Choosing Sex of Babies

[Mandapotpie]

A slightly more significant issue is that the best breakfast, French Toast, contains apples and doesn't advertise it. 

Huh, did you have apples in your inventory when you made the waffles?

How did "French Toast" become "Waffles?"  French toast, unlike pancakes and cobbler, won't take just any fruit.  It requires 2 apples and 1 egg.  The "use ingredients from inventory first" rule is irrelevant, French Toast always contains apples.

 - Gus

*Shakes head
I have no idea how french toast became waffles! Sorry!
I didn't realize you were talking about the ingredients rather than a flavoring! Like apple pancakes or apple waffles like I keep getting in my game.

[IgnorantBliss]

My sims often make pancakes with watermelon, grapes or even limes. I wonder how they choose the ingredient, at random? (This is when also apples are available)

[Zazazu]

Mandapotpie, waffles don't feature fruit of any sort. Look at the skill journal of any of your sims who has cooked them. Egg only.

[J. M. Pescado]

My sims often make pancakes with watermelon, grapes or even limes. I wonder how they choose the ingredient, at random? (This is when also apples are available)

I'm unclear as to how a "pancake" incorporates such an ingredient to begin with, really. Is this some definition of "pancake" I am unfamiliar with?

[minidoxigirli]

My sims often make pancakes with watermelon, grapes or even limes. I wonder how they choose the ingredient, at random? (This is when also apples are available)

I'm unclear as to how a "pancake" incorporates such an ingredient to begin with, really. Is this some definition of "pancake" I am unfamiliar with?

I envision it as similar to a blueberry or chocolate chip pancake.  Grapes probably would work, but watermelon definitely wouldn't.  The liquids would throw off the chemistry of the thing.

[geekgirl]

I eat my meatspace pancakes and waffles with butter and applesauce (jam if no applesauce is available) on top. Would that count?

[Pinstar]

Their fruit choice is lame, though... EAxis should have used bananas and peaches [innuendos fully intended].

I believe "apples" is Russian slang for testicles.  I refuse to speculate on watermelon. 

Hook

I think this is a play on the old wives tale that if a woman's pregnant stomach looks like a watermelon, she's going to have a girl. The other half of that tale is that if the tummy looks like a basketball it'll be a ball. An apple would be an edible approximation for a basket ball being that it is more rounded than oblong.

[mpdrei]

Personally, I've had a fair difference between gender of babies. My Sim favoring apples and having a lesser amount of watermelon while having girls, and vice versa.
Perhaps chance is just against everyone? I've seen a number of times where people would get 10 boys in a row, and only get a girl near the 15 mark.

[Pinstar]

Personally, I've had a fair difference between gender of babies. My Sim favoring apples and having a lesser amount of watermelon while having girls, and vice versa.
Perhaps chance is just against everyone? I've seen a number of times where people would get 10 boys in a row, and only get a girl near the 15 mark.

I'm not sure how much effect foods cooked WITH apples/watermellons have. I've found very reliable results from having the sims eat raw apples or raw watermelons straight from their inventory. So far, that has always produced the desired gender of the child.

[HystericalParoxysm]

It doesn't matter whether it's pure apples/watermelons or as an ingredient - the effect is the same.  5% additional chance per eaten item, up to a maximum of 15% (max chance 65% for a particular gender).

[Soretta]

Also, you have to eat the apples or watermelons in the first trimester of pregnancy as the gender is chosen when the pregnancy starts to show.  All the sim men in my family are doctors and they have been able to ascertain the gender as soon as their wife started to show.

[Georgette]

Also, you have to eat the apples or watermelons in the first trimester of pregnancy as the gender is chosen when the pregnancy starts to show.  All the sim men in my family are doctors and they have been able to ascertain the gender as soon as their wife started to show.

Oooo...that explains why the fruit thing never works for me. I normally make them scoff 3 apples/watermelon on the final day.

[Chocolate Milk]

So if every sim and her dog can grow apples but watermelons have to be sought out, what does this do for the gender ratio in a neighbourhood where you make no attempt to control things?  It seems to me, if you play without knowing this information, given the ubiquity of apples (as Jolrei pointed out, though not quite in those words), aren't we going to get a sort of China Syndrome where there are more male babies born than female?  If you ask me, this is offensive to feminists.  OTOH, I got bored with the game and am not playing, so apologies if my information is wrong because of my lack of experience.

I'm guessing it only affects the family you're playing. At least, the Sim I'm currently playing is quite the romancer and now has 20 children by random neighbourhood women. (I'm waiting to see which child grows up looking the least retarded before I pick a successor.) Of those children, 8 are boys and 12 are girls. Obviously this isn't a scientific trial, but seeing as apples are so ubiquitous as a food ingredient, you'd expect the number of boys to be much higher.

Actually, has anyone tested this out, or is it possible to tell from the XML whether it makes a difference to families which aren't being played...? I'm pretty curious now, it's not something I'd considered before.

[Gus Smedstad]

It doesn't matter whether it's pure apples/watermelons or as an ingredient - the effect is the same.  5% additional chance per eaten item, up to a maximum of 15% (max chance 65% for a particular gender).

You're pulling those numbers out of your ass.  The XML clearly says 15% per item, not 5%, and the maximum change is 50%, not 15%.  Since the base is 50% male, you can get 100% male by eating 4 apples, or 100% female by eating 4 watermelons.

I've had no trouble forcing whatever gender I want.

 - Gus

[Mazza]

I am not convinced at all. I have a legacy family in the 17th gen and all they have ever had is boys. Try as I might to eat watermelon it makes no difference. Still no girls.

[iHateyou]

I am not convinced at all. I have a legacy family in the 17th gen and all they have ever had is boys. Try as I might to eat watermelon it makes no difference. Still no girls.

Have you tried shoving the watermelons up your twat?

[witch]

I am not convinced at all. I have a legacy family in the 17th gen and all they have ever had is boys. Try as I might to eat watermelon it makes no difference. Still no girls.

Have you tried shoving the watermelons up your twat?

Why? Has that worked for you?

[iHateyou]

I am not convinced at all. I have a legacy family in the 17th gen and all they have ever had is boys. Try as I might to eat watermelon it makes no difference. Still no girls.

Have you tried shoving the watermelons up your twat?

Why? Has that worked for you?

Yes and it's fun too.

[Euphemism]

I am not convinced at all. I have a legacy family in the 17th gen and all they have ever had is boys. Try as I might to eat watermelon it makes no difference. Still no girls.

Do your Sims eat pancakes? Make sure they NEVER buy apples, they never have apples in their inventory, anything. Apples can sneak into a lot of recipes and cause boys. Also, for the watermelons to work, you have to eat it in the FIRST trimester of pregnancy. If you do it right after they change into maternity and start rubbing their tummy, then it should work. Something is definitely wrong, either way. The gender ratio should be about 50/50. After 17 generations, SOMETHING is wrong for you to not have had a single girl. Your Sims are sneaking apples when you're not looking. Watch your pregnant Sims like a hawk and turn off autonomy if you have to.

Also, sticking pineapples up your twat is what all the cool kids are up to. Trust me on this.

[Gus Smedstad]

Also, for the watermelons to work, you have to eat it in the FIRST trimester of pregnancy.

This is false.  You can eat the fruits (either type) any time during the pregnancy, from conception right up to delivery.  If it were the first trimester only, several of my gender-determination attempts would have failed.  The usual ways people fail at this are to not eat enough (you need 4 servings of fruit to guarantee a gender) or to eat things which contain the wrong fruit but which don't advertise it (Stu Surprise, French Toast, Eggs Machiavelli).

Pancakes and cobbler always contain fruit, but they say which fruit in the name (i.e. Apple Pancakes or Watermelon Pancakes).

 - Gus

[Euphemism]

Meh. The debate is still raging as to when exactly you need to eat the fruit. See posts about 5 above mine. But you're right, I should have added the number you need to eat. I bet that's where Mazza went wrong.

[Gus Smedstad]

Meh. The debate is still raging as to when exactly you need to eat the fruit. See posts about 5 above mine.

"The debate is still raging" my arse.  I've run 20+ gender-determinations and never had a problem, and there's no way it's restricted a single trimester / day.  I've always spaced my 4 servings of fruit over 2-3 days.  Not once have I fed them all at once.

You're referring to this:

Also, you have to eat the apples or watermelons in the first trimester of pregnancy as the gender is chosen when the pregnancy starts to show.  All the sim men in my family are doctors and they have been able to ascertain the gender as soon as their wife started to show.

Before they start to show, not after as you suggested.  Which is definitely false, since I've almost always started sex-determination when the bump shows in the 2nd trimester, which is when the Sims roll the gender preferences for spawn.

My guess?  There's a Heisenberg effect.  That is, performing the doctor gender-check forces the game to decide baby gender then, rather than at birth.  Next time I have a doctor in the family, I'll test this.

 - Gus

[Solmyr]

Just wanted to post that there is a mod that disables the apple/watermelon gender determination, for those who prefer the baby gender to be fully random.

[Piffle]

Just wanted to post that there is a mod that disables the apple/watermelon gender determination, for those who prefer the baby gender to be fully random.

The new EAxis patch seems to disable it as well, though the patch notes specify in "prepared foods" so you may not want to feed a bunch of raw apples to your pregnant sim just yet.

[virgali]

Just wanted to post that there is a mod that disables the apple/watermelon gender determination, for those who prefer the baby gender to be fully random.

The new EAxis patch seems to disable it as well, though the patch notes specify in "prepared foods" so you may not want to feed a bunch of raw apples to your pregnant sim just yet.

Really?! Then I guess we'll need a mod that enables it then :-/