So anyone else not so happy about the new lifetime aspiration thing in FT?

[KnowitallSim]

You know...where you need to fill up that bar to get perma plat, and your lifetime want won't do that anymore? 

Will someone be making a hack to revert it to the old way?

[jsalemi]

I don't have FT yet, but if this is true, then I'd welcome it -- my main hood is getting close to its 5th generation, and I have way too many perma-plats running around.  Making getting there harder is fine with me.

[Zazazu]

Seconded. This is a good thing. Permaplat sims are as interesting as bumps on a wall.

[nekonoai]

Amen to that! I want my sims to be miserable longer, dammit.

[kemowery]

I haven't been able to pick up FT yet, but that sounds fine to me.

[jolrei]

I used to always make sure that they had an LTW that could be fulfilled by the time they were half-way through "adult".  This was when I was young and though total happiness was wonderful (about 3 months ago).  Permaplat sims have nothing to aspire to, and no need to fulfil wants to stay happy.  They are directionless happy-drones suitable only for power-idling, cleaning, and baby care.  In short, they are functional furniture and about as interesting as the white basic maxis chair.

Now that I have reached this enlightened stage, I give all my sims the least attainable goal.  Family sims aspire to marry off 6 children (and are limited to having 2).  Knowledge sims with the "max 7 skills" LTW are permitted to follow their main wants (which are all about woohooing the person standing next to them anyway).  Any sim with a career LTW is streamed into an entirely different career.

Sims who want a golden anniversary get to fulfill it.  After all, they've earned it by that point (and they're elders anyway who function well as happy-drones).

Make it harder in FT, and I'll probably still want to make it even less possible.

[Zazazu]

For awhile I instituted a rolling policy. I rolled for whether they got their LTW and whether they went to college. So Sim A gets a big "No LTW for you!" right off the bat. Sim B gets a maybe, then learns they aren't going to college because they rub the Dean the wrong way, and their LTW depends on a diploma (see: Syberspunk's changed career requirements + LTW variety). "No LTW for you!". Sim C gets a maybe, has a possible career want with/without college or some non-career want, and gets to be a dumb doorknob later in life. Go them!

Now I've added more wrenches in the works. Want to have a golden anniversary but never roll the want to get married? Oh well. Want three kids to go to college but they rolled no college? Looks like you failed as a parent.

[jolrei]

Now I've added more wrenches in the works. Want to have a golden anniversary but never roll the want to get married? Oh well. Want three kids to go to college but they rolled no college? Looks like you failed as a parent.

You are an evil deity, Zazazu.  I like that.

[Sivany]

My sims just never seem to fulfil their lifetime wants anyway since I don't pay much attention to them so I've not really experienced them wandering around as mindless drones. The other day however I had a sim phone a college student (called Helen) and got the message "Helen has just fulfilled her LTW etc." I assume her LTW was to do with best friends as the person ringing her had just got the 'made best friends with Helen' memory. If I decide this has made her too boring she will become a candidate for an untimely and tragic death.

[Tigerlilley]

I like lifetime wants tooo.

[Count Four]

Permaplat is so dull, the only time I bother acheiving it is (maybe) when I want a large family with a half a dozen kids in the hood.  I'll permaplat one of the prospective parents or grandparents, thus turning them into a childcare zombie.

Other than that, I can't see any point to permaplat, so I don't think I'll mind it a bit (when I get FT.)

[jolrei]

I like lifetime wants tooo.

No, no, Tiger!  Lifetime Wants Bad!

Join the dark side.

[Zazazu]

Permaplat is so dull, the only time I bother acheiving it is (maybe) when I want a large family with a half a dozen kids in the hood.  I'll permaplat one of the prospective parents or grandparents, thus turning them into a childcare zombie.

Other than that, I can't see any point to permaplat, so I don't think I'll mind it a bit (when I get FT.)

Yes, elderhood is the only viable time to permaplat. Keep 'em happy without having to focus on them, and get their nap schedule to match the grandkids. Milk their vacation days and only have them retire when the vacation runs out.

I'm thinking of turning Prospect Palace into a secret elder sweatshop. Things have been much too quiet since a certain sim kicked it.

[ScoobyDoo]

Well that bites, I really like perm-plat sims.  There was still plenty of wants to keep them busy even after they reacted perm state.  Hope someone makes a hack for it LOL

[Jelenedra]

Supposedly, wishing for peace of mine in FT grants perma-plat like bonuses.

[simofborg]

If all you want is a pretty gravstone do it with insim.
I have always strifen to reach my sims ultimate goals, you know God as I would have him be, but reading posts on this site has opened  my mind has to a whole new gameplay, not so much mr nice guy, Whoops! ms nice person.
I ressurected Bella and got her to chuck out Mortimer, she got the house the car and the kids, and he's living on charity, on account of no 20k handouts, realism in future, no more plat sims for me. Thanks for opening my eyes, what a great way to get even.
Oh dear! the lack of wine and goodies for lent must have brought out my mean side, don't think that's what it's supposed to do.... 

[doren]

It was too late last night, so I did not play much after the installation, but at least those sims which had already fulfilled their lifetime want keep their perma-plat status. There might be two ways to achieve it now, either by fulfilling the lifetime want or through the hobbies.

I find the whole aspiration benefit system hugely disappointing though. It's my own fault really, because I should have known, but I was so excited about a secondary aspiration. It was what I wanted to have in my game since I read the idea on the official forum a long time ago. I wanted a true mixture, but it looks like the secondary aspiration means nothing. It does not have an influence on the attraction between two sims, and as far as wants are concerned: my sims always got wants which "belonged" to other aspirations, so what's new there? So ultimately it only gives access to some of the benefits, which I find alltogether not that exciting.

Though I expected it to some extent, the first impression with Freetime is that it simply reprocesses a lot of ideas from previous expansions.

[MistyBlue]

You guys are so silly. If you don't like having tons of perma-plat sims in your hood, stop making them achieve it.

I think I only allowed that privilege to 3 sims ever and not all with the same install. heh...my sims are more like real life, I guess. I do like the new lifetime aspiration meter. I don't like that from the time of toddler-hood you get so many rewards. During playtime yesterday, a toddler grew to a young adult and maxed out the lifetime aspiration bonuses which made him pretty boring.

[Jelenedra]

I don't think I have EVER had a perma-plat sim. I never play them long enough. =p

[ingeli]

My silly medieval sims keep wanting electronics and stuff that arent even invented. They also have an urge to go to college almost all of them, even if they should KNOW poor sims dont go to college, thats for the rich people. They dont get to have much fun either, only better off families have books - the others must get fun from woohoo, gardening and puddles. Well, cats and dogs are also fun. They do live interesting lives anyway (Ah, and they fight a lot..)

[MadameUgly]

I never cared about permaplat until I started doing challenges.  In my non-challenge neighborhood, a lot of the sims don't even have jobs let alone care about annoying wants like "have so many best friends".

I do like permaplat "drone" elders for challenges (and any points that can be accumulated for accomplishing the permaplat).

[pixiejuice]

Well, I love the secondary aspiration, though I also wish it played some part in chemistry which it doesn't seem to. 

But the new lifetime aspiration bar is very very disappointing.  I like that they earn benefit points, and the rewards they can choose from aren't bad either, but it's just the way they earn them.  Like what does a romance or pleasure sim care about getting married, having babies, or graduating college?  I thought it would count up the wants that made sense to the sim, like 10 1st dates, or 10 loves, or whatever.  This does nothing to encourage a variety of gameplay, but does the opposite instead.  Now to get their stupid points, we have to take them all through this standardized life course - graduate, get married, have kids, max career, boring, boring, boring...

I really should have known it was too good to be true.  But who knows, maybe someone awesome could mod it to be the way it should be

I haven't had a chance to test it out yet though, but I was hoping that fulfilling fears would subtract lifetime points.  I don't think it does.

[Zazazu]

According to stuff posted in the War Zone, having a lowish aspiration score on the hours subtracts points from the lifetime aspiration. So fulfilling fears has an indirect effect.

I'm not seeing any real bonus to secondary aspiration. The motive decay differences must be quite minor. For my Knowledge-Romance, his girlfriend has started doing the ZOMG ROMANCE SIM! swoon, but he doesn't have any non-Knowledge wants. Of course, he's crammed with hobby wants (mostly sports, sports, and more sports) so they could just be getting stomped.

[pixiejuice]

I'm not seeing any real bonus to secondary aspiration. The motive decay differences must be quite minor. For my Knowledge-Romance, his girlfriend has started doing the ZOMG ROMANCE SIM! swoon, but he doesn't have any non-Knowledge wants. Of course, he's crammed with hobby wants (mostly sports, sports, and more sports) so they could just be getting stomped.

I am seeing some non-knowledge wants with my knowledge/pleasure sim.  He's got wants to go on a date, go to a community lot, and to juggle.  And a good thing too, since those knowledge sims are so hard to keep happy with their wanting to just sit around skilling all the time.  But then there are other sims that I'm not seeing mixed wants with.  It probably has something to do with what's going on in the household at the time too.  Like the family couple I'm playing now just had a baby grow up to toddler, so those toddler training wants are trumping everything else that might otherwise be there.

[Jelenedra]

With my sims, no matter what the aspiration, when they get kids they always get wants about teaching them how to X...