My Ramaswamis are clones....

[ZephyrZodiac]

Right, Priya and Sanjay are both desperate for a baby, but despite upping the odds as high as they would go, they never have any luck.  So, since even the Trying for Baby pop-up didn't appear (Casual Romance installed, of course) I decided to check them out in SimPE, and discovered that they have identical DNA!  Various ideas came into my head as to why this should be the case, but I can only assume that Eaxis has some rather twisted idea of what's clever!

So, it seems that, unless I can alter the DNA of one of them, the game won't actually let them breed!  So, do I let them each have an affair in order to satisfy the want, or do I attempt to change the DNA?  If so, does anyone know a safe way of doing it, bearing in mind I don't want to recreate the couple since they are already in game - I just want to add a bit of interest to playing that household.

[Kyna]

Identical DNA wouldn't stop them trying for baby.  I've created an identical male & female couple in CAS before (one was simply a clone of the other with gender changed, so they were identical not just in their hair/skin/eyes but also in their facial structure), and they were able to breed.

One thing that would stop them trying for baby is if the game saw them as family but not as spouses - check their relationship to each other in SimPE to see if their relationship is undefined or some other non-spouse relationship.

[J. M. Pescado]

How do you KNOW they have "identical DNA"? By reading the SDNAs? SDNAs only contain information like hair, eye, skin, and facial feature dominance. Even having all of these identical between two sims does not make them clones.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Identical DNA wouldn't stop them trying for baby.  I've created an identical male & female couple in CAS before (one was simply a clone of the other with gender changed, so they were identical not just in their hair/skin/eyes but also in their facial structure), and they were able to breed.

One thing that would stop them trying for baby is if the game saw them as family but not as spouses - check their relationship to each other in SimPE to see if their relationship is undefined or some other non-spouse relationship.

Well, yes, they are marked as family, but also as spouses, and I've had plenty of family sims who see their spouse as family and have no problems  I did think of unchecking the box, but I was worried about the DNA.

How do you KNOW they have "identical DNA"? By reading the SDNAs? SDNAs only contain information like hair, eye, skin, and facial feature dominance. Even having all of these identical between two sims does not make them clones.

Thanks, JM, I hadn't realised there was more to DNA than that, so does it just mean that the same face template was used for each of them, or something like that, and would they therefore have normal babies if I can actually get them to have any?

[Kyna]

They should be marked as family.  However, my point was they should also be listed as spouses.  If their relationship says "unknown or undefined" or is something other than spouses, then you need to change it to spouses.

Disclaimer: this may not be your problem, I was just throwing it in as an idea, as it's something easily found & fixed in SimPE.

[GayJohnScarritt]

   Personal opinion, sounds like a hack conflict is interferring with that particular family.
   Question, are you playing them in Riverblossom Hills Neighborhood (which their story leads one to play them at).  The Ramaswamis were the family that got drafted a couple weeks ago, to test Inge's Nanny hack for my particular game.  They had no problem having kids, she got pregnant twice (cheesecaked the 2nd time for twins).  All natural pregnancies with ACR.  I was playing them in a new Pleasantview Neighborhood.  Something to check at least, removing your downloads, can they then get pregnant?

[J. M. Pescado]

Thanks, JM, I hadn't realised there was more to DNA than that, so does it just mean that the same face template was used for each of them, or something like that, and would they therefore have normal babies if I can actually get them to have any?

No, it literally means absolutely nothing other than that they share skin, eye, and hair color (which is unsurprising as they're meant to be similar-race people), and that their dominant-features (which are determined purely by random chance at sim-installation) are the same. The actual facial features themselves are stored in a LXNR on their character file and are not human-readable. There is nothing wrong with them and they should behave normally.

[aussieone]

I've also bred them without problem. Sometimes, even with ACR's pregnancy odds turned up high, I've found it takes quite a few tries for some couples to conceive. Obviously you've made sure that their tokens are set to try for baby allowed? Just a thought as I've forgotten that on occasion, only to realise my 'duh' moment later on.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Oh, they're correctly marked as spouses, that's the first thing I checked.

I know that sometimes it takes a while for a couple to conceive, but I think these two must have tried a dozen times so far, all the correct options in ACR are checked, but so far nothing doing, and they are, apart from the parrot, the only occupants of the lot, so unless the game is reading a lot of extra character files than are actually there, overpopulation of the lot isn't a problem, nor is overpopulation in the hood as other couples seem to have no problem - but then they don't actually WANT a baby!  My Romance sims are forever having to take the morning after pill till they can afford a bigger house or send the teens off to college!  However,  Spring is approaching, so maybe that will have an effect!

[Kyna]

With ACR, do you have the TFB dialog turned on, so that you can see the rolls (i.e. first roll to see if they will try for baby, second roll to see if TFB is successful)?  If so, what is the aspiration adjustment on the first roll?  A popularity/popularity couple should have an aspiration adjustment of -20.  If either of them have a second aspiration, then you'll need either TJ's fix or Pescado's fix for the EAxis bug where the game misreads the aspiration.

Alternatively, if they keep failing the first roll, it could just be sadorandomness at work.

How many days old is she according to her token stats on the ACR adjuster?  If you've been trying for a couple of sim-weeks she may now be getting too old to try for baby under ACR.

Do they have the standard EAxis "try for baby" option?  If the standard EAxis try for baby is available, but they're not getting pregnant under ACR, then it's most likely a problem wth ACR.  In that case it's probably best to follow this up with TwoJeffs at Inteen.

[Zazazu]

Yes, why not just try the old-fashioned way?

I played the Ramiswamis as my Seasons test family. They had six kids. No fertility issues whatsoever, as if that were possible.

[Count Four]

I believe that under ACR the number of children the couple already has effects the odds, and may have lowered their chances. You might be better off resorting to EAxis Try For Baby in that case.

(Though I recently had a couple that, according to ACR, were supposed to be get pregnant, but didn't. Positive rolls, but no chimes, no baby. I uninstalled and reinstalled ACR, on the off chances that there was a problem with the files on my computer, and after that it worked properly.)

[ZephyrZodiac]

To answer the last poster first, they have no kids at all yet!

Kyna, I do have the dialogue turned on, it just doesn't seem to be working for them, even though it works for everyone else!  Looks like Zazazu may be right and I need to resort to the old-fashioned method!  And they aren't all that old, and they keep taking the old elixir every couple of sim days.....and I've had far older sims get pregnant with ACR.  And no secondary aspirations, I haven't even installed BV yet - after three months with no decent desktop, I'm only just getting back into Seasons, and none of my sims apart from the Viejos and the Roths can afford holidays , so I shall wait awhile before I install it.

I may try uninstalling ACR as Count Four suggests, it just may be something to do with the way the neighbourhood has been set up a few sims at a time, so maybe uninstalling it will clear the glitches - it's just a nuisance to have to do that as I've set every single lot's acceptances and it means doing that all over again!

[ZephyrZodiac]

Just posted again to let you know, I played them again and this time before I even had a chance to use the traditional method they'd taken themselves off to the sofa, and this time everything was fine, and Priya is now in the throes of morning sickness!

[aussieone]

Just out of curiousity, did you uninstall ACR as Count Four suggested, or was it something that just cleared itself randomly? It would be handy to know for future reference.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Think it was just a random thing, I didn't uninstall ACR, but I did get Sanjay to take a dose of elixir so he was the same age as Priya again.....The only other thing I can think of is I did check the try for baby dialogue option again, and for some reason, although I KNOW I had set it to show the dialogue, for some reason it was set to NOT show the dialogue, whether it was part of the dynamics thing I don't know.  I hadn't run Set Up Hood since I first installed the version I have running now, so it wasn't that which changed the dialogue option, so random dynamics seems to be the only possibility - and it's odd that it should matter so much as most of my sims get pregnant while that is set to off anyway!

[J. M. Pescado]

This is not the ACR support board. If your ACR is not letting you get pregnant, that sounds like a personal problem to me, soldier.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Hey, it wasn't me that thought it was an ACR problem - if I'd thought that, I'd have contacted TJ instead of posting here - I honestly thought it was something to do with their genetics.

[Swiftgold]

*Does* that pregnancy token thing affect fertility besides just twins? I've had several Sims who Woohoo all the time, especially now on ACR, and either never had kids or it took upwards of 30 or more Woohoos... maybe it's just sado-randomness, but at the same time I do like having -some- of my Sims who don't breed...

[Ellatrue]

I don't think they should have identical DNA. The two girls they had in my game looked different.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Thanks, Ellatrue, that's a relief!  Just hope they get Priya's nose and not Sanjay's.  Why do so many male Maxis sims have a nose that wouldn't look out of place on a toucan?

[miramis]

It might be ACR because it takes into account their age and other things.  Have you checked your pregnancy odds and the documentation for any clues?

I have had the occasional couple that has taken a lot of tries (over 20 for one couple iirc) before getting pregnant (without ACR) so it could be that the RNG hates you atm.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Think it must have hated the Ramaswamis...but everything's fine now, time to build on a nursery!