. Also for my legacy family, I’m using the names of the characters from “Aliens.” The Matriarch was Ripley, her daughter was Newt, the granddaughter’s Vasquez and so on.

[laconicchick]

Before I marry a pair of sims off I'll go to a testing lot and use the boolprop testingcheatsenabled cheat to move the prospective mates in. then I'll use it to get the chick pregnant, speed up the birth and then grow up the kid so I can see if they’re okay looking. Their children don’t have to be raving beauties or anything, but some sim’s genes are just not compatible and their kids end up looking deformed. When I’m done I’ll just exit without saving.

I'm sure you know this, but another way to see what the kids will look like (if you're creating both parents at the same time; obviously this won't work if you create them at different times) is to generate children based on the parents and keep pressing whatever button it is that makes them change. Then just don't create any kids for them until later. Of course, it seems like you marry sims off from new relationships (the non-lazy way, unlike me who starts them off in the same household), so this won't work for you. But still, in all the times I've done this I've been surprised at the range of kids the two parents create, so I'm not sure your one-child testing system will always be reliable. Plus it seems like a ton of work! But whatever floats your boat.

I wish I had the patience to see families through aging and whatnot, but I get bored easily. I've never had a sim become elderly. They rarely grow up because I get sick of them. I suck at Sims. I also spend a lot of time fast-forwarding and making them study cooking until they get tired and cranky. I also don't have the patience to develop relationships, so I stick them in "talk" mode and fast-forward for a few hours until they get angry. My boyfriend can't stand watching me play Sims because he likes to keep his constantly happy, and I can't stand watching him play because he refuses to fast-forward. I also use cheat codes, which he doesn't believe in.

[snarkypotato]

laconicchick said:

I'm sure you know this, but another way to see what the kids will look like (if you're creating both parents at the same time; obviously this won't work if you create them at different times) is to generate children based on the parents and keep pressing whatever button it is that makes them change. Then just don't create any kids for them until later. Of course, it seems like you marry sims off from new relationships (the non-lazy way, unlike me who starts them off in the same household), so this won't work for you. But still, in all the times I've done this I've been surprised at the range of kids the two parents create, so I'm not sure your one-child testing system will always be reliable. Plus it seems like a ton of work! But whatever floats your boat.

Yes, I do tend to marry off sims who are already in game so the above doesn't really work for me. The boolprop method may seem like a lot of work, but I've so carefully honed my system that it only takes about 10 minutes or less. I'll test more than one couple at a time.

And I'm a cheat junkie too! The only family I'm not using cheats on is my legacy family and man is it hard. I'm still only on the third generation. I'm trying to make the line go through the daughters, but I had a string of bad luck because Newt gave birth to 6 (!) sons before I finally got a girl. I actually had to kill off two of her boys bacause so many people in the house was making the game run slowly. I felt bad about that. I don't want my sims to suffer! Unless I'm purposely making them evil of course.

Also, I don't think it's possible to suck at The Sims. That's one of the beauties of the game. There are so many different ways to play!

[laconicchick]

I've so carefully honed my system that it only takes about 10 minutes or less

I'm impressed!

[goggle]

snarkypotato said:

What sort of naming conventions do you all use for your sims (if any)? Sometimes, for my large families, I’ll have all the kids names start with the same letter. Jack, Jamie, Julianne, Joseph, Jenna etc.

Duggars!

I have an unusual and lame method for choosing names: randomly picking names from a baby book bought for that purpose. I used to do the "close your eyes and point method" but I got a ten-sided die recently so I use that to generate a page number, then the name on the page. Sure I could use my calculator, but doing it old-school is more fun.

I'm happy because the family I'm playing now is the first one I've had ever that didn't have the children taken away by social services. Although, the teenager son is getting on my nerves and if I wasn't so intent on trying to actually do well in the game for once I'd kill him off.

Anyone read this today?

[laconicchick]

I didn't say anything about names before because I just pick whatever I feel like using, but then I realized that for last names, my boyfriend opens the phone book to a random page and closes his eyes and points. It's a very scientific system.

The Legacy Challenge has intrigued me! I think I'm going to try it. It's my boyfriend's game on his computer, but I basically have Pleasantville to myself because he doesn't play in it very much. I'd better get cracking before he wakes up...

I think this might be good for me, because as I mentioned I have a problem seeing families through to further generations. Even if I don't follow all the challenge rules it will be an improvement for me.

[luciano]

snarkypotato said:

ETA: What sort of naming conventions do you all use for your sims (if any)? Sometimes, for my large families, I’ll have all the kids names start with the same letter. Jack, Jamie, Julianne, Joseph, Jenna etc. Now in real life it kind of horrifies me when parents do this, but it helps me keep track of my sims throughout the generations. Also for my legacy family, I’m using the names of the characters from “Aliens.” The Matriarch was Ripley, her daughter was Newt, the granddaughter’s Vasquez and so on.

I tend to do a mix. I named my Legacy family the Del Toro family because I love Benicio Del Toro - the founder was a woman, though, so I saved the full name for the heir. I named that founder Lorelai because I was watching Gilmore Girls at the time and I was just lazy. For the female heirs, I'm going to go with names of royalty [Victoria, Isabella, Antoinette, etc.] - for the male heirs, I dunno. Maybe continue with the royalty thing or stick with the movie thing.

I am naming any alien-children born after characters from the X-Files - the one thing that I did love about Steven Del Toro cramming my house with more kids [damn him!] is that I got a chance to call one of the kids "Mulder."

[snarkypotato]

Interesting article Goggle! My brother has always said that the reason I love the sims so much is because it's like playing Virtual Barbies. I can't say I disagree with him.

Okay, now I really want to play the sims, but my stupid gaming computer is in the shop. Why the hell do my sims cravings come at the worst times?

[laconicchick]

I have recently (as in just now) decided that I'm going to name all my legacy sims Victorian names from either this list or this list. I have no idea if they're accurate or not, but I love old-fashioned names, and I love the Victorian era, so why not? I started with Emily, which is on one of the lists. So far she is in love with Dominique Sim (as well as with Petron Celliniori, my hacked alien sim who has four black kids) and wants to get engaged to Dominique. She's on the military career track.

The hardest part for me is going to be remembering who are NPCs/Townies and who are characters I've created. I almost thought Petron was a Townie, but then I remembered that I created him. And I think I cheated to make him really rich (hey, he has four kids to support!), so it would be bad if I moved him in. I've created so many sims and not played them a lot that I might make some mistakes. Oh well. Dominique Sim has to be an NPC or Townie, right? Or is he a playable character? Oh crap. Well, if he is, I haven't played him, so... we'll see.

[snarkypotato]

laconicchick, If you scroll down a bit on this page there is a listing of all the townies in Pleasantview. Warning: don't look if you don't want to know their aspirations or zodiac signs.