Alien pregnancies: is there a chance of impregnation not happening?

[Regina]

Okay--first time I've run into this one so I thought I'd ask others if they've had any similar experiences.

So, here it was, 1 a.m. and I was thinking I really should get headed to bed (yes, I'm a wimp--I do sleep--too many years of not enough sleep has had detrimental effects on my health  ) and I had my Little Mr. I'm-a-Knowledge-Legacy-Sim stargazing.  This is something like my umpteenth gazillionth Legacy family I've started because no matter how I start I always end up thinking, 'but I could've done it better!' and re-start.  Barring any major disasters like my PC blowing up or something like that, this hopefully will be my Legacy family. LOL

And now to bring this back around to the subject.  When my sim was expelled from the spaceship I didn't hear any lullabye music, which I didn't think was too odd considering there've been occasions when I just don't hear the music.  And since it was past time I get myself to bed I was thinking, 'there's a real quick way to find out for sure' and shut down the game and loaded up SimPE.  Sure enough, SimPE is showing that this guy isn't pregnant.

I've only had very few abductions in my game, two that were spontaneous and two that I managed with a hacked telescope.  In my first, the sim was too old to get pregnant.  The second was manipulated and he came back pregnant.  The third was spontaneous and he came back pregnant.  The fourth was manipulated with a female sim and although I had the mod to allow females impregnated by aliens she came back not pregnant.  I wasn't too concerned thinking that maybe the mod just didn't work or some such.

At any rate!  What I'm wondering is if this was some kind of fluke that the sim didn't get pregnant or is it like when a pair of sims try for a baby, that there is a chance of failure conceiving?  Because if there is a chance of failure I am going to be extremely disappointed.  I was so excited at the thoughts of him having an alien baby (never mind the fact he has a toddler daughter and a newborn son by his wife).

[Regina]

Okay--now don't everyone come running all at once to answer this! 

I'm going to town to run some errands.  Hopefully someone will have some answers or even more ponderings by the time I've returned.

[ElviraGoth]

If he's close to being an elder he won't get pregnant.  I think he has to have more than 3 days left of his adult time span.  I'm sure someone else will correct me if I'm wrong here!

[TheCheat]

If he's close to being an elder he won't get pregnant.  I think he has to have more than 3 days left of his adult time span.  I'm sure someone else will correct me if I'm wrong here!

'Tis correct. This fact applies to males the same as it applies to females.

[Regina]

No--you're right, and I was going to include ALL the details in my original post and forgot that one! LOL

He has at least 10 days to go before becoming an elder.

[TheCheat]

Maybe he's just destined to be barren. He is male, after all. 

[Regina]

Maybe he's just destined to be barren. He is male, after all. 

Whoda thunk?  Quick, someone needs to donate my poor sim some eggs!  Wait a second, I think that's what they're supposed to be doing on the spaceship! 

(The above isn't meant to be a sarcastic, smart-aleck reply.  It's my pathetic attempt at humor.)

[Regina]

Okay, so does anyone have an idea about whether or not alien pregnancies are supposed to happen 100% of the time?  I'm clueless here!  LOL

[ElviraGoth]

I haven't had enough abductions to know, I guess.  I was surprised when my teen male was abducted (not supposed to get pg, right?) and had his baby at college 4 sim years later.  Poor guy.  And I thought 9 months was a long time!  But Every male adult abduction I've had resulted in a pregnancy.

According to the Prima Guide for the base game: "Any time an adult male Sim is abducted by aliens, he always returns pregnant."  But we know how much to trust the Prima Guide, right?  And I don't have any PGs (is that inentional?) for the EPs to know if that changed in an expansion pack.

[Regina]

Okey-dokey!  And thanks so much!  I'm thinking they were supposed to get pregnant every time.  And yeah--weirdness on that teen getting pregnant!  Did the poor fellow make it through college with a baby?  And did his child come home with him okay from college?

[yetyak]

I had Vidcund Curious who is predisposed to come back pregnant, come back not pregnant about 6 times.  Same with Lazlo.  Moved them out of that strange house and wham, Lazlo had little green twins.  Never did try again with Vidcund.

[Regina]

Just noodling this whole thing I got to wondering if mayhaps there was a mod in my game I might've missed.  I keep all my mods in sub-folders in the downloads and knew I had moved everything out of those.  I just now got to looking down the main Downloads folder list and ran onto the mod for a better looking pollination technician.  I know this one is pre-NL and I'm not even sure how it got into that folder.  But if it wasn't compatible with NL I wouldn't be surprised if it could prevent an alien pregnancy.

Er, wait a minute--it wasn't the better looking one, but the one that chose from different pol. techs.

[baratron]

I was wondering about mods myself, but you've already got round to posting about them .

If you enable boolprop TestingCheatsEnabled true and shift-click on the expensive telescope, you can Force Abduction. When I did this, my sim came back pregnant. It would be interesting for you to try this a few times and see whether any of the abductees get pregnant, or some of them, or none of them... Or you could just use it to "fix" this situation.

Edit: Ack! Remember, there is a "not a bug but a feature" of NL which removes the Pollination Tech from the alien child's family tree! So it wouldn't surprise me that a Pollination Technician hack could break abduction pregnancy!

[Regina]

I had Vidcund Curious who is predisposed to come back pregnant, come back not pregnant about 6 times.  Same with Lazlo.  Moved them out of that strange house and wham, Lazlo had little green twins.  Never did try again with Vidcund.

That seems weird, because I remember when I went to Strangetown to check it out because the abduction was coded to happen, everything progressed normally.

Yes, I thought I'd start up the game without this mod and test it out.  If it is indeed the problem, I'll force this guy to get abducted again so he can get pregnant.  After all, he is my Legacy sim and he WAS abducted by aliens and it's just NOT FAIR if he should miss out on this point!

[rohina]

You didn't say how many other people were in the house. If there were 7 and a pregnant wife, or something, then he couldn't get pregnant because there would be too many people. Otherwise, it is odd. I've had tons of abductions and the adult males always come back with the little green spawn.

[Regina]

You're right, I didn't say. LOL

There were only four others, so plenty of room for an alien baby.

I know I can be pretty lame and overlook things but if I'd overlooked that one I would've had to make fun of myself here! 

[Regina]

Okey-dokey!  I just did a bit of testing.  I'd removed the Multiple Pollination Technician mod, then went into Strangetown and had Ajay Loner abducted.  (I changed his aspiration to Knowledge beforehand so he wouldn't be too traumatized.)

When he came back from the alien ship, there was no lullabye music (I turned my speakers up full blast so I wouldn't miss it).  So, I checked him in SimPE and he is now pregnant (invisible).

I also gave him three logic skills so we could get through the day in meditation mode and here's something new I noticed:  his aspiration meter did not go down while meditating!  I rarely used meditation before because every time I did my sims would nearly go into aspiration failure.  Hmmm.  Like my daughter says, a way to fix those vampires who just won't stay in bed until sundown?

[gynarchy]

I also gave him three logic skills so we could get through the day in meditation mode and here's something new I noticed:  his aspiration meter did not go down while meditating!  I rarely used meditation before because every time I did my sims would nearly go into aspiration failure.  Hmmm.  Like my daughter says, a way to fix those vampires who just won't stay in bed until sundown?

I noticed the same thing last night while I was playing around with the handhelds in my test neighborhood. I would have my Sims play for about 6 hours on the handhelds, force their wants to reroll, and then meditate until 4PM when relationship normalization occurs. I don't know if this a permanent change or an unintended side effect of another change, but I will definitely be taking full advantage of it when a non-perma plat Sim in my Legacy family is getting close to dying!

[Regina]

Gynarchy, I hear you on that one!  Many people recommended having your sims meditate through pregnancy.  I never did because their aspiration meters went down so much.  I'd keep them doing what they wanted as much as possible and either put them to bed for naps in addition to a good night's sleep or in a worst-case scenario have them use the Eclectic Energizer.  That thing's a treat for pregnant sims!  Some aren't so bad, but when Alistair was pregnant with his alien he lost motives super fast.  Funny thing, his wife who has a very similar personality, was a breeze during both pregnancies.  I never used the energizer on her at all and he was in it nearly all the time.

[ElviraGoth]

Okey-dokey!  And thanks so much!  I'm thinking they were supposed to get pregnant every time.  And yeah--weirdness on that teen getting pregnant!  Did the poor fellow make it through college with a baby?  And did his child come home with him okay from college?

I had to use a teleporter (merola's painting) to get the baby back to his parents' house, then he just left college as usual and I put him back in his parents' house.  Thankfully, the painting kept all the family tree info secure so I didn't have to use SimPE to fix up any relationships.  He is now married and in his own place, and she is now a toddler.  But she didn't age at all while they were in the dorm, so his first day back at 6 pm he had to help her with her birthday.

[Regina]

Okey-dokey!  And thanks so much!  I'm thinking they were supposed to get pregnant every time.  And yeah--weirdness on that teen getting pregnant!  Did the poor fellow make it through college with a baby?  And did his child come home with him okay from college?

I had to use a teleporter (merola's painting) to get the baby back to his parents' house, then he just left college as usual and I put him back in his parents' house.  Thankfully, the painting kept all the family tree info secure so I didn't have to use SimPE to fix up any relationships.  He is now married and in his own place, and she is now a toddler.  But she didn't age at all while they were in the dorm, so his first day back at 6 pm he had to help her with her birthday.

Oy!  At least perpetual babies are a lot easier to care for than perpetual toddlers. LOL  Your experience definitely makes an interesting storyline for that family.