More Awesome Than You!

Just now I was bitching that my Sims all feel the same, regardless of personality traits.  Yet that's not entirely true.  Some seem to be more visible than others.

Ones that have stood out for me, mainly because of moodlets or meaningful additional behavior:

Neurotic - lots of Cleaning wishes pop up, and check-the-sink behavior.  And Freak Out, though I usually forget to use that.
Neat - mostly wishes, the "extra clean" action isn't very visible.
Grumpy - mostly because it's a permanent -15 or 20 (not sure) invisible moodlet.
Hates the Outdoors - much more visible than Loves, since they constantly get the "go indoors" Want, and occasionally the "hide in house for 2 days" want.
Loner - the "too many people" moodlet often turns work from a neutral mood to a negative one.
Insane - I haven't played any of these, but it's bleeding obvious when a townie is insane.
Childish - similar to Insane
Kleptomaniac

There are several that have definite game bonuses, but aren't very visible.  Genius has well-defined effects, for example, but my non-Genius sims want to play chess just as often, and the bonuses don't stand out when I'm playing.

There are some that seem near-pointless, like Daredevil or Evil.  Slapping "evil" or "extreme" on every action doesn't change a damned thing.  Evil does get the "enjoy suffering" moodlet, and the "Steal Candy from Baby" action, but it's pretty minor.

 - Gus

Well the bulk of these traits really center on idle animations so that's why it's very noticeable for townies, not so much at all for playing controlled sims since most of us will probably constantly have them doing things.

It does open up more socials but many or negative or useless, unless you want to play tag as an adult. :P

Childish does also get cuddle time moodlet for sleeping with a teddy bear in their inventory like a toddler or child does, and I admit I rather like that ability. :P


Remind me of Austin Powers:


Scott: I like animals... maybe I'd be a vet!
Dr. Evil: An evil vet?
Scott: No! Maybe like work in a petting zoo.
Dr.Evil: An evil petting zoo?
Scott: YOU ALWAYS DO THAT!

"Workaholic", has a SIGNIFICANT effect because your sim can grind performance to make sure he gets the promotion.
"Unlucky", makes your sim Invincible.
"Ambitious", permanent +2 work PPH, +?% to all asp awards.
"Brave", immune to freaking out at fires, +3 work PPH LE/Mil
"Evil", immune to Darkness, +3 work PPH Criminal, +5 to hit.
"Mean", +5 to hit (doesn't stack with Evil)
"Loser", 100% miss chance vs. non-Loser.
"Over Emotional", +?% to all moodlets.
"Green Thumb", can resurrect deathflower bush.

That's basically the list of traits that have a meaningful make-or-break effect (job PPH is a big make-or-break factor because stacking PPH bonii can make or break your promotion cycle). Also, evil petting zoos FTW.

For some reason I had always felt that all extreme actions should give the adrenaline rush moodlet, not just that stupid "watch this!" thing.  It makes so much more sense that way.

Personally, I love the Frugal sims ability to find cupons in the newspaper and online (but not so much online because of how freaking long it seems to take).  It's true that a good portion of the cupons are for stupid stuff, but I love the 75% blowouts when they're for something I actually want or at least can use.  It's certainly one of my favourite traits.  I barely ever send any of my sims to the spa unless I have a cupon for it.

I find the Family Oriented sims ability to teach toddlers faster is quite helpful in a game devoid of Smartmilk and the Fall season.  I have been so spoiled by TS2 since Seasons -- I used to plan my sims pregnacies so the babies would be toddlers in the Fall.  It was so freaking easy that way...  *sigh*

I like the coupon CONCEPT, but the fact that they never look for them in any kind of DIRECTED manner, always pulling utterly useless coupons for stuff no one ever wants, sort of undermines the point when you evaluate the actual time-cost involved in doing so.

Does working at home actually do anything to raise job performance? I sat there watching my sim do it for several sim hours but her job performance bar did not go up at all.

Also, does Lucky effect chances of anything? I feel like it does but don't have any hard data on it.

Supposedly Angler and Natural Cook give some Fishing and Cooking bonuses respectively. I feel like they're relatively minor though.

One significant aspect of Traits is when sims share traits (obviously, I guess!). It makes conversations and friendships easier between them, and I *think* they get some extra interactions (have to check that).

I like the exciteable trait, because they get extra positive moodlets for meeting up with friends. It's cute!

I have an evil sim who reached the top of the Criminal career, and he has an Aura of Evil (which must come from the career and not the trait, but maybe he rose faster because of the trait), and he scares the townies just by being near them. It can sometimes be annoying, because they all start running around like headless chickens.

Natural Cook gives you +1 food quality, once you get the "Kick It Up A Notch" interaction.  Usually you must do this manually when they cook, but they sadorandomly decide to do it on their own now and then.  They can give +1 food quality to foods other Sims cook with this action as well.

There's a thread in the Facts & Strategry board which gives the effects of Lucky in XML.  There's a host of stuff it affects.  Mostly it prevents failures like item breakage, getting shocked, and getting robbed, making them impossible.

I discovered last night that a Sim Commitment Issues still enjoys getting married, and even though she Dislikes Children she still enjoys being pregnant and rolls Baby wants once pregnant.  I was sort of expecting the Commitment Issues / Dislikes Children combo to give her the Fears of a Romance Sim, but in practice it just means she has to like her boyfriend more to get married, and wasn't reluctant to spawn at all.

 - Gus

Working at home should cause their work performance to increase.  I've had workaholic sims earn enough to get a full promition in one sleepless night on their computer.

Natural cook is a tiny bit more subtle but they will never burn food and can save you a bit of money when keeping your sims happy with food related moodlets with the "kick it up a notch" interaction they get with meals.  It makes it very easy to get "perfect" meals out of less than perfect ingredients.

The only thing I have noticed with Angler (and this could be strictly cooncidence since I've only ever made 2 sims with that trait) is that they seem to catch better quality fish a bit sooner than sims without it.  I don't find that overly usefull because any sims given enough time to max out the skill will end up catching plenty of high quality fish anyway.

I feel like getting robbed is pretty darned near impossible anyhow, but then again I have always felt the Sims games made the chances of it too low.


Ugh, that is so stupid. The descriptions written for those traits make it sound like they want nothing at all to do with marriage or kids ever.

Bit of a shame that doesn't happen with my so-called "Lucky" sim then. She's been robbed three times in two weeks and electrocuted twice whilst repairing an expensive TV (which keeps breaking, I might add). All of these happened with the "feeling lucky" moodlet active. The Lucky trait seems to be a waste of a slot and seems to do little more than make her applaud herself in that stupid, timewasting manner (you know the one - where the sim will yell out a load of gibberish whilst clapping for no apparent reason and will queuestomp anything to do it) whenever she gets out of bed or out of a car, as though waking up or arriving for work was lucky in itself.

Useless, useless trait.

I don't think that is entirely right - I had a natural cook sim and early on, before he developed too much in the way of cooking skill, he cooked and burnt a meal.  I made the error of putting the leftovers in the fridge and the couple were 'bleughing' out over it for ages after he actually cooked the meal - every time they got a plate of it.  I think the last serving of it is still in there.  He's gone on to rataouille and more exotic stuff now.

I believe that the Natural Cook will not set fire to the kitchen, but can still burn meals when learning. That's what mine did. Once they get good, they get really good. I took Zazazu's advice and had my level 10 NC make a bunch of food and store it in that fancy fridge from the culinary career for his kids when he died. They ate for weeks without cooking.

I've not had a spawner with the Dislikes Children trait before, but I currently have one with Commitment Issues (who is also Family Oriented). He immediately rolled the want to break up with his spouse after marriage. He also would autonomously worry over the commitment to others...especially to his mother-in-law, who would get pissed off about it and then try to hit on him due to her new widow status and Flirty trait.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the best point of Neat. The macro-clean ability of "Clean House".

They have that? Wow I am going to have to use it. I've been looking for something like that since SC doesn't have that option unlike the TS2 SC (or whatever the heck it was called).

Sometimes they get negative moodlets about something being dirty and I really don't feel like searching every damned object in a large room with a lot of junk in it to figure out what it is, or sometimes I just want them to clean everything and be done with it without having to queue each item to clean up individually.

Hmm, when I edited my nannies (aka babysitters modded to be Elders) in the CAS I made them neat. Userunknown had them always generate being slobs unless that was not him but some sort of EAoid 'feature'.  ::) I will keep an eye on them and see if they also autonomously clean.

So far they've just been doing stupid things like play foosball, but that just makes them remind me of the TS2 nannies even more. :P

Perfectionist also makes higher quality meals and can sell a painting for more money than would be received without that trait.

I find the lucky trait to be a great advantage. The birthday cake hasn't caught on fire and a burglar hasn't shown up.

That's the sort of thing I wanted to see.  I deliberately paired the Commitment Issues / Dislikes Children female with a Family Oriented male to see if I could get any fireworks, but so far she's been a happy little breeder.  The only effect so far was that she rejected his first marriage proposal, but readily accepted when I took the time to build up the relationship a bit more.  That, and the -15 moodlet for being around her own spawn while she fulfills the "Teach to Talk" want she rolled.

I'm not sure what "worry over commitment" looks like, though.  It's an animation?

 - Gus

It's an interaction like Chat or Enthuse about (X).

It can cause quite a relationship hit as well.

Since I'm a skill whore, I find that genius can be useful, as getting your Logic skill up more quickly means getting your other skills (aside from Charisma and Body) up more quickly as well. Bookworm can be useful if you skill from books, though the speed boost isn't always noticeable.

The boosts that lucky gives are pretty negligible compared to the fun that unlucky provides. Indestructibility is useful in high-risk households.

Does bookworm make writing books take less time too? Some of those longer books take forever.

Does it also stack with the library study environment bonus?

Lucky isn't an intrinsically useful trait because all the benefits it gives are generally to avoiding events that are already easily avoidable or counterable. The same arguments generally apply to Unlucky as well, but Unlucky comes with an amusing perk that lets you torture them better.

I wish xP They write better, but not necessarily faster (I've not noticed a difference in speed, anyway).

As for daredevil, apparently it means you don't need to worry about a smoke alarm. They love to get involved with fire, and I've heard of one case where he put one out before the firefighter NPC got a chance. My latest one often hopes for a fire to start - interestingly enough though, there's been no extreme anything on his menu. Maybe he needs to up his body skill first? (Does that even do anything? My first daredevil was Christopher Steel, and although he had the "Extreme" thing, it didn't seem to make any difference.)


Oh yes, I regularly abuse that feature :) Neat sims do have one drawback though - when leaving children's books scattered about the floor so the toddlers can read, you have to watch them like a hawk. I had to keep stopping the neat father from putting them away, and had to leave off the "clean house" while the kids were tots.

I was rather disappointed when my "brave" sim ran away from the emperor of evil like a pussy.

I've noticed them write novels faster.  I can't believe it was just my immagination.  I had one Bookworm and one non-Bookworm in the same household and Bookworm could write an entire SciFi or Fantasy novel in one sim day and still take care of his motives (no cheating at all involved) while the other guy was lucky to finish 40% of a book in the same amount of time.  Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that they write faster in the Library, though that certainly would be helpful even for Bookworms.

Doesn't the number of books they have read also effect how fast they write though? Did these two sims both read the same amount of books?

There is a fixed (but XML-tuneable) threshold for the amout of books read that makes a difference -- in my game it's currently 12 books, but I don't remember if that's what the default was. Once they have read more than that number, they get a small bonus on their writing speed.

More importantly though, not all books are the same length -- there is a min and max per genre, the actual page count will be a random number in between. So when one sim writes a kid's book (that can perhaps be max. 90 pages long) and the other one a drama that will be between 400 and 600, certainly the first sim will be finished much earlier.

Bookworm gets a separate bonus on writing speed, there are other factors too -- here's an excerpt (from my current file, these are not the actual defaults, but the keys are the same). PPM means "Pages Per Minute":

    <kRateBasePPM value=".05">
      <!--The base PPM a Sim will write with no other bonuses added -->
    </kRateBasePPM>
    <kRateMaxBooksReadPPM value=".03">
      <!--The amount added to the total PPM if the number of books a Sim has read is >= 'kMaxBooksRead' -->
    </kRateMaxBooksReadPPM>
    <kRateBookWormBonusPPM value=".02">
      <!--If a Sim is a book worm, this is added to their total PPM -->
    </kRateBookWormBonusPPM>
    <kRateMaxWritingSkillPPM value=".1">
      <!--A Sim with max writing skill will have this amount added to their total PPM -->
    </kRateMaxWritingSkillPPM>
    <kRateMaxBooksWrittenPPM value=".05">
      <!--The amount added to the total PPM if the number of books a Sim has written is >= 'kMaxBooksWritten' -->
    </kRateMaxBooksWrittenPPM>
    <kRateMaxBooksRead value="12">
      <!--The 'Books Read' bonus is cut off after the Sim has read this many books.-->
    </kRateMaxBooksRead>
    <kRateMaxBooksWritten value="6">
      <!--The 'Books Written' bonus is cut off after the Sim has written this many books.-->
    </kRateMaxBooksWritten>

    <kRateSpeedWriterMultiplier value="1.5">
      <!--The final PPM rate is multiplied by this if the Sim is a speed writer.-->
    </kRateSpeedWriterMultiplier>

Natural cooks can also learn recipes without buying them through socialization with other sims. I also read (I think it was on here somewhere) that they can learn the recipe from eating the meal.

Sims can also learn random recipes by watching the Cookin' Cable, but I don't know if this is related to the Natural Cook trait.

My regular sim has been able to learn recipies from talking about cooking with Natural Cook sims, even though she was not one herself.

I like Good Sense of Humour. Unless you're socializing with someone grumpy / No sense of humour, all of those funny interactions seem to build up the relationship faster than plain ol chatting, telling stories, etc.

I didn't know they can learn through socialization, my sim with Natural Cook trait learned all the recipes by eating 'in' the bistro. You can even learn how to cook ambrosia with this method (but not the rejuvenating effect). I know that eating out takes less time, but sometimes my sim just put the dish down without eating if there is a sim nearby the table she was about put the plate. And outside the bistro, dishes tend to disappear rather quickly if no one occupies it.

Recently I made my sim with Perfectionist trait to cook every dish known perfectly just for fun (not just perfect dish, but until they hit 'Perfect' stage in the journal). I quickly regret the decision but kept going anyway... It took all day in real life, and 100+ game days without any other activity. I really should have erased Perfectionist trait. I had to constantly cheat her mood up and delete the Stir Crazy moodlet occasionally. Anyway, she was already level 10 in Cooking when started with level 0 dish Mac and Cheese, and didn't burn a single helping - until Baked Angel Food Cake & Lobster Thermidor. She was rather short on flame fruits, so I quickly addtraited Natural Cook. After that I made her cook 30+ dishes of both, and not a single dish burned. If your sim cooks level 10 meals frequently, I think Natural Cook is very good trait to keep.

Sorry for babbling, and sorry for any gramatical errors. It's very hard to write in English. :-[

I didn't know that books read also affected it; that's good to know!  The bookworm had naturally read a lot more books, since he's constantly rolling wishes to read them.  I gotta go make all my non-bookworm writers read moar books now.   :P

The Aura of Evil has the following effects, in order, only one effect applies, in order.
Sims with <= 10 relationship and the "Coward", "Neurotic", "Loser", or "OverEmotional" trait will run away. No rel change.
Sims in Law Enforcement, or with the Good, Friendly, or Fambly-Oriented traits will boo and lose 3 relationship if they know each other.
Sims in Criminal, or with the Evil, Mean, or Insane traits will cheer and gaining 5 relationship if they know each other.

First rule applies, so a Cowardly Criminal who doesn't know the Emperor well will run away and not gain any rel, a Neurotic cop unknown will also run away, etc. The Emperor of Evil basically will be disliked by any "nice" sims.

I'll stick up for Daredevil and Evil.  It's nice to get a quick +15 moodlet before you leave for work.  Daredevil can do a quick "Watch This!" with the spouse before leaving. 

Evil sims have a trick I discovered.  Have them turn on the radio in sleeping Grandpa's room before they leave for work.  It wakes up grandpa (who is probably retired, but you could do the same with a toddler or anybody else who sleeps past 8am) with a negative moodlet, and gives the Evil sim a +15 moodlet.

Two genius sims have the Compliment Cleverness action they can do to each other before leaving for work.  That's a quick +15.

I also saw only one mention of Good Sense of Humor.  Sense of Humor sims are the only ones that can carry on a whole conversation of Funny actions because they have more than just the usual two options.  And telling jokes very quickly fills up the fun bar.  Very, very useful for friend-making.

Natural Cooks...  I won't swear to this, but I THINK they get fun from reading a cook book.  I think the Natural Cook I played last night filled up her fun bar while reading her way to her first cooking point.

Couch Potato...  They gain fun from learning skills while watching TV.  It's an effortless way to fill up the cooking, fishing, gardening skill bars and still have full bars.  And I think I got a game pop-up message informing me that they learn faster from TV.

Insane... I don't care to play Insane sims, because having lived with a schizophrenic, they hit too close to home for me.  But the "Talk to self" action fills up the fun bar very quickly without requiring any external objects or people.

Not very useful or interesting: Lucky, Never Naked, Commitment Issues.

That wouldn't be the one to give them an adrenaline rush, would it? I sent mine to a guitar class, and when I found him chatting to someone outside he had that moodlet, but I couldn't for the life of me figure how he got it.


I've always wondered if it was worth using GSOH for a sim. That's good to know, thanks :)


They won't learn anything from the TV unless they have at least one skill point to start with, that's the only thing. But yeah, they do it autonomously too, which is helpful. I have two who are always watching the cooking and gardening channels without my help ;D


I didn't think bookworm alone made much of a difference. Mine hadn't read that many, which is probably why she was taking so long - I think a combination of Awesomemod and absent-minded stops her reading as much as she'd like by herself - but I recently got every single fiction novel in, so she's no excuse now ;) Well, apart from the absent-minded trait, of course - sometimes actions drop from her queue.

All sims get a host of extra Funny options if the humor level of the conversation is high enough.  Just as there are levels to Romantic and Friendly, there are Funny actions that open up only if you've done enough Funny actions without doing anything else in between.

The issue is that most Sims can't get the Funny level up without boring their target until they get Amusing Greet from Charisma.


Yeah, I have no intention of ever creating a Sim with that trait.  Difficulty is all very well, but deliberate queue-stomping isn't challenging, it's bloody annoying.

 - Gus

Really? I've had several absent minded sims and never even noticed. I guess I just kind of assume all sims are absent minded anyway. :P That and I am probably a control freak who makes sure they are doing things at all times and pauses a lot.

I'm with Motoki. I haven't noticed anything unusual, other than that they occasionally halt and pause there briefly with a dumb look on their face. I can't really find any actual CODE that is queuedropping them, either, so it is distinctly possible they are just behaving like every other sim in that regard. All sims are kinda absent-minded.

So, what's the problem? They stop doing incorrect things faster than other sims? This is bad because...?

I'm surprised more people aren't mentioning Charismatic.  It seems to operate similarly to Good Sense of Humor and Flirty.  Whereas GSOH opens up the "Funny" social branch, Charismatic opens up the "Friendly" branch.  You "Get to Know" traits more quickly, which then helps you tailor your social interactions more specifically to the target.  (Compliment sims that are Snobs, etc.)

I like Party Animal, too.  But, then again, I like parties.

The Leader of the Free World, in my game, is a Charismatic Party Animal with Legendary Host, etc.  Party every day.  It's a fun combo.

Heavy Sleeper and Light Sleeper seem truly useless.

Will heavy sleeper sleep through the damned kids whose screams can be heard through multiple walls and floors? If so I need to start using it. :P

Might explain why, on the opposite end of the spectrum, Stiles McGraw sometimes wakes up before he's fully rested (he's married with three kids in my game) ¬_¬ Methinks light sleeper is more of an annoying trait on the same level as absent-minded.

Has no one mentioned Hopeless Romantic yet?! Works similar to this...


... in that it opens up the "Romantic" branch. Things like Confess Attraction that weren't there when I tried through the proper channels, but through "Special/HR/.." I could "confess attraction" - after several unsuccessful tries to get a love interest, that did it for me in one go ^_^

Hopeless Romantics will also autonomously flirt and interact romantically, sometimes with total strangers. Good Sense of Humor is my favorite trait for efficient and amusing relationship-building.

No Sense of Humor is, oddly, a good trait to have on a sim, as their fun drains very slowly. With a full fun bar, NSoH sims will keep the "Having a Blast" Moodlet for 14 or 15 hours; twice as long as other sims.

If you have twins, "evil" is a good traid to have up until they are toddlers. I had a set of twins and one was evil. Everytime his twin brother started getting lonely, hungry or needed a diaper change, he'd get a positive moodlet from it. This was JUST enough to make him generate aspiration points as a baby while his non-evil brother didn't.  By the time he was a child, he had about 3k more points than his twin brother. 

Evil is ALWAYS a good trait to have. Now you see, that evil will always triumph, because good is dumb.

I was under the impression that Unflirty sims would be really hard to get in bed but they are still slutty whores once they build up a relationship with someone.

I like Schmoozer sims because of the interactions available to them early on and they become friends faster with their co-workers and boss faster.

Is Loves the Outdoors of any use besides getting a positive moodlet? My Outdoorsy sim did get a want to start gardening and she wasn't a Green Thumb.

Good sims get a positive moodlet for donating to charity, and also have the "brighten day" interaction, which gives a positive moodlet to those whose days they brighten. Otherwise, they're useless.

The problem I have with absent-minded sims is that they occasionally "forget" to go to work. I have to watch them like a hawk, or their work performance will plummet.

Yeah but the donate spot is right near the mailbox and gives a decent enough buff. It's convenient because they have to head out that way every morning to go to work anyway.

I had a good snob in my family who had a daily routine of checking himself out, brushing his teeth, warming has ass in front of the fireplace and then donating 100 simoleans to charity before he went to work every day. All those buffs stacked and it worked out pretty well for him.

Neurotic is pretty uber also, because you the "Freak Out" interaction gives a buff that blocks all fun drain for the next 8 hours and can be recasted at will, so you can cast it, then Work Hard for the shift with no penalty at all!

Only I'm starting to get sick of the numerous tooth brushing and hand washing wants that two neurotic sims in my main family roll up several times a day. They take up space from more important wants.

Yep - just like artistic sims make better painters, writers, and musicians, outdoorsy sims are better with fishing and gardening. Whether it means speed, quality or both, I'm not sure.

I've noticed it affects their choice of TV programs, too. They'll autonomously tune into the fishing and gardening channels, making for easy skill gain once they've learned it.

Actually I have tested whether or not Loves the Outdoors affects gardening skill (this was from reading a book) and it does not. the only upside to loves the outdoors is that they will be in a better mood than other sims while gardening or fishing, which will give them a slight boost to skill gain while they are performing these gardening/fishing actions, but only if their mood is high enough that they are "In the bubble"

How high does their mood have to be for this to happen? I generally ignore my sim's moods, unless they get close to "whine" level.

If you are "in the bubble" - the part above the choke point - then you skill faster. Aaroc did a study of this you can find elsewhere in Facts and Stategery.

The trait I have come to hate is Snob. I have 3 snobs in this current family (rolling for traits, no rerolls, ugh) and I had to kill one off because all the constant "gussy up" and "check self out" interactions slowed down her skilling. It would be 4 in the afternoon before she would allow SC to get her ass to the easel to paint. The next 2 snobs are toddlers, and they will get booted or killed as soon as I get fed up with them. I have to say the Neurotic is hands-down the best if you want to push a sim thru a career using "work hard."

Something just happened for the third time with my Absent Minded sim, so I'm convinced it's the trait. I had never noticed any queue dropping either, just a bit of dopiness when I let him do his own thing, but he keeps cooking the wrong damn things. I never see him drop the cooking action, he just doesn't cook what I tell him to cook. Last night the fambly was in the mood for goopy carbonara, so I ordered him off to make some of that, and he made cobbler instead. With life fruit. GRR.

With LIFE FRUIT??

Ok, I'm curious.  Did everybody who ate a serving gain a day of life?

Yes, delicious life fruit cobbler. In fact, cobbler is always what he makes instead of whatever I actually told him to make, it's his favorite food. But this was the first time he used life fruit, he had some in his inventory he had just picked. And no, no extra days on the lifespan, apparently the life fruits lose their magic properties if you chop them up and apply heat.

I think I'm just going to ban him from the fridge before there's another incident. Deathfish roll sushi, anyone?

I played an evil legacy for about five generations, and I grew pretty annoyed with the trait.  Their desire to steal candy from babies is just over the top.  The first few times are amusing, but it gets old when they're constantly waking up the babies to steal their candy.

Does stealing candy actually have an benefit for the sim that steals it? I've only done it once and saw no effect, but maybe I'm missing something.

Fun? Social?

No moodlet?

There's a moodlet.

You probably didn't notice the moodlet (Fiendishly Delighted) if your sim was already lulzing over someone's misery. The icon is the same.

Well, in TS3, want triggering is event-based more than it is slot-based. While there ARE a finite number of slots (3 unlocked, 4 locked), as long as you have cleared space, either because you satisfy them or cancel them, the boundary constraint is hitting trigger events that make them roll, not how many actually appear. So while in TS2, such a want would block a slot without any means of getting rid of it, this is not the case in TS3 where you can flush a slot at any time.

Pescado so is this why making them play chess will generate the want to increase their skill points regardless of their traits, whereas with TS2 it wouldn't usually generate unless their personality was inclined in that direction?

lately Absent-Minded has been inducing homicidality from me. CONSTANT dropped actions, as in forgeting to eat mid meal when starving, forget to woohoo mid action, forgetting to go to work/school five times in one morning, etc. etc. >.>

Likely that as well as the fact that logic now influences how fast you skill other things.

Hahaha.

*Oh yeah, baby, oh yeah*

*Brings up a crossword, starts writing*

"What are you doing?"
"Who are you?"

I keep seeing where Snob is the trait that supposedly makes sims want to "gussy up" and "check self out" but I have not used Snob yet and I had a sim you wanted to do these all the time. If given free will, he was in front of a mirror. As a matter of fact, he went from room to room to check himself out in every mirror in the house. Finally I used droptrait on the Flirty trait and he stopped. :-\

I personally imagined it as a "woahhh, how did that get in there? 0__o"

xD

I have not actually noticed anything which suggests absent-minded sims queuedrop. Where are you getting this from?

In my game absent-minded sims quedrop all the frickin' time.  Especally when they are supposed to be going to work or school.  I use the stand allone work pusher thing allongside Awesomemod and it is the same list of sims every freaking day constantly getting multiple pushes by both mods to get their asses where they're supposed to be.  I've watched some of them sometimes and when they drop the cue to go to work/school they run the "um, duh?" animation (the one where they make a really stupid facial expression and sort of point at thier head with their finger).

I also took control of one absent-minded sim and told her to jog to the gym, use the toilet, and then work out on the weights.  I was issuing some commands to others in the household and when I came back to her she was only a few steps from her starting point and was in the process of cuedropping the "use toilet" command (there was a big red "X" over the icon) even though she was showing the moodlet for needing to use the toilet.  I got so disgusted, I just told her to go back home and switched back to my main household; helping her build some skills for her career certainly wasn't worth the frustration for me.

This happens to me too and also Sims that have the couchpotato trait also drops any kind of queue that would make them to stand up from a chair if they are sitting at the moment.
I ignore them and let them fall. I suppose it was meant to have trouble with such traits, so I let it happen. I also supposed that when we choose traits we should choose a balance of all available traits so that one compensate the other. Unfortunately it is very difficult to find a balance in the availability given us. Besides those uncertain sims traits, there's also the advertisement of all the objects around that sometimes can be so strong that pushes them to other directions.
For example: before I made gardening totally autonomous, the sims living in the neighbor houses to the house I'm playing, simply stand straight outside doing nothing, just standing out there.
Reason: they had a garden or just some vegetables planted in front of the house and could not attend to them though it was advertising hell. After the autonomy, they are always outside gardening no matter which trait they have. After gardening they go play catch. I observe them from distance.

Well, for me, some sims tend to queue drop.  When it happens there will be a thought bubble with an orange question mark in it.

Isn't that the point where they're supposedly "contemplating their surroundings"?

To my knowledge, only Genius sims can 'contemplating their surroundings'.

I thought it was a klepto thing? What is it kleptos do when they look around, then?

Well I know for a fact that I had a Genius, non-klepto contemplate surroundings. He was also Absent-Minded. Actually I've played two Absent-Minded sims and I've had very little trouble with them. Maybe one instance of queue-dropping. I sent her off to school and settled down to fast forward through the day and next thing I know she's running back inside to pump iron. I was like wtf? I let her do it too. I have seen those bubbles with the orange ?, but I didn't notice her queue-dropping. I will pay more attention next time.

Her mother was Neurotic and would always spawn wishes to clean this or that, or check this or brush her teeth. Which was infuriating because she would never autonomously clean anything, unlike everyone else in the house. Quite frankly I'm getting tired of Virtuoso and Genius. I wish my babies would roll something else.

Her daughter is a Coward. She faints when she sees the family ghosts, and when I told her to view a butterfly her mother caught she cringed and acted disgusted. It amused me.

This clearly needs to be tested properly in sims that have NO other traits.

I had once a Inappropriate, Insane, Neurotic, Absent-Minded and Slob sim. He was the most difficult sim I encountered, He kept skipping school after getting off the bus, he forgets to report to work, refuse to comply 20% of the time what was queued to him and when I wasn't looking he'd turn on all the house's stereos.

Workaholic is a useful trait if you're goal is just to advance the sim to a desired career level. The sim can work at home and gain enough performance level to ensure promotion without meet any skill or career (reports, research, etc.) requirements.

Coward sims are the funniest for me, They faint at the sight of ghosts and the grim reaper. even playable coward ghost sims, faints at first meeting with another playable ghost sim. (something to add, I did mess around with a grim reaper and remove his brave trait, it was funny seeing the grim reaper run when he saw a playable ghost in the room.)

Given your inability to distinguish between "your" and "you're," or to capitalize your sentences, I'm inclined to think you're also incapable of determining whether these traits had any real effect on queue-dropping.

Cowardly sims ARE hilarious, though. I love the way they faint at the sight of a kitchen fire.

I always feel sorry for coward sims. I can't blame them for fainting at the site of a grim reaper. I think if I saw a walking skeleton in a hood carrying a scythe, I'd faint too. They're not the brightest bulbs on the christmas tree though, and I agree with Ellatrue it's hilarious when they faint in a fire. Not the wisest thing to do.

Oh, and Steele, I don't think that you're right about the queue dropping at all. Are you sure it wasn't a glitch? And by the way, you're = you are, your = belonging to you.

I'm hoping it's a glitch, it would rather be irritating if it's not. That sim has been dead for 2 generations, so I might try again one of these days to verify.

Anyway, thanks for the grammar correction.

I recently discovered another function of the Never Nude trait. Since they change into whatever swimwear category you have selected, you can retain things like tattoos, bits, and custom body shapes when bathing.   

Don't coddle them! It makes the gremlins dance!

Depending on how the tattoos are implemented, you can already do that.

One of these days I'm going to make a comprehensive list of all effects of every trait including numerical values if applicable. You can already get tons of information from the XML files and the rest through playtesting.

The best thing about Awesomemod is definitely putting more traits above the regular maximum of 5. I couldn't stand always having to give my Sims "useful" traits for career and skilling, but now I can make everyone in my family Clumsy, Never Nude, Coward, and Absent Minded to keep me amused.

Does anyone know if Evil sims autonomously use the "Scare" interaction on other Sims even if they are family members or very good friends? I've been having trouble trying to figure out if it's only the Mean Spirited Trait that does that. I removed it so they are only Evil, but I remember almost certainly my previous Evil but non-Mean Sims autonomously scaring others.

If they don't, they SHOULD. I try to do that to the wife all the time, just because it's funny.

 :o I might actually be able to give some handy dandy input here. Woah.  (I've been combing this site for hours just sucking in data on sim 2 glitches, caveats, restores, etc.  This site is a goldmine  The possibility of actually contributing is awesome. Especially as I might have stupid questions in the future. <_<)

At the very least, I have some observations that I will run further tests on, now that I have a good & proper test town.  CAS up some sims with just one trait and see how they go a Ellatrue's suggestion.   Maybe some other kind/cruel soul would see if they can get the same results.  Yay for repeatability!

Evil:  One thing I didn't see mentioned, but possibly because it was seen as obvious: Just as Good sims can donate to charity, Evil sims can donate to undermine charities.  The result is the fiendishly delighted buff.  Also, they can "Troll on forums".  If they get a response, again, the same buff.  I know they aren't the only sims who can access that interaction (I think Mean-Spirited and Inappropriate also get it), but I haven't yet had the chance to reap rewards from a response to the others so I don't know what they are. Actually that interaction is kind of frustrating, if cute in the beginning, in that I often either check back too early, or forget to check back at all. :P

Insane: Just ran a check and the Talk To Self action also increases social as well as fun, as expected.  Also they get four friendly Insane social options with other sims right off the bat: "Catch Anything?", "Tell Ghost Story", "Talk About Conspiracy Theories", and "Speak Madness".  All of the above are generally well received.  Nice for padding the social queue.  You can also argue right off the bat.  (And they just might, on their own.  Good times.)

I have another observation, that is so anecdotal it's not even funny. I know I will have to run some tests to be sure about this, but my insane sim has this nasty habit of just randomly eating produce in her inventory.  Normal, if she was hungry, but not so normal when she's already Stuffed, just ate another head of lettuce after being Stuffed, and tried again though that time I was quick enough to cancel it.  And I was wondering why she kept getting phantom stuffed moodlets and where my produce was running off to.  I'm afraid that since then, I've made sure my insane sims don't hold produce so... yeah.  Again, I really need to run some tests.  I'll let people know my findings, but in the meantime, has anyone run into this issue with a sim who is not insane? I haven't.

Neurotic:  Checking sinks also gives a mood buff, which is great, because, along with freaking out, my neurotic sims do it autonomously all the time.  Though they do get the occasional anxious debuff, which is remedied by checking the appliance anyway.  Also they seem to be compatible with Insane sims, as IIRC the compatibility animation/action/thing gets triggered by the "Talk About Conspiracy Theories" with an Insane sim. 

Inappropriate: Spongebath interactions for the sinks.  Awesomely handy if applied right, but they shoo people out of the room.  Kind of disappointing, as I was hoping to shock a few house guests by using that in an open kitchen.  However, they don't seem to get embarrassed, evar.  Again, handy, particularly when getting ready for work/school in crowded households.  They also appear to have early access to some rude socials, and will use them autonomously.  Something to keep in mind.

Daredevil Okay another anecdotal thing.  Has anyone here tried killing a Daredevil by fire?  Have they succeeded?  I was making a ghost household, and decided I wanted my fire ghost to be a daredevil.  Ugh.  First off, he kept trying to put out the fire. Also, he was cheering it on.  Now, I had researched, and expected the extended timer for the "On Fire" moodlet.  What I didn't expect was that when it expired, he didn't.  Instead, he got Adrenaline Rush.  Seriously, I put at least a rl hour into it, clicking as fast as I could to cancel actions.  Maybe my click-fu is just insufficient, but even that is something someone may want to consider if they plan to make a poetically pyromaniacal fire ghost.  I mean, I'm not a Quake god, but I did my time in Karazhan...

Genius:  Completely hazy half-remembered thought.  Don't Genius sims have less fun depletion during homework/studying?  Do they complete it faster?  I thought I tested it, but as I recall, the test cases had multiple variables, so it doesn't really count.  Also they get the "Solve the Unsolveable" or somesuch interaction on the computer.  On top of potentially being a itty bitty source of extra income, the text revolving around the problems they solve can be kind of cute/funny, depending on what you get.

That's all I can think of atm.  I apologize if my grammar/spelling was off, or if I left dangling sentence fragments all over this post.  I do that sometimes, especially when I've been awake for far too long.

Not quite anecdotal. Insane sims will perform available actions at random regardless of their motive values, so if the action appears, they may do it, just because.

Ahh, that makes sense.  She was at the relatively boring and empty food&bookstore lot during the particularly notable incident.  (I scatter my larger households on various errands, and bring them back mostly en masse.)  Limited options = greater odds of nom nom nom?

Also, just remembered: does the option for sleeping at work occur with anyone other than the light/heavy sleepers?  I know students will have the option when tired, but I haven't gotten it with the adults unless they had that trait.  In which case, I'd call it a notable thingie.  Though it's not an efficient method of filling the sleep bar, it's proven handy occasionally when I had "Plans for them dammit!" right after work, and didn't want them complaining.  Though it probably helped in those cases that none of them were "breadwinners", so promotions where kind of an afterthought.

Okay, I can confirm that Sims with only the Evil trait will autonomously scare others, even with perfect relationship scores. My Sim is always scaring his husband even though he isn't Mean Spirited, though the husband is a Coward. I have no idea if the Coward trait makes them higher priority scare targets.

Edit: Childish sims also autonomously scare others.

I think the excitable moodlet is pretty useful for a quick boost. The anticipation moodlet is +15, iirc. In my experiences, my sims have gotten from woohooing (anticipation from seeing lover) so that's great if you have enought time before work.

Aye, that's news to me, El Presidente. Care to enlighten the peasantry as to how this is done?

If you implement it as a clownpaint, it will work. This is how I implemented The Lala.

If you have the unlucky trait, you can cheat death.  Sort of speak..  Live only to die again to amuse the Grim Reaper.  In that only way that it is useful.  Charismatic and friendly sims build friendships faster.  Snobs are good at keeping themselves clean.  Ambitious and Workaholic sims seem to climb the job ladder faster than other sims.  Ambitious sims sometimes have a wish to raise to the next level of their skills.

Ah, I see the light now. Did you figure out how to make it re-colorable as well?