Not so random randomness

[myskaal]

Long story short I'm spawning some dormies for my Uni and they're being spewed out almost all (definately +90%) are being generated with a dark skintone (my tones between 7-9) and blond hair. Since I haven't had a problem with townies being spawned with this much same-ness before, I'm thinking this is one of those incidents of stuckness the game sometimes gets... stuck... in.

Anyone found a trick or 3 that relieves these little sticky moments?

[Gwill]

I always get black townies with red hair.  And I'm using a very dark #4 skin replacement, and tend to download fairly light (carroty) red hairs.  It looks awful.

[Magicmoon]

Doesn't the lot debugger help with that? I'm drawing a blank at the moment, but the one that you run before Sims give birth. It generates a random number of Sims then disposes them. That should get you past your present stuck place.

[myskaal]

I'll give the debugger a whirl. I did it the old fashioned way (loaded up CAS and hit the random button about a dozen times) and then went about building before moving my sims in.

I've gotten a few with red hair, too, but the game is definately loving the dark skin tones... and one particular custom dark skintone more than the rest even. One of those things you like to giggle at on the random sim, but when it's one right after the other, followed by the white guy with black dreads, and then back to the dark-skinned blondes... well. 

[kuronue]

Clearly your randomizer has been playing a bit too much Forgotten Realms and has a real hankering to play a CG drow. If any of them turn up duel-wielding scimitars, I'd suggest a total reinstall and complete isolation from all things DnD

[myskaal]

So using the lot debugger's rerandomizer didn't help. The game is still choosing to spit out majority .80 skintoned with blond hair (and a couple red) sims.  it is in fact choosing one of my custom skins rather than the .90 default. I have no idea why the game would decide that skintone to be the most popular.

Meh. Yay for SimPE. I just need to find out if it's possible to change hair the same way it is to change skintone and I'll get over it.

[J. M. Pescado]

I always get black townies with red hair.  And I'm using a very dark #4 skin replacement, and tend to download fairly light (carroty) red hairs.  It looks awful.

Catch being that Sims treats skin and hair genetics are completely unrelated, which is not entirely true in real life.

So using the lot debugger's rerandomizer didn't help. The game is still choosing to spit out majority .80 skintoned with blond hair (and a couple red) sims.  it is in fact choosing one of my custom skins rather than the .90 default. I have no idea why the game would decide that skintone to be the most popular.

Probably when generating a random skintone, the game probably picks a number between 0.0 and 1.0 or somesuch and picks the closest skin. That would likely end up being your .80 a lot.

[Madame Mim]

I've found that (unlike eyes and skins) when you change the genetic hair you still need to get hold of the Sim inside the game and change the displayed hair.

[jsalemi]

I've found that (unlike eyes and skins) when you change the genetic hair you still need to get hold of the Sim inside the game and change the displayed hair.

Well, that makes sense, since you can change their hair to any color in the game (just like in RL -- we don't know what my wife's genetic hair color is anymore ) -- you can't change their eyes or skin tone without special hacks.

One interesting side effect of that is that the hair many NPCs wear isn't their genetic hair.  For example, I found out by accident that Katalyn the maid (the one Daniel Pleasant has the hots for) is genetically a blonde, and actually looks a lot better as a blonde.

[Zazazu]

On the subject of non-random randomness, I'm having a tiny-eye outbreak. It actually started before my latest custom neighborhood while still using the normal face templates. All NPC's spawned with what I call tiny eyes. Basically, they are squinched looking. Face shapes were still variable, as were other features. I then started a new custom neighborhood with the clean templates. I got some template replacements before spawning townies. The templates look fine when I choose them in CAS, just one or two with tiny eyes but that's normal. Still, almost every freaking townie has tiny eyes. Rolling for a random sim in CAS gives me all tiny eyes.

Grr.

I was planning on doing some of my own template replacements since I personally prefer big, almost anime eyes in my simmies, but I'm hesitant to do so since it's a pain in the nether regions.

[SaraMK]

On the subject of non-random randomness, I'm having a tiny-eye outbreak. It actually started before my latest custom neighborhood while still using the normal face templates. All NPC's spawned with what I call tiny eyes. Basically, they are squinched looking. Face shapes were still variable, as were other features. I then started a new custom neighborhood with the clean templates. I got some template replacements before spawning townies. The templates look fine when I choose them in CAS, just one or two with tiny eyes but that's normal. Still, almost every freaking townie has tiny eyes. Rolling for a random sim in CAS gives me all tiny eyes.

The way you describe this, it sounds like you may have downloaded sims that are facial templates. There are no default Maxis face templates that have disproportionately tiny eyes, but these downloadable sims do.

Check this thread: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,7828.0.html

[Zazazu]

On the subject of non-random randomness, I'm having a tiny-eye outbreak. It actually started before my latest custom neighborhood while still using the normal face templates. All NPC's spawned with what I call tiny eyes. Basically, they are squinched looking. Face shapes were still variable, as were other features. I then started a new custom neighborhood with the clean templates. I got some template replacements before spawning townies. The templates look fine when I choose them in CAS, just one or two with tiny eyes but that's normal. Still, almost every freaking townie has tiny eyes. Rolling for a random sim in CAS gives me all tiny eyes.

The way you describe this, it sounds like you may have downloaded sims that are facial templates. There are no default Maxis face templates that have disproportionately tiny eyes, but these downloadable sims do.

Check this thread: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,7828.0.html

Hmm. The only sims I've downloaded before I noticed a tiny-eye outbreak have huge anime eyes. However, there's a couple of other sims I have showing as downloaded that I'm honestly not sure of the origins. I never remember downloading them because until three weeks ago I'd never consciously downloaded a whole sim (seemed a waste of my already wasted space). I don't need the ones I downloaded on purpose anymore as I've already used the in-game, so I'll try deleting all custom sims tonight and see if the CAS roller will give me something more normal. I'm thoroughly sick seeing those nearsighted-like simmies and the Oversoul has been working overtime killing off ugly progeny of my big-eyed/tiny-eyed couples.

[SaraMK]

If any sims came with face templates, there is an easy way to check.

Create a male adult sim. Click the #3 button in CAS. This is where you can edit specific parts of the face. Click the picture that shows the full face. If there is anything there before the heart-shaped face, you have downloaded a sim that is a facial template.

Do the same for a female adult sim.

[Zazazu]

Yeah, the only sim template I had was one of myself from a year ago, far as I could figure. Normal eyes. However, I glanced through my CAS templates again and noticed a whole bunch of squinched ones towards the back. It was Doc Doofus's set, which doesn't have too many previews to look at beforehand. I'm now using another new set...Selzi's from MTS2, and my random rolls were looking a bit better. Not as big as I generally prefer my eyes, but at least I could see the things. At least I have one drop dead gorgeous townie that came out of the whole episode...Doris Drake. My current playable girl went a little ACR crazy and decided to bork her while she was visiting.

[SaraMK]

Yeah, default replacements can be hit or miss. I finally made my own because most of the ones up for download had something wrong with them, like they didn't include both the regular and the high-res versions, or the creator stuck too closely to the Maxis prototypes. I just hated the Maxis faces so much that I wanted to get as far away from them as possible. Plus I cannot stand the awful weird eyelash bar that people insist on using on every sim... drives me crazy. Unfortunately after playing with my set for a while I realized that it, too, has serious flaws. The sims are basically all beautiful white people. No variety. At all. I feel a bit uncomfortable with the whole thing now. Originally I just used a bunch of downloaded sims from MTS2, Insim, Lyran... I picked them because I thought they were cute, and didn't realize how bland my set was becoming as I was making it. I will have to replace a few of them when I feel up to doing something so tedious again.

[myskaal]

I've finally got a very nice mix and match of CAS facials from various creators. There's enough out there now and where I didn't like one from one I found I did like that one from another and so on until finally they all look just right for me.

I never did like DocDoofus', though. They all looked exactly the same to me for some reason.

[Ambular]

Yeah, default replacements can be hit or miss. I finally made my own because most of the ones up for download had something wrong with them, like they didn't include both the regular and the high-res versions, or the creator stuck too closely to the Maxis prototypes. I just hated the Maxis faces so much that I wanted to get as far away from them as possible. Plus I cannot stand the awful weird eyelash bar that people insist on using on every sim... drives me crazy. Unfortunately after playing with my set for a while I realized that it, too, has serious flaws. The sims are basically all beautiful white people. No variety. At all. I feel a bit uncomfortable with the whole thing now. Originally I just used a bunch of downloaded sims from MTS2, Insim, Lyran... I picked them because I thought they were cute, and didn't realize how bland my set was becoming as I was making it. I will have to replace a few of them when I feel up to doing something so tedious again.

Hmm, would you consider sharing?  I'm thinking of doing a composite set and it would be nice to have some more options.

Also, what exactly is a template Sim?  Is it just a Sim you download and it acts like an extra CAS face template?  Is it possible to make them?  *Is curious*

[SaraMK]

Hmm, would you consider sharing?  I'm thinking of doing a composite set and it would be nice to have some more options.

Also, what exactly is a template Sim?  Is it just a Sim you download and it acts like an extra CAS face template?  Is it possible to make them?  *Is curious*

I'll see about uploading my replacements somewhere.

Yes, template sims are sims (made by Maxis) that act exactly like a CAS face template. But trust me, you do not want these uglies in your game! There are pictures and links in this thread: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,7828.0.html   You could, however, replace the face templates with something different, just like you would create a default replacement using Motoki's method. There are five sims that are known to be templates, so this would give you an extra five templates that are usable by townies and NPC's. Variety is good.

As far as creating new ones, Motoki was looking into it, but I don't think he made any progress before disappearing. I had the thought in the back of my mind that I would take a look at it, but I haven't so far. I have a huge list of things I need to finish or update, and both school and work are driving me crazy, so I don't know when I'll find the time. If anyone wanted to do this, I would start by comparing the downloadable Maxis sims with a plain player-created Bodyshop sim. Then I would see if anything inside the files looks at all like the method of making clothing and skintones available to townies might be applicable.

[Ambular]

Hmm, would you consider sharing?  I'm thinking of doing a composite set and it would be nice to have some more options.

Also, what exactly is a template Sim?  Is it just a Sim you download and it acts like an extra CAS face template?  Is it possible to make them?  *Is curious*

I'll see about uploading my replacements somewhere.

Yes, template sims are sims (made by Maxis) that act exactly like a CAS face template. But trust me, you do not want these uglies in your game! There are pictures and links in this thread: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,7828.0.html   You could, however, replace the face templates with something different, just like you would create a default replacement using Motoki's method. There are five sims that are known to be templates, so this would give you an extra five templates that are usable by townies and NPC's. Variety is good.

As far as creating new ones, Motoki was looking into it, but I don't think he made any progress before disappearing. I had the thought in the back of my mind that I would take a look at it, but I haven't so far. I have a huge list of things I need to finish or update, and both school and work are driving me crazy, so I don't know when I'll find the time. If anyone wanted to do this, I would start by comparing the downloadable Maxis sims with a plain player-created Bodyshop sim. Then I would see if anything inside the files looks at all like the method of making clothing and skintones available to townies might be applicable.

Hmm, that's interesting.  I wouldn't think it should be *too* hard.  And no, I wouldn't use the Maxis ones, but if we could figure out how to make them then we could expand our own template sets, theoretically to unlimited sizes.  Neat!  *Goes to investigate*

[SaraMK]

Hmm, that's interesting.  I wouldn't think it should be *too* hard.  And no, I wouldn't use the Maxis ones, but if we could figure out how to make them then we could expand our own template sets, theoretically to unlimited sizes.  Neat!  *Goes to investigate*

I don't think it should be impossible. The code is obviously inside the files. It's just a matter of recognizing it for what it is, and I really think a thorough comparison between a template and a non-template sim would get results.

It may help to check out Motoki's original thread, which I am guessing is still in Peasantry somewhere. I really can't recall what he was trying to do, and how, and whether he made any progress. I just remember he said he was looking into it.

[SaraMK]

Huzzah! 1000 posts!

 

[Ambular]

Huzzah! 1000 posts!

 

LOL, congratulations!  XD