More Awesome Than You!

I've just played around with the Sim Modder for the first time.  (Yeah, I'm slow about things like this)  And I noticed there was an unused asperation.  "Power."

(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/chipmc/power.jpg)

I tried changing Jill Smith's asperation to it.  But the asperation icon in the UI pannel went blank.  And none of the wants or fears seemed any different from her old asperation.  Her LTW stayed the same too.

So, either this is an asperation Maxis plans to enable in a future expansion or one they were going to introduce but decided to scap it at the last minute.  But if its the latter than that's a pitty.  "Power asperation" has a nice and evil sound to it.   ;D

I always thought one should have been included, after all it's at the base of human nature in some form or another.  Perhaps they were going to include it and then found it was more complex than they'd thought, and couldn't get it finished in time, and it just got forgotten.

I think it came in with Nightlife, I would imagine they initially intended to tie it in with the vampires, seeing as that's all about power at basic level.  I've tried giving it to sims too, but it doesn't change anything.  It's the same as the Romance skill, it exists and SimPE even covers it, but when you get them to try for it at the mirror, all they get is charisma.  I don't think manually giving them high Romance skill changes anything, either.

What I'd like to see is a Creativity aspiration.  None of the current ones really fit me, I'm sort of a cross between Knowledge & Pleasure, which makes no sense insofar as in the game they're opposites.  Creativity would fit me perfectly, though.

What I'd also like to see is an extra level of skills for each aspiration in a suitable area - knowledge could be logic, say up to level 20, and maybe split between different activities so you can'y just go and stargaze every night to get there.  And as I said before when we were discussing this, I think a total fitness aspiration would be good, and then to reach level 20 in body you'd have to be an expert with every method of achieving body skills!

Wants and aspirations can't really be edited without modifying core game files. And that makes you non-awesome...

It should be possible to turn the Power Aspiration into a custom one, though. Afterall, the hooks are there, and you just need to alter the wants.package and wanttrees.package files to "Power" the wants and LTWs you want.

I think it shows up in Mr P's census tool as well...I think it ought to be activated as it could be quite fun to play with

I can already think of some sims it would suit down to the ground!  Malcolm Landgraab for starters!

True ZZ, a power aspiration sounds very much like a business related aspiration. Or a politician one for that matter. Isn't that what it's all about? Money and Power?

If I remember well, this aspiration wasn't inside NL but it's up from OFB.

Maybe....nothing to do with Servos?

Man, I wish they'd decided to keep that...I've got some sims that aspiration would suit perfectly.

Actually I think Power was in there since the basegame. It is number 4 (I think) in Aspirations and originally, a lot of the 'power' Wants were suppose to be for this Power aspiration. The wants that are like, have 5 of this or earn a huge amount of money. I think they got split up and shifted over as 'power' Wants for the corresponding Aspirations and the Power aspiration was kind of abandoned. It probably just morphed into the Fortune/Wealth aspiration. I recall reading about it somewhere... or perhaps it was discussed in chat by Pescado?

Aspirations are even flags, not simple values, so it is thought that probably during development, Maxis was considering allowing sims to have more than one Aspiration. This could have had some interesting possibilities, and would have made sense in a way, since many people don't consider themselves necessarily fitting into one Aspiration. But I guess that was abandoned as well. Who knows? Maybe it could be basis for another expansion? To actually add a few more aspirations, and/or enable multiple aspirations per sim.

Ste

I think it could also suit some Family sims - ie   power = control and some people who put family at the head of their list do so because they like to have someone they can boss around!

I think it was in the base game, you just can't use it until NL. If you stick it on a sim that has been living for a long time you won't get the wants. Try sticking it on a fresh sim. It seems to work fine, they act like a mix of popularity and fortune, I think a bit of romance too.

Do you mean a sim straight out of CAS, or a kid just grown up to teen?

A sim fresh out of CAS, if they fulfilled any wants before you change the aspiration it won't work because they just roll up stuff from their old one.

So you move them to a lot and pause so they can't fulfil a want autonomously.  Do they get related LTWs or just a mix of those already in use?

I don't quite remember but I think they get any of the LTWs.

That could be interesting!  and if they roll the Have 20 lovers at once LTW it will only go to prove that powerful sims are sexy!

I wish the whole Aspiration thing could be re-thought from the beginning so as to make them more like characteristics.

If there was a way to have some combination of Aspiration-like qualities that drove wants and fears, that would seem to be far more realistic than one dominating over all others.

Like myself... I'm about 40% knowledge, 40% family, 10% wealth, and the other 10% split amongst the others.  And that has not been consistent throughout my life.

I knowwhat you mean, and one of the reasons I don't really like playing elders is the stupid LTWs - I know you can change them to something achievable if they should live so long, but they are so unrealistic.  I mean, when you get to my age and are not married and have no kids, it's a bit ridiculous to want 6 grandchildren!

Well, a CAS elder is effectively hamstrung by the fact that the great majority of his life has been stolen from him outright, but for a sim that was born in game, you get plenty of advance warning that they want 6 grandchildren, after all. As far as LTWs go, it's not completely unreasonable, if not entirely good, gamewise, either.

I always thought you should be able to choose a main aspiration and then like a sub one so you could create sims with combos, get a variety of wants and what not.  That's just me though.

I do wonder where they thought of going with the power aspiration though...doesn't seem like it would be far off from the fortune one, except maybe sims would have wants to boss people around more using influence points or something like that  ???

I wonder if they are ever going to introduce anymore new aspirations into the game although I can't think of anymore really that would be in depth enough to be fun.  Stupid Pleasure aspiration is boring to me, wouldn't want to see anymore like that.

Well, I think many of the top-of-career jobs are power-based - general, mayor, tycoon, chief of staff spring to mind, but only the business tycoon is really money-orientated.  In fact, the others pay quite poorly compared to celebrity chef or professional party guest etc.

JM, you're right, of course, about the limitations of being created in CAS - in fact all CAS sims apart from toddlers are similarly hamstrung, though not as much!

I just wish the influence were more useful. Outside of uni it isn't very helpful... you can't influence another sim to be your friend, or babysit the kids, or anything really interesting like that.

Influence simA to ventrilofart simB - what ever kind of use is that?  and if they choose a water balloon instead, you're stuck with the mopping up!  Really useful use of influence!

I know! I always felt like you should be able to influence.. make out/woohoo or something like that. Of course I can see why maxis wouldn't want to open that can of worms and put it in the game, but it is realistic, and I play a lot of deviant/evil sims to keep the story interesting.

I think you can influence to flirt with or kiss or whatever, or am I wrong?  I really don't use the influence stuff at all.

However..it doesn't matter b/c some of the more dramatic social influences are always denied if sims aren't really good friends.   

I used 'influence to flirt' on a group outing once when I saw a guy do the heart-floaty thought bubble about another girl on the outing. They got crushes or something, and the outing score sky rocketed.

So I guess, sometimes, if you're creative, it's worth something other than writing term papers.

I use it for cleaning sometimes too when there's visitors around, since I don't hire many maids anymore.

The problem with the "influence to do whatever" actions is that they rarely do the actual one you WANT, which largely defeats the point. Influencing them to fight, for instance, rarely results in an actual fight, mostly they just go and poke the other party. That's not fighting! The same story applies with everything other nonspecific action.

I do that too! :D Especially if the Diva and Mr Big are both included in the outing. Mine are always in love with each other.

Another thing that annoys me, you use "Influence to serve meal" on a visitor who is a good cook, and what do you get? Instant meals and lunchmeat sandwiches!  Or if it's don Lothario that you influence, he sets your kitchen on fire!

"Influence/ Bite Neck" and "Influence/ Write Term Paper" while writing it yourself to exploit the double grade boost glitch are the only two that were ever useful for me.

Yes, the term paper one is great - the assignment one only works if your sim has left one unfinished so it's not a lot of use.  Influence to clean / garden are useful though!  (The garden one is especially useful on comm lots!)

Wow...didn't know about that one!

Yeah, Bite Neck is always good, especially when you can't be bothered to try to haul the vampires to a deserted lot to minimize distractions.

It's also a pain dealing with the fugly Vampire Downtownies who won't leave your sim alone after becoming friendly enough with them to make them agree to bite you. =p

Well, you can, but only with a third sim, which is annoying... and even then you can't really use it to get them to know each other much better, because if they have 0 relationship they can't even play red hands!

I also don't understand why popularity sims don't have wants to gain the next influence level, although since influence is so useless, I suppose it is really a blessing. I feel like it should affect chemistry, too, and the starting bonus for new relationships.

That is one of the OFB aspects I like - starting boost to all relationships if you can unlock the business perks

I would say they weren't given these wants because in a way they already have them - the best friend wants mean that at some point in aiming for the next level of best friends they will reach the next influence level.