More Awesome Than You!

As the subject indicates. I've had toddler twins both receive all three toddler skills, yet one grows up well and the other poorly. Is it mood at time of growing up? Happiness points received? Average mood? Obviously for children and teens grade is the number one factor. Similarly, what defines a good versus a rough pregnancy?

I usually always have my sims grow up well, but I'm challenging myself by trying to complete a series of secondary goals on one of the short lifespan settings, so I'm starting to see randomized traits. I think I like the random traits, but I can't seem to figure out what the criteria is.

Honestly, from what I've seen, the good/rough pregnancy thing seems to be completely random. I've had sims who I've taken utmost care with and had a rough pregnancy, and other sims I've ignored during their pregnancy and gotten a good pregnancy. Getting a package deal from the spa seems to help though.

As for toddlers, I thought that as long as they learned their three skills they'd have a good birthday and you'd get to choose their traits. I've actually never not been able to choose a trait for a toddler becoming a child, but then again I always make sure they learn all their toddler skills, and they usually max out either peg box or xylophone or both.

I had them both max out logic pre-skill but not music. I only had a few days to work with. I think I like the 50-day lifespan though...

It has something to do with teaching your toddler how to walk and/or talk. If I neglect them both, my toddlers are always assigned random traits when they grow up. If I teach the toddler both things, they always grow up well.

I don't know what will happen if you do only one.

VS.


Learn to read, Xebarsis. Obviously there's something more than just learning the basics while a toddler.

I did just think of something though, Kuronue.. how were the toddlers' relationships with their parents? I guess, obviously, since they learned to walk and talk and everything, they must have each had a decent relationship with at least one of their parents, but maybe that has some factor in it?

I would attempt to run some tests, however growing up toddlers is a fairly cumbersome task, and I'm sure what to test.

I'm guessing that good pregnancies and good grow-ups up have more to do with overall mood than anything else. I somehow manage to keep all of my sims "in the bubble" and have never *not* had the option to select traits for spawnlings, at any stage, even when I ignore wants for reading pregnancy books and such.

Actually, that might be something to do with it - when I've got a number of sims around, I'll often rotate who was teaching, so maybe they're only getting a certain amount of relationship with each of several sims instead of a high relationship with one teaching parent. Also, this particular household has the evil trait running in the family, so there may or may not have been candy stealing - does that give a relationship hit?

I'm slightly curious how a toddler manages to grow up badly.  I pay pretty much the minimum attention to them, only training them as the parents roll the relevant wants, dealing with them when they hit "warning" for food, social, or diapers, and otherwise just letting them do whatever they like.  Yet they all grow up well, and I always get the Trait-choosing dialog.  Getting "grow up well" has been so easy I've assumed you had to deliberately stunt them to get "grow up badly."

- Gus

Funny. for as many evil sims that I've played, and for as many Steal Candy interactions I've done, I've never actually noticed whether it causes a relationship hit or not.

It seems logical that it would, but we all know how the words 'EA' and 'Logic' simply don't belong in the same sentence... nor the same paragraph. I can't think of any evil sims living with toddlers in my game at the moment, so I can't even test this unless I create a new family. However, I can think of one family in which an evil sim, who was the uncle of a toddler, actually had the highest relationship with the toddler than he did with anybody else, and the toddler had the same with him. Of course in that case, the evil uncle ended up being the primary care giver, and the toddler was insane.. so maybe that's not the best example.

I would say that mood seems a logical attribute for deciding whether a toddler grows up well, but really, it's hard to get a toddler 'in the bubble' unless they live on a beautiful vista lot, since I don't think they get comfort moodlets from their cribs, they don't get well fed buffs, and they don't get decorated buffs. I think mood is probably the biggest factor in pregnancy though. Of course, whether average mood throughout the pregnancy or just her mood when the children are born becomes a question.

Honestly, I think the best way to find out what affects growing up well or poorly would probably be to find the data in one of the files. I would be the wrong person to ask on that front though. I barely have a working knowledge of HTML, and anything above that boggles my poor little brain (to include proper comma usage).

Maybe it's a feature of AwesomeMod, but they have been getting food buffs in my game when I use the high chair and select to feed them a high-quality meal. However, this can be really time-consuming between all the toddler docking problems and the time needed to put the food through the processor. I generally use bottles when time is critical and/or I'm not in the mood to deal with it.

Yup, that's my approach as well.  Toddlers are, frankly, boring.  I generally fill the nursery with toys and leave them alone to play, apart from feedings and required skillination.  I don't really pay attention to whether they grow up well or not.  I may not even throw a birthday party for them until they are children and have some friends to invite.

I've had success in growing up every toddler "well" I've played since the game came out.  I only ensured that they learned to walk, talk and use the toilet.  Only a small handful of them had any access to any toddler skill-gain items, such as the peg box, and their outcome was no different than those who did not have the toys.  The teaching was alternated between parents of varying relationships with them.

When I first played toddlers in TS3, I had several not grow up well ...I didn't get the option to choose his/her traits and they got negative traits like "loser".  Now I make sure they are are potty trained, learn to walk and talk, I get the option to choose traits for them.  Other than that I pretty much let them play on their own.  I do like playing toddlers tho'.  They cute.

I will echo what others are saying, whenever I have taught toddlers to walk, talk and use the potty they grew up well (note:I am not sure if you need all three since I have only done all or nothing). Whenever I have not they grew up poorly. With kids and teens it's just grades so pretty obvious there. I have never had a rough pregnancy but I gathered it's based on the mother's mood and I generally keep mine high most of the time.

I thought that if you stuck a teddy in their inventory they got comfort moodlets.

They don't get a comfort moodlet, but they do get a little cuddle time one.

I'm playing with the 190 day lifespan, so I have toddlers for 15 days...it can get a tad booooring, except that I'm flipping between several houses, so it actually works out okay.

Anyway, with 15 days of toddler fun to fill, the trick seems to be the following - keeping them fed and their social up (the teddybear does help with that). Have them learn all three toddler skills. Have them max out both logic and music on the toys. And have them read as many books as possible. Don't bother with the 'Sprocket' books - they don't seem to learn crap from them. But the other books will give them an additional boost in logic, artistry (painting), and writing.

At first I thought that they had to have a parent read with them, but it doesn't even raise their social! So now I just plop the books on the floor and let them read 'em. Only bad part about that is if you have a parent who is a neatfreak - they will pick the books up and put them away - so the trick is to put them out one at a time, have toddler read it and then put it back in bookcase.

Anyway, I've never had a toddler not grow up well, so must be doing something right doing that method.

I do know that with children and teens their 'grow up well' thing has everything to do with their school performance.

The pregnancy thing, I've yet to figure out as with others, I've had some I've ignored and some I've pampered and they've all read the preggers books and sometimes I get to choose one and sometimes two...I've never had a bad enough pregnancy where I didn't get to choose any.

Same go for me.

I didn't even bother to socialize with them unless they get all whiny because they've bottomed out in Social. Too bad we can't smear them in grease and put them under the grill like in TS2.
... Yet.

For pregnancy, I'm not sure since I have neglected a sim and she was hungry most of her pregnancy, but still got to choose both traits for the baby. She was however in the bubble the whole pregnancy, so maybe that does have more of a factor.

Toddlers I have always gotten to choose the trait. I make sure they get taught to walk/talk/potty and I keep a radio in most of the rooms in the house and have a teddy bear in their inventory and they seem to stay in the bubble most of the time too. So once again, maybe mood does have a factor in it. Especially since I alternate between parents and grandparents to help with leanring skills and I hardly ever pull out a pegbox. Sometimes I pull out the children's books though.

I see, thanks for the clarification.

I've only had one pregnancy where I haven't been able to choose both traits for the baby so far. The mother spent most of the pregnancy with that moodlet they get from seeing a loved one die (her boyfriend had turned to an elder since the last time she saw him, two days earlier, but I decided to continue the relationship anyway, have them spend the night together and get engaged and married over breakfast. They tried for a baby and got out of bed; he kissed her and immediately died.).

Pescado is threatening to create such an option.  :o

In my experience as long as the toddlers have learned to the 3 toddler skills they will get the grow up well token and you'll get to choose the traits. If mood plays a role at all it's a really small one.

The transition from pregnancy to baby seem to be more complicated to pinpoint but it shouldn't be a problem to get to choose the trait. Just make sure the mom gets a massage eveyr now and then and keep her mood up. To be really sure you can let her read the pregnancy books (again).

Wait, can toddlers read books on their own and still get the "skills" from them?

Yes, just leave the books on the floor where they can reach them.

Since the general consensus seems to be that if you teach all your toddlers their three toddler skills, I'm wondering if maybe the OP didn't quite finish teaching one of the skills to her toddlers even though she thought she did. Of course with the removal of memories, it's impossible to check (but trust me, I completely understand/agree with getting rid of them).

Yeah, I must have missed one. I keep finding nowadays that I have it in my head (particularly with twins) that a child is potty trained only to find there's a little missing from the tippy top. Maybe tomorrow I'll run some more scientific tests.