More Awesome Than You!

So Shirley, possibly my most beautiful in-game born sim fell in love with the llama mascot. They married and because I felt dangerous, I decided to go ahead, defy all the unwritten rules of simming and see what their children would look like in CAS. Shirley is not very different from a #27 face, so it should have been easy... What I didn't know was that the #21 face, which he of course had to be, doesn't actually have toddler, child, teen and elder variations! Instead the game throws in the most hideous face for those stages! That's the most stupid thing I ever heard of!  >:( What's the point of having that template in the first place?!? And how realistic is that, huh? Huh? I put it to you, Maxis: who turns into a completely different looking person for one period in their life, and then back again? Nobody, that's who!

Anyway... Call me Ms Opinion-Wise Challenged, but I think #21 is a handsome face, at least on a male sim, with black hair, medium skin ... Calvin Klein aftershave... All of that. I would reeeeally like to have his kids look like him and not that #18 monstrosity. Is there anything that can be done? I haven't heard of any replacement templates for these toddler/elder stages, have you? I don't know how to make these replacements myself, not yet, that is, but I'm a fast learner.  :) It shouldn't be too difficult, should it?

Thanks in advance.

You don't seem to understand how templates work. #21 only has adult, but any children of #21 will get a normal blend of #21 and other parent features.

Try it yourself by breeding two #21s in CAS.

The only downside is you cannot start a Sim in any other lifestage if you use #21.

Yes, I know, but what I mean is that it would be nice if any kids of a #21 would look like it also as toddlers, kids, teens and elders. They do look like him for the adult period in their life, of course. At the moment any kids of a #21 look like a blend of the other parent and a randomly-chosen face template as toddlers, kids and so on. Then, when they reach adulthood, their looks completely change, and again, when they become leders, they change.

Am I still wrong?

I can't say I've noticed them "switching faces" like you describe in the game.

In CAS of course they do as there is no template data for the age group, but actual game Sims do not reference a template, they just have a bone structure. If this were not the case, all Sims would change their faces if you got new templates! Since this does not happen, they do not use the templates in game.

The only real consequence of having no #21 templates for other ages is that a kid can never be normalized to it using the face blending, if you leave it enabled.

Thanks for the demystification! I tested what you said, and sure enough - you were right! ;D It never occurred to me that genetics behave differently in CAS and in the game, but now that you pointed it out, it's obvious. Thanks again!
Now I'm just a bit embarrased for wasting a perfectly good rant.  :-[