Curious About Randomizing Sims+Children

[aeslis]

I remember reading once upon a time that if you load up a lot, and the mother gives birth, you quit, and load up, and the mother gives birth sometime again, the children will be pretty much identical.  I've had that happen a few times, and I also remember reading that before a birth one must go to CAS and randomize a few sims so the game .. uh, well, randomizes.  *intelligent!*

What I wanna know, though, is was this fixed with NL?  Is there some sort of fix/hack somewhere, if not?  I don't particularly want identical children, but exiting all the time to mix up the DNA is a bit annoying.  So, I turn to you, wise Simmers!  What do you know that I don't? 

Thank you thank you, in advance.

You people are awesome, by the way (though one should be unsurprised to discover awesomeness in such an aptly titled place).

[Ancient Sim]

Get the LotDebugger from here and click on the Randomise Sim Generator facility.  This does exactly the same as going to CAS does, except all you need to do is leave the lot and go back again (anytime before the birth is imminent).  I use this for all my births now and NO MORE IDENTICAL BABIES.  It stops them all being the same sign (always Aries if you've just started the game) and you're more likely to get different personalities and appearance.  An absolute essential requisite for the game in my opinion.

[Ness]

I'm a little confused about all this...

how can people talk about sims passing on particular character traits to their children, and then also talk about needing to generate a few throw-away sims to make it random?

am I just being particularly thick and missing something here, or what?

[cwhitney]

how can people talk about sims passing on particular character traits to their children, and then also talk about needing to generate a few throw-away sims to make it random?

I don't think they're necessarily talking about completely randomizing their newborn sims more than making the newborns inherit different traits than the family's previous newborns.

Without randomizing the genetic inheritance logarithm, sim children in one family will always have the same features.  Their noses will always be the same.  The eyes will be the same, the cheekbones, the mouth, etc.  The only way two kids will look different is if they're different genders (and if you export, say, the brother to CAS and then change his gender, he'll look exactly like his sister).  Randomizing sims will still result in your sims inheriting traits from their parents, but they won't be exactly the same traits as their siblings.  You can still see the resemblance between family members, but they won't be twins.

So technically it's not totally random.  The kids are still influenced by the parents' genetics, but it's random within the range of their parents' genetics.

[Ness]

I'm not talking physical appearance here.

I'm talking personality - people say that the first sim created/born/whateve will be aries...  but they also say that different aspects of the parents' personalities will be passed on to the kids - I just can't see how both can be true...

the personality traits are either passed on, or not...  if they are, then we can't be having the whole first-born syndrome where everyone ends up aries...  or maybe it's just that the personality traits aren't passed on at all...

my brain hurts!

[cwhitney]

I'm not talking physical appearance here.

I'm talking personality - people say that the first sim created/born/whateve will be aries...  but they also say that different aspects of the parents' personalities will be passed on to the kids - I just can't see how both can be true...

the personality traits are either passed on, or not...  if they are, then we can't be having the whole first-born syndrome where everyone ends up aries...  or maybe it's just that the personality traits aren't passed on at all...

my brain hurts!

In my experience, it's not a matter of what the astrological sign is.  My sims who have been affected by the firstborn effect don't all have the same sign across different families.  That's always determined by the individual personalities of the parents.  The children within a family all have the same personality, however, if randomizing hadn't happened, so they'll all get the same sign, be it Pisces or Gemini or whatever.  I do know that "Randomize" isn't random in CAS, however, and the first sim you get when you do that will always be an Aries. (And the second will always be a Capricorn or something (don't remember which but it's always the same) and the third will always be a Virgo (or something), it's never random)   Perhaps that's what people are referrring to.

That said, it's not all that different from appearance genetics.  My firstborn kids inherited personality traits from their parents rather than being random.  Perhaps they got Dad's niceness personality and Mom's neatness personality, or what have you, but they were always the same between siblings.  Now that I randomize them they still show some inheritance, but it's not identical.  Maybe they get Mom's niceness and Dad's neatness, or some combination of the two parents' traits.

[J. M. Pescado]

I'm talking personality - people say that the first sim created/born/whateve will be aries...  but they also say that different aspects of the parents' personalities will be passed on to the kids - I just can't see how both can be true...

The "random" sim generator functions on a preloaded seed function. This means that given the same input on a cold start, the sequence of sim personalities produced is deterministic. If you create the sims in CAS, or spawn it as a townie, the first one is always going to be Aries, and so on. If the sim is born from two existing sim parents, you'll get something else....but you'll ALWAYS get that something else every time you start the game and spawn a new baby from those two parents. Zero variation on that front whatsoever, unless you pop them out two in a row, cycle the generator by spawning sims someplace else (whether or not you save the outcome), or use the Lot Debugger.

[yetyak]

I have a family with 12 kids.  The first kid (who came with the game) is Capricorn.  They had 2 sets of twins, the second twin in each case is Virgo. The other 9 kids are Aires.  They are all very nice neat freaks just like their parents.  And they all pretty much look the same, Dad's black hair and Mom's custom turquoise eyes.

[Pegasys]

I thought I read that people would exit lots and reenter to change the gender / genetics of their child right before birth though?

[Karen]

I thought I read that people would exit lots and reenter to change the gender / genetics of their child right before birth though?

Absolutely.  I do this all the time.  However, to randomize the personality traits I think you need the Lot Debugger.

Karen

[yetyak]

I wouldn't ever think of the exit and reenter strategy in time... I might have to try that on the next overly large family. 

[Karen]

When the pregnant Sim goes into labor, she yells, then the camera zooms in to her as she stands there with a sort of goofy smile on her face.  If you pause the moment you hear her yell, there is plenty of time to hit the save button before she goes into labor.

Karen

[aeslis]

Lot debugger!  On it.

Man, you'd think that Maxis would actually make genetics more functional, since they're tooting the "look, we have genetics!" horn so loudy.

[jennydeenyc]

Ok, just to be clear before my next newly-engaged Sim couple starts breeding...

When is the best time to use the Rerandomize Sim Generator function on the Lot Debugger? Anytime after conception or only just when labor starts? Also, should I still be leaving & returning to the lot during labor when using the Rerandomize function? Thanks for the info, I can't wait to have more variety in my Sim siblings!

[Kyna]

I use it on day 3 of the pregnancy.  Usually I queue it up for the first sim up to do it first thing in the morning before anybody is using their cellphones, so I can safely save.  When my Obsessive Compulsive Simming gets the better of me, I note the time of the first bump, and know that the birth will occur in 2 days + 2 hours.  So long as I do it sometime after starting up the game for the day's play session and before the time of birth, it works.  You'll need to save before you click on the "rerandomize sim generator" option, as the option dumps you to the neighbourhood screen.  Since the action is queued I find that once the sim is in labour is probably not a good time, the sim is busy screaming and won't accept actions in the queue.  There's no need to save during labour with this option, unless you're after a particular gender for the baby.

[aeslis]

Just to be clear...

You don't <i>need</i> to leave the lot after using the option, but the game will force you out?  So, save beforehand?  And then when you re-enter the lot you won't need to do it again?

Sorry to be silly, but I'd rather be certain than not.

[Ness]

using the randomise option

1.  save game
2. hit option on debugger

the game then does its business - generates a random number of sims and then quits without saving so the sims are not saved, clogging up the neighbourhood.

3. re-enter lot and play as normal

[skandelouslala]

I encountered this problem when I first started playing..but once I learned out to play my game in a window it stopped..b/c I rarely exit the game unless I'm downloading lol...I just minimize the window.   Generations can be born before I decide to exit the game..so yeah.
I dunno if it's good for my comp or the game disk to leave it running for so long..but I do..ah well. 

[Kyna]

And then when you re-enter the lot you won't need to do it again?

As long as you haven't quit the game, you won't need to do it again.

Sometimes I'll have several imminent births in my neighbourhood.  I'll play one lot, rerandomise, sim gives birth.  Then in the same play session I might be on another lot with a sim due to give birth - in this case I don't need to rerandomise.

On the other hand, if I quit the game (to use SimPE or add stuff to my downloads folder, for example), then I'll need to rerandomise before the next birth.

[Hairfish]

The Lot Debugger will also tell you how many times it randomized. For example, the last two births I used it on, the first performed 11 randomizations (or whatever word JMP used in there), the second 23. I'd never have the patience to throw those CAS dice that many times!

[greeneyedsims]

Dag, this is some great information.  I've just started a fairly new neighborhood and I've been struggling to remember to go into CAS before I load the house to click random sims for about 15 to 20 times!  I was thinking to myself there has got to be an easier way!

I'm glad someone asked the question...I kept forgetting to.

----green  *runs to grab the Lot Debugger*   

[PlayLives]

Does saving right before the sim goes into labor (when she starts waving her arms) really enable you to get a different gender baby? I tried doing this but I kept getting the same gender.

[angelyne]

The baby is generated after that.  You know when it happens, the computer starts grinding and that pannel appears with the baby toy icons.

Keep trying, you just got unlucky.

[idtaminger]

Does saving right before the sim goes into labor (when she starts waving her arms) really enable you to get a different gender baby? I tried doing this but I kept getting the same gender.

Although if you're doing this w/ premade sims...Brandi Broke's 3rd kid is invariably a male clone of her. And Mortimer Goth keeps churning out female clones of himself in my game, regardless of the mother.