Game Play Questions, How do YOU play?

[Jelenedra]

So I was kinda curious about something. I have this ADD problem with the sims at times. I'll spend a great deal of time and energy creating families and households and neighborhoods from scratch. Then, when the kiddies of all these thoughtful families go to college...pfft. Nothing.  I give up on the whole thing. Part of the problem is that I want my simmies to pair up in college, get their future life planned out.

Question is: How do you choose which sprog ends up with what spawn? How do you decide what sex they're going to be interested in?

I ask because I currently have one male young adult who is OBSESSED with the girl I consider to be his sibling. They were raised in a multi-family lot, his parents were two lesbian women and her parents were two male partners. They were born around the same time, and poor little Hector has been farting hearts over Pandora since he was old enough to realize that farting hearts weren't just a weird thing his parents did at each other. I keep trying to adjust their turn ons/offs in an attempt to lessen the two bolt attraction, I even shoved another playable female onto Hector, but he doesn't seem to be having it.

He's a sweet kid, but Pandora is a romance sim (I thought it was fitting, considering her name) and I don't seem him being happy with her for long once the ACR settings wear off. =p

[ditzie]

I like to pair them up as teens.  I use TJ's crystal ball to find out who might be a likely candidate. I like it because you can set it for only playables or by age groups.  You could use the crystal ball to find out who they would be attracted to while they are still teens.  Let them meet and build the relationship first and if all goes well, start the romance in college.  If I can't find someone while they are still teens, I will wait until they are in college, but I still find that crystal ball very useful.

[buddha pest]

Whoever they seem most obsessed with as teens is usually who they end up with. Otherwise, I let them pick a dormie.

On very rare occasions, I will make a CAS sim special for somebody.

[DrNerd]

I'm doing a Legacy (two, actually, concurrent Uglacy and Prettacy with identical Founders), so I tend to micromanage the relationships as best I can.  That said, the best laid plans of mice and men et cetera.

This generation (the fifth), I have five Sims in college from my main households--Indy and Chad, Prettacy spares; Rocky, Uglacy spare; Coco, Uglacy heir; and Dora, Prettacy heir.  Plus three extra Sims--Cam and Jordan, first cousins of the Prettacy crew, and a SimSelf who's been dating Chad since they were teenagers.

I know which genes I want to breed into the main households this generation.  Therefore, I know which male Sims I want to hook Coco and Dora up with (although there's a bit of a pit stop for Dora due to plot reasons).  Should be simple enough to avoid trouble, right?

So what happens when I get to college?  Indy and his ten outgoing points autonomously flirt with Coco, with whom he was best friends, causing them to fall in love.  Not part of the plan.  5 of the 8 are Knowledge Sims, so they throw bolts for each other just on general principle, and most of them are Outgoing enough to stalk and flirt autonomously.  Dora started stalking Rocky, also not part of the plan.  Then Cam showed up and started throwing massive Swoon/Heart-Farts for Rocky despite his gender preference being female (and I don't mean a gossip heart-fart "Someone said Rocky is hot", I mean, "Ooooh Rocky is hot" fanning himself weak-in-the-knees SWOON heart-fart), and he and his three outgoing points start following Rocky around like a little lost puppy.

The only long-term couple I have, Chad and his SimSelf girlfriend, are actually loyal to each other, despite having bolts for other Sims, but Chad is so shy (one outgoing point) that, despite the three bolts he has for his girlfriend, rarely does anything on free will with her other than tell (non-Dirty) jokes and Play Catch.

I had a plan.  It was a nice plan.  I liked my plan.  And it went down in flames approximately two days after moving them all to Uni.  For everyone BUT the heirs at this point, I am totally winging it and hoping something good comes out of it.  I mean, Cam and Rocky are sort of cute together, except for Cam's Stabby Death Nose and the fact that Rocky is Gen 5 Uglacy and his mother is Loki Beaker turned into a woman.

[nekonoai]

Well, as you can tell from Matytown, I generally let them decide who they want. Whoever they roll the "get engaged/married to..." want with is who they get. All else be damned!

[Jelenedra]

I'm currently debating the wisdom letting one of my family spawn fall for a Tiki village local, considering when he's not around she tries to steal her sister's fiance. And she's supposed to be the GOOD sister. Stupid family sims in Uni... they're so LOOSE.

[HeyYeah]

I have the same ADD issue with playing the sims as you do. The second generation rarely makes it to college before I get bored and delete the whole thing. I've vowed not to let myself do that with my shiny new MATY hood (Gen 2 is still all toddlers/babies/unborn except for the very first babies born, who have just aged up to child, so I don't know if I'm going to keep my vow or not).

For gender preference, I randomize with the ACR adjuster (I adjust the gay/bi percentages according to the gender balance of the 'hood). I plan let them pretty much choose partners for themselves. Like nekonoai, if a sim rolls the get engaged/get married to want, they get engaged/married, unless a couple gets pregnant, then it's a shotgun wedding for them.  

[Zazazu]

I ask because I currently have one male young adult who is OBSESSED with the girl I consider to be his sibling.

In my attempt at an Alphabet legacy (original rules, merged with psuedo-apoc at one point) that got to Gen K, at Gen D the heir married a girl who was, for story purposes, sort of his sister. She had been adopted in by accident by the avatar of the Oversoul, the all-knowing mime. Well, I had the mime move in the lot with her, then move out and leave the child. So according to the game, she wasn't related. She was a lot younger, but sparks flew. Then, after she and the hubby had passed, their children died in a lightning-meets-pool incident with all the other family members save the toddler heir and her great-grand aunt. Great-grand aunt proceeded to drink the 'hood as part of her quest for immortality and the Oversoul took revenge. Hence, the apocalypse. Urban Paradise was extremely odd.

College bores me to tears. For those that roll college, I only actually play two semesters. Freshman first semester to get the GPA (which I don't make them study for unless they are low on ASP and have the wants), then Senior second semester to get to graduate. This also works because college is 3 days in normal 'hood equivalent, so the whole time is extremely imbalanced. 2 semesters isn't as far off.

Question is: How do you choose which sprog ends up with what spawn? How do you decide what sex they're going to be interested in?

For their sexual orientation, ACR takes care of that (now automagically!). I get about 20% gay and bi. Romance sims seem to be more inclined to be bi, but that could be an odd quirk of the dice roll or something I didn't notice was added as a feature. And unfortunately I keep getting gay Family sims, which sucks as I don't use adoption (yet).

As the 'hood started from one sim, intermarriage has just become a possibility. I was hoping to avoid it for another generation, but the sims seem to have something else in mind. If anything but Pleasure or Romance, they are going to get married when they find their three-bolt, across the board. If they don't have a three-bolt, then I pick the best two-bolt and wait for them to want to get married. If Pleasure or Romance, they need a three-bolt (Pleasure can settle on a two-bolt) plus the want has to be mutual. I have a GC-Fortune couple that is a two-bolter and rolled the want to get engaged, moved in together, and never did have the want to get married.

Most of my sims find their match at college, or realize that they have a thing for daddy's work buddy while at college. Sometimes they don't, and I have them visit the fishing hole, Atomic Arcade and Vrooom! Autos as adults until they meet someone. And sometimes I start screaming at them while they are teenagers because they won't get off their damned cousin!

I'm really hoping that Gen 5 consists mostly of girls, because my 'hood is very boy heavy at the moment and the current townie teens are 90% boys. YAs are mostly girls, and adults are about 70% male.

[Jelenedra]

I just feel bad for poor Hector, Pandora has no interest him at all, but he keeps following her about. Hopefully his sister Aurora will have better luck.

[Lorelei]

When my game was working, I spent most of my time designing houses / lots and Sims, then winding them up at letting them do stupid things (within the realms of stupidity allowed after Pes hacks nip the worst of it in the bud). Then I take pix of the mayhem. That tends to be more fun for me than breeding or killing them, but, again, my game has a bad habit of not working long enough to allow extended gameplay even when my schedule is free enough to have time to play.

[aussieone]

Unless I have pre determined from childhood for storyline purposes, to determine what sexual orientation a teenage sim will be, I use TJ's crystal ball and click on the "I'm desperate and I don't care" option. I gives IIRC, 5, maybe 6 sims that your sim is compatible with. If my active sim seems to be more compatible with sims of their sex, then gay they will be, OTOH, if they roll more opposite sex sims, then I choose the straight option.

As far as who they end up with, it's usually the first sim in line on the crystal ball pop up who gets chosen. If they happen to be mega fugly, then I tweak them just a little with the makeover option on TJ's blender and make it stick in SimPe.

[Jelenedra]

Oooh that's a good idea. I may just have to download that now...

[pixiejuice]

Question is: How do you choose which sprog ends up with what spawn? How do you decide what sex they're going to be interested in?

I use ACR for sexual orientation, balanced 80% straight, 10% bi, 10% gay.

Who they end up with is based on their attraction score in ACR.  I usually have my playables date around long enough to see who they're most compatible with, and the one they like best they settle down with, that is, if they're the settling type.

[Faizah]

I set everyone bi and use the crystal ball to meet their five 'desperate' matches. Romance sims get to remain bi, and everyone else gets set to prefer the gender of their best match, typically set at or shortly after the marriage to said match. Exceptions can be made where needed, to make things more interesting, and not everyone gets a partner. I have one single Sim who is turned on by servos, but the only servo in the hood is the one he initialised. (Which I've set in SimPe as his 'son'.) He has several two bolt matches, but none that interest me enough to pursue. He's had two alien spawn, and he's on track to age to elder next session. He's had a good life.

I have another single Sim, born in game, and randomly selected to be a romance sim. One of the grand vampires came up as a match for him while he was at uni, and I just couldn't resist. I affectionately refer to this romance sim as 'Potato face' as his head resembles a sack of them, and the vampire in question has such a different face, though alike in its extremeness: he has a very pointy nose. But I didn't want to marry the vamp in, so the romance sim has remained unattached, spawning with the vampire almost immediately on returning to the family home. (And, just because, I made him a plant sim, so he's had a plant-baby as well.) I'm thinking I'll leave it at that for him, another happily single sim.

My play style seems to be constantly evolving, my born in game sims have been in play long enough to have children of their own, which is new for me. But, as to the question, I typically use TwoJeffs' crystal ball for matches. It can be set to ignore playables/NPCs/Townies and so on, as well as age groups, so you get just what you're looking for, if you want to set them up with, say, a playable adult.

[SnootCB]

I'll also recommend TJ's spiffy crystal ball.  I don't always hook up the playable sim with whichever sim the crystal ball picks out for them, though- only if I have trouble finding him/her a mate through more conventional methods (hanging out on comm lots, throwing parties, calling the gypsy, etc).  I usually use it just to get an idea of who to look for; it just feels too "cheaty".

I don't use ACR or anything to randomize gender pref, but I do a pretty good job of keeping the gay/bi population at 10-25% of the total population, depending on the neighborhood and how crowded it is.

Which neighborhood I'm in also determines who playables are allowed to marry; each neighborhood has slightly different rules for various things.  In most neighborhoods anyone is fair game, but in the ones that are getting crowded (Pleasantview & Desiderata) other playables are given preference for population control.  In Veronaville, I'm playing "family feud"-style; no playable sim of any one of the 4 families (Monty, Capp, Summerdream, Tricou) are allowed to marry a playable from any of the other 4 families- and inbreeding is encouraged, royalty-like.  I'm only just now starting the 3rd generation, though.

[notovny]

Assuming that I haven't already set in motion some pairing in the Teen age,  most of my Sims pick their mates in University. From this,  I usually only judge from the following criterea.

1. Is the potential mate already working in one of my Businesses? If No, then...
2. Is the potential mate active enough to Run? If yes, then...
3. Do I mind the facial features of the Sim?

Sexual orientation is based on what I feel like giving a Sim, as I don't use ACR. I don't particularly pay attention to attaction. And  because I want to have a significant minority of  Green-Skinned Sims,  every Sim who is descended from  Adam Black is getting a custom-made full-blooded Alien Townie as a mate.

I'm still playing my original neighborhood, Pleasantivew, and almost every Sim I routinely play is descended from one of five families: The Roomies and the Vergonyes (My favorite Sims 1 Families), the Blacks, the Blues, and the Yellows. None of the Pleasantview premades have married in, though Townies, Downtownies, and University Sims are allowed as mates.  Seven generations from Chris & Belle Roomies at this point. There's a ridiculous level of longevity in this neighborhood, which I attribute to Katelyn Roomies' takeover of Faustian Biotech, and establishment of  the Zeitstall Labs Cowplant Facilities.

Thrown-together Family Tree here.

[Zazazu]

I totally have to steal your tree-making software. I've been doing it manually in Photoshop. It sucks.

[imyourboy]

Thrown-together Family Tree here.

This is fantastic.  I'm going to put together a family tree of Pleasantview!  Thanks for the link!!

[Count Four]

One of the first families I played extensively was a Romance/Family couple, and it worked out pretty good. You just have to make sure the slut doesn't get caught. Or you could let them hook up and let him get his heart broken. They don't have to all be happy all the time.

In Strangetown, Phillip was all hot and bothered over Meadow Thayer as a teen, who was Romance.  I grew her up with him, let him have a relationship with her, and of course, he caught her red-handed. He survived and went on to meet the town she-nerd, with whom he had a nice little life. (Meadow ended up as caretaker of the Olive Specter Memorial Museum and Mausoleum.)

I sometimes have a pairing in mind, but I usually don't force it.  The pairings they develop that I didn't expect can help keep the game from being too boring.  My singer and guitarist were supposed to hook up, but the singer was three-bolts for the aspiring politician, and the guitarist got along better with the trailer-trash queen. Rock star and mayor in the mayoral mansion, professional busker and perpetually unemployed, perpetually unfaithful tramp living in the Trashiest house in the hood (I love trashy CC); that was more interesting than what I'd had in mind.

Sometimes I'll break up a beautiful three-bolt relationship simply because they have incompatible Interests and can't have a decent conversation, which annoys me.  I rarely go searching for the perfect three-bolt mate, anyway.  They can get along fine in a one or two-bolt relationship if nothing else presents itself, and I find it more realistic when they have to choose the best they can get out of the sims they meet in the regular course of their lives. 

A want to get engaged/married means nothing to me; I decide whether they're going to be respectable, or just live in sin. The busker/trailer tramp got married; the mayor/rock star lived in sin (made sense to me.)

With CAS sims, I know who's going to be straight, gay or bi as I'm making them.  With others, it's sometimes off the gender of their first best friend as a kid/teen. It's pretty random, actually. And I play with preg for all genders, so no one has to get left out of the gene pool.  Unless, of course, they and their mate have truly incompatible face templates and I don't want to look at succeeding generations of fug.

As for the Uni-is-boring-problem, I deal with it by not allowing all the kids to go to college. The ones who are fortunate enough to go to Uni get sent off as early in their teens days as possible.  Some have to stay in the main hood, slogging through adolescence and teen jobs with no hope of higher education. Then I play the main hood and Uni in  synch, so I'm not spending an interminable amount of play time in Uni; about six days per lot while I've got college students. 

Most of my Family sims drop out of Uni as soon as they've found a mate, as I'm convinced the only reason they ever want to go to Uni is to trawl for Mr. or Miss Right.  Then they move back in with the folks and wait for their Twu Wuv to graduate and come to take them away from it all.  Knowledge sims are sometimes actively discouraged from relationships during Uni, as I tend to see them as academically obsessed.  Fortune sims have to make buttloads of money, Popularity sims have to join the Secret Society, etc., before they are allowed to graduate.

Sims who don't go to Uni get upgraded with the Lot Debugger only when they have a) reached the top of a career, or b) fulfilled a lifetime want.  I consider them graduates of the school of hard knocks.

[SnootCB]

Oh, wow notovny.  Thanks for pointing out that family tree site.

For deciding who gets to go to Uni, I follow a few easy rules.  The sim must:
- be Knowledge or Fortune aspiration and/or
- have a Uni career LTW (I have a hack, from here I think, that enables those) and/or
- have a twin that meets one of the above criteria and/or
- be heir/ess and/or
- have a parent with the "graduate 3 spawn from college" LTW

All that means that, oh, maybe 75% of my sims make it to college.  If a sim that does not meet the above criteria consistantly rolls the Want to go to college I might send them if the college isn't already overcrowded, but they will probably be dropped or flunked out.

[Zazazu]

I just roll for Uni. I think it's 50% who go and graduate, 25% who don't go, and 25% who drop out at some point. I'd have to look at my script.

[Yimmit]

How do you extract the character thumbnails to use them in the family tree?

[Emma]

I think they are the SimPe thumbnails for the characters.

[notovny]

Yep, that's exactly what they are.

Slow way to do it:

1. Open SimPE.
2. Open the Neighborhood Browser. Load the Neighborhood.
3. Open the Sim Browser. Find the Sim you want,  and open him or her.
4. Hit the More button, and open his or her character file.
5. Select the jpeg/tga/png image resource on the tree, and then in the resource list.
6. Click the button that says Export and save it.
7. Go back to step 2, and do the next sim.

A faster way diverges at the third step.
1. Open SimPE.
2. Open the Neighborhood Browser. Load the Neighborhood.
3. Open the Sim browser. Find the Sim you want, and note the character file name. Don't close the Sim Browser.

4. Open a Second SimPE session.
5. Navigate to the Characters folder in the appropriate neighborhood, and open the character file you noted.
6. Select the jpeg/tga/png image resource on the tree, and then in the resource list.
7. Click the button that says Export and save it.

8 Go back to your first SimPE Session, and find another Sim you want in the Sim Browser. Repeat from step 5.

Using the latter method, I eventually could extract a character portrait every thirty seconds or so.

[ravenwaift]

I have dice rolls for almost everything, except for dating others. When I decide that I want them to get a first kiss, a date, or a spouse I just have them check out nearly ever person of the correct sexual orientation that they see until they find someone they have at least 2 bolts with. If, however, they don't seem to find anyone, I call on the Gypsy or have them go for whoever they have some sort of attraction for.

I have a huge Excel file for all of my dice rolls. College attendance is affected by family worth, and sexuality is affected by gender. I researched dropout rates and sexuality and fudged the numbers for my purposes, but most stuff was made up off the top of the head. The only thing I didn't make* was the list of the different types of businesses for the adult page.

Screen captures of my dice roll sheets:
Teens- http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y19/Ravenwaift/?action=view&current=TeenRolls.jpg
YAs- http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y19/Ravenwaift/?action=view&current=CollegeRolls.jpg
Adults- http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y19/Ravenwaift/?action=view&current=AdultRolls.jpg

*I may have stolen more ideas than I remember, but this is the one I'm sure I took from someone else