The whole adopting children business.

[Dark Trepie]

Prepare to point and laugh at me.

I don't know why, but I was always under the impression that if you adopt a child rather than a baby or toddler that the game would pick a child out of the townie pool and give you one.  Not sure where I got that impression from, might have been some BBS BS.  And the one time that I've adopted a kid in the history of this game it was a baby, who grew into a rather attractive young lady surprisingly.  So I have an extremely limeted experience in adopting.

I've got a lesbian couple (first one I've had in a while) and they spun up the want to adopt a child after their Wedding Joined Union.  So I went and decided to adopt a child while ignorantly thinking the game would give me a townie rather than create an unnesessary character file.  Long story short:  I've exited and reloaded about 20 different times.  And each kid the social worker brings looks like they feel out of the ugly tree face first.  Oh well, if the game insists on creating a totally new sim I might as well adopt a toddler.  At least I can nuke them with smart milk for skillinating purposes later on.

"Ugly baby generator" indeed... 

[Motoki]

I've had suprisingly good luck with the randomly generated adoptees, but the game will generate them unless a child has been taken away from the social worker at another playable house. Then you will always get those children in the order in which they were removed from the their houses.

You'll never get townies though, but Inge has a hacked bush you can use to adopt townie kids if you want.

[veilchen]

And you see Trepie, that was exactly the reason I went and downloaded TJ's 'same sex pregnancy' and the 'adopt/baby want' thingie (where adopting and having a baby fulfilled the same want or something like that). I was actually shocked when I laid eyes on the kid the social worker wanted to load off on me.

The teleporter shrub is a wonderful creation. I 'adopted' many a nice looking townie kid.

While we are at that, Motoki, I 'adopted' Lucy Burb via the shrub. At the time I was not aware that she was part of a family in the sim bin, I never paid attention to that one at all (I know, I know, make room for me in that 'pointing and laughing' corner Trepie) She's now a playable sim, out of Uni and living in Pleasantview. However, when I looked once again at the sim bin, there she still is with her parents. What happened? Will I have two Lucys running around should I decide to move the family out of the bin and into Pleasantville? Will my game mess up? Will my computer explode?

[Witches]

I adopted a very attractive sim baby. She's an adult now and drop dead gorgeous. But I could tell from the time she transitioned to toddler that she was going to be a looker.

On the other hand, her son (biological) was a cute toddler but kinda ugly as a kid, barely passable as a teen, but now that he's a young adult, he's rather nice looking.

What a kid looks like isn't always indicative of what they'll grow up to look like, in other words. And sim kids grow on you. I had one in my previous simcarnation (before the motherboard incident) with a nose like Pinnochio's. I still liked him.

BTW I always adopt babies because I want to name them. I don't want to get stuck raising a kid named Goopy. (Shudders.)

[SaraMK]

While we are at that, Motoki, I 'adopted' Lucy Burb via the shrub. At the time I was not aware that she was part of a family in the sim bin, I never paid attention to that one at all (I know, I know, make room for me in that 'pointing and laughing' corner Trepie) She's now a playable sim, out of Uni and living in Pleasantview. However, when I looked once again at the sim bin, there she still is with her parents. What happened? Will I have two Lucys running around should I decide to move the family out of the bin and into Pleasantville? Will my game mess up? Will my computer explode?

She isn't really there. The game doesn't update the family picture until they are loaded/saved. So it will continue showing the three of them until the game is given a reason to update the picture, such as by moving them into a lot.

[veilchen]

Thank you Sara, that's a relief. It had me a little worried there (ok, it had me a lot worried )

[eaglezero]

And you see Trepie, that was exactly the reason I went and downloaded TJ's 'same sex pregnancy' and the 'adopt/baby want' thingie (where adopting and having a baby fulfilled the same want or something like that). I was actually shocked when I laid eyes on the kid the social worker wanted to load off on me.

That's why I have the same-sex pregnancy mod as well. Much, much better than adopting random kids. I've had two sim couples adopt. One kid looked okay when she grew up, the other needed some serious plastic-srugery-machine work so that her lips didn't take up like half her face. (I think there's a maid that she resembled -- Lucy? Is Lucy a maid? Anyway, she looked like that maid, kind of, with the huge-beyond-all-semblance-of-reality lips. It was weird looking, especially since her parents were both on the more handsome side of things.)

[SaraMK]

BTW I always adopt babies because I want to name them. I don't want to get stuck raising a kid named Goopy. (Shudders.)

I had a family that adopted a million kids because I wanted to see just how bad they'd look. They got two Ratna's in a row. Ratna is almost as bad as Goopy. Almost.

Hey, do you suppose we are hurting the feelings of any real people named Goopy, with the way we all hate on Goopy? Or can we safely assume that anyone named Goopy has grown skin as thick as an elephant by now?

[skandelouslala]

I don't let my sims adopt much in the game, but the times I have I've had generally good luck with how the kids look.  Sometimes I like adopting kids instead of babies/toddlers simply b/c I don't want to go through the hassle of raising anymore babies/toddlers but want a kid.  But yeah...most of my adoptees..good looking..with the exception of a couple that have the whole huge lip syndrome going on.

[Dark Trepie]

And you see Trepie, that was exactly the reason I went and downloaded TJ's 'same sex pregnancy' and the 'adopt/baby want' thingie (where adopting and having a baby fulfilled the same want or something like that). I was actually shocked when I laid eyes on the kid the social worker wanted to load off on me.

Well, I do like to keep things somewhat realistic (says the guy that has his sim self married to an alien).  So the only way these two ladies are going to have a baby the old fashioned way is if one of them has a few too many drinks with one of their guy friends one night and decides to "jump the fence" so to speak.

I do have Inge's Teleporter Shrub though.  And once I can settle on a kid/toddler/baby that the social worker brings by I'll make use of it in the next adoption.

Isn't there a hack somewhere that lets ladies come back pregnate after an alien abduction?  An alien kid with Polination Tech's genes would be more tolerable than most of the kids the social worker has tried to unload on me.

[SaraMK]

Isn't there a hack somewhere that lets ladies come back pregnate after an alien abduction?  An alien kid with Polination Tech's genes would be more tolerable than most of the kids the social worker has tried to unload on me.

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=54848

[windy_moon]

Trepie, I put the townie children into the adoption pool when I was ridding my main neighborhood of townies.

Had the townienoregen hack installed.

Then I used Inge's shrub to summon the townie children to a house with a Sim that I created for the purpose.  (It would work with any house or Sim, tho, I just didn't want to junk up the memories of Sims I play.)

After summoning them, I moved them in.  Then, I used Inge's shrub to "put up for adoption"...and off to the adoption pool they went.

* dusts hands *

No more Marcia Brunig stalking my kids! 

Now, this does mean that when I adopt I have to either be willing to take one of the little wretches in, or I have to create a CAS child and put that kid in the adoption pool via the shrub method on top of the kids that are there.  Last one in is first one out.

I did accidently get Brittany Whatshername when I miscalculated the last one in...and she's turned out to be a delight.  Marcia, I don't think so.  If I got her by mistake, I'd shrub her right back where she started. 

[ari_]

I did accidently get Brittany Whatshername when I miscalculated the last one in...and she's turned out to be a delight.  Marcia, I don't think so.  If I got her by mistake, I'd shrub her right back where she started. 

Marsha grows up surprisingly good-looking - out of all 5 townie kids, she's the only decent-looking one. At least, decent-looking enough for me that she won't be getting a SimSurgery make-over when she's a teen or adult (they're all still townie kids in my current neighborhood, but I'd grown them up in a previous one).

[Motoki]

BTW I always adopt babies because I want to name them. I don't want to get stuck raising a kid named Goopy. (Shudders.)

You can change a sim's first name with the  Insimenator. I believe you can do it with testingcheats somehow too. And if all else fails, you can do it in SimPE.

I like to adopt child aged kids so I don't have to deal with the baby and toddler hassle. Adopting is also very handy for dealing with those have 10 children wants.

I don't worry too much about their looks, even though I haven't gotten any that were too terribly bad yet, because I give every sim plastic surgery at some point. I find even two nice looking sims can have something funky about their kid. Most times I just try to refine features and Gigge-ize them (smaller eyes, face up a bit higher, lips less wide etc) but sometimes certain features between two sims do not mix well. Any sim auto generated by a Maxis template automatically gets some sort of sort of surgery from me also.

[chknflvrdramen]

TJ's ... the 'adopt/baby want' thingie (where adopting and having a baby fulfilled the same want or something like that).

::raises hand:: Please for the love of all things good would someone direct me to this hack? I've been drooling over it for some time and didn't know it actually existed.

[Motoki]

It's here on this very site in TwoJeff's section. He's got lots of other useful stuff in his section too. Might want to take a look.

[chknflvrdramen]

Thank you a thousand times, downloading now.

[MissDoh]

Prepare to point and laugh at me.

I don't know why, but I was always under the impression that if you adopt a child rather than a baby or toddler that the game would pick a child out of the townie pool and give you one. 

Long story short:  I've exited and reloaded about 20 different times.  And each kid the social worker brings looks like they feel out of the ugly tree face first. 

Were you desparetely seeking for Marsha Bruenig? 

[J. M. Pescado]

Hey, do you suppose we are hurting the feelings of any real people named Goopy, with the way we all hate on Goopy? Or can we safely assume that anyone named Goopy has grown skin as thick as an elephant by now?

According to a Maxian interview, there is, in fact, a Goopy, and he cries in his cube often as a result. Given the attitude with which they treated the matter, the truth is probably closer to B.

[Dark Trepie]

Were you desparetely seeking for Marsha Bruenig?

......funny you should mention that.

This couple were downtownies I de-aged and sent through Uni.  I assume both were close to the top of their careers because they both had a lot of friends and had a lot of skill points already.  And one of their friends is Marsha...

[Ancient Sim]

I've only adopted two as I put TwoJeffs' mod in some time ago to allow genetic kids.  However, the two I adopted are quite decent-looking.  Brandi Broke adopted a daughter who does have full lips, but they're not over-wide and they suit her face.  She looks very Mediterranean.  Cassandra adopted a boy (who the game named DON of all things, that was quickly changed as his adoptive father was Don's enemy, Darren Dreamer) and he's quite nice-looking.  Certainly better looking than a natural child of Cassandra would have been, although her son to Darren is actually quite a looker.  The only thing really wrong with both my adopted kids is that the Random Sim Generator didn't exist then, so they both came out with identical Aries personalities.  Dante is actually a nice guy (for all that he has 3 in Nice), but Alison can be very spiteful and even though she's married with a baby, unbeknown to her husband (Maxis YA Jimmy Phoenix) she's actually a raving lesbo.

As for Marsha Bruenig, in my game she became best friends with Brandi Broke and her two youngest (the afore-mentioned adopted daughter and Brandi's son to Vince Walter, the Headmaster) so when Brandi & Vince died they invited her to move in.  She was aged up to teen so she could get some scholarships, then they all went off to Uni together.  Marsha ended-up marrying Brandi's son Vincent and as I recall she's pregnant now. I agree that she's nowhere near as bad as an adult - in fact, she looks totally different once she ages to teen and it's difficult to see her as the same Sim.  She seems to grow into her face somehow.

[baratron]

Hey, do you suppose we are hurting the feelings of any real people named Goopy, with the way we all hate on Goopy? Or can we safely assume that anyone named Goopy has grown skin as thick as an elephant by now?

According to a Maxian interview, there is, in fact, a Goopy, and he cries in his cube often as a result. Given the attitude with which they treated the matter, the truth is probably closer to B.

He's listed in the game credits. First page. Apparently the Animation Director for Sims 2 is called Goopy Rossi.

[Athena]

One of my families adopted a daughter who is very cute and ironically looks like the genetic daughter of the parents (the skin and hair color of her adopted mom and the eye color of her adopted dad).

[anyeone]

Ugly SimBabies need love too!

I cherish my adopted ugly simbabies... until the time they are older and I can turn them into romantic rejects! 

Just kidding 

But seriously, my funniest adopted Sim story was when I got a cute little red haired toddler called Jordan.
I cooed at him like you would any Sim baby, but when he turned into a toddler he had ugly dread/braid hair (which though looking good on darker sims IMO looks silly on white ones) so I sent him to the mirror to change them and lo and behold was I shocked to find out that Jordan should have been Jordana!

Unfortunately I've since had to reinstall the game so I don't have pics.  But she actually grew up pretty decent looking.

[Hairfish]

You can change a sim's first name with the  Insimenator. I believe you can do it with testingcheats somehow too. And if all else fails, you can do it in SimPE.

Merola's Multi-Painting will do it, too.