More Awesome Than You!

I've been playing around with several sims I've created and pre-built sims, and it seems to me that a lot of the traits do the opposite of what I would expect them to do.  The most obvious is Neurotic.

I haven't done rigourous testing on this, other traits may have had influence, but the sim I've noticed this on is an Excitable, Neurotic, Insane, Loser, Loner.  Career=Self Empoyed Writer

You can give them an instant buff just for checking to make sure the stove isn't on and an additional bonus at any time just by selecting the 'Freak Out' option on themselves.  If a chore is left undone, they get wishes to get the chore done - making the bed and washing the dishes come up a lot. (compare that to a Neat sim who will just do it and not get Lifetime Happiness or the mood buff for wish fulfillment).

These bonuses combined make this sim the easiest to play of all that I've tried (and Insane is hilarious to boot).  He is always in 'platinum' mood (By that I mean, white flashing indicating bonus Lifetime Happiness).  (Loner also helps since he has a separate room so always gets that buff)

His 'roomate with benefits' is an Athleric, Evil, Lucky, Hopeless Romantic, Hot-Headed (Career=Military) .  I've completed all wishes for each of them and the Neurotic sim has double the Lifetime Happiness and is almost always 'platinum'.

I would think Neurotic would be hard to play since they are described to always freak out (I would interpreat that as negative debuffs, but that dosn't seem to be the case).  I would rather see them becoming stressed when they think the stove is on and having it removed when they finally check it.  

Excitable, on the other hand, seems to affect mood not at all.  I've only seen it trigger once (when they first moved into their new home he did the campy giddy happy clap) but didn't seem to get a mood buff for it.

You need to queue up enough that your neat sim isn't doing the chores before the wish comes up or leave leftovers from the day before or whatever management strategy works for you because they definitely roll wishes to make the bed and clean the dishes (and the sink and the toilet and whatever) and get buffs for them. They also refuse to use dirty toilets (and I'd assume tubs and the like) so if you let all the toilets available get dirty, a neatnik will have an accident rather than go. Which is almost funny.

I've seen quite a few mood buffs for Excitable Sims, actually. Usually it's something social, like when you've invited over a friend/lover, or threw a party, etc etc. It pairs pretty well with Popularity/Romance style traits, since the game makes you do a ridiculous amount of social maintenance and it's pretty easy to force a "double dip" on all the stupid shit they roll up.

My excitable sim was having a pretty rotten day, and when she saw the repoman, she ran to the bathroom to vomit.  She wasn't pregnant, so I'm assuming it was nerves.   :P

I played a neurotic sim for a while, and she did get a debuff if I didn't have her check the sink often enough.  My current excitable sim gets a positive "Excited" moodlet every time she sees a friend/lover or gets promoted.  I haven't seen any negative effects yet, though.

My sim is a neurotic/loner combo, and since she has no job (writer), it's really easy to keep her happy. She has a constant solitude buff, freaking out puts her into a happy place, and as long as I keep one slot free for incoming "clean/repair whatever" wants, there's a nearly constant stream of LTH points. As for the "worry about" debuffs - you can turn them into peace of mind (?) buffs by simply checking the object in question. Not that my sim worries that much anyway - she practicely lives on inventory stuff, so she rarely ever uses the stove or sink.

The other benefit Nuerotics get is that shortly before leaving for work have them perform a 'freak - out', then select 'work hard' while at work, they won't get the 'stressed-out' moodlet and before you know it, Job Promotion.

Good grief, I've got to try that.

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.
                          money

Been playing a new family, and I do see now that excitable does get a moodlet for parties, having friends over and promotion.  Because my neurotic was a loner and stay-at home writer, I never noticed.

I also see that neurotics get a debuff if you don't check an object enough.  I got in the habit of only checking the stove when I needed a moodlet and he got paranoid after his roomate fixed the sink.  I could see that being an issue if he was at work or something.

The reason my sim was so easy to keep happy, I learned after posting, is that the over-emotional trait enhances all moodlets.  Because I was able to get a lot of moodlets by a combination of loner, brush teeth, gussy up, freak out, check stove and having music playing, that kept him pretty much full even with a few negatives, when it wouldn't for a non over-emotional sim (they'd need a few more)

My Snob sim gets two good moodlets from the mirror. I make her Gussy Up and Admire Self in the morning and she goes to work with "I'm Beautiful" and "Attractive" moodlets. I like her, she's conceited. She does it on her own too.

Oh god, I've got a Snob, and I have to literally drag him away from the mirrors or he'll spend all day admiring himself. While it's a nice little buff, he doesn't have to do it like three times in a row!  ::)

LOL And I thought it was just childish sims you had to drag away from the mirror :D No moodlet though, he just enjoys playing with it ::)

I've found neat sims are very easy to keep happy; it probably helps this one that he lives with two slobby brothers, but he's always getting wants to clean stuff. He also wanted to hire a maid, but he gets most of the stuff done before said maid gets there. As far as using dirty toilets/baths - it's not that they refuse, the option's actually disabled.

I neglected two of my Sims toddlers and had them to blow out candles. Got the message that I couldn't choose traits, one got "virtuoso" and the other "daredevil". I hate babies and toddlers and have a hell of debuff with the darned training. Happy to hear that I can neglect them.  :D

Am I the only one who's bothered by the fact that the "Commitment Issues" trait makes sims reject gifts below a certain value? Shouldn't they reject valuable gifts because they're weirded out or scared by commitment?

Necromancy is bad, and mostly off-topic, non-important necromancy is worse.