best way to make them know they're family?

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, he could have played Red Hands or smustled with her!

[Bangelnuts]

Well, he could have played Red Hands or smustled with her!

maybe he wanted  something more intimate

[ZephyrZodiac]

Dirty Old sim!

[Bangelnuts]

Dirty Old sim!

maybe she was a pretty young bed warmer

[ZephyrZodiac]

If it was Unleashed, he could have bought a dog!  (But then, death is rare in Sims1!)

[Bangelnuts]

If it was Unleashed, he could have bought a dog!  (But then, death is rare in Sims1!)

good thing with sims2 no dog was available since he only had a day to live.poor dog would have been home less

[Sleepycat]

*giggles at the dirty old sim comment*


I've always thought that Maxis set the cousin thing up so that distant cousins would be able to marry and stuff for those that play with large familys but don't want a million sims in their neighborhoods...

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, it works like that, I guess, but probably just less work!

But still, very upsetting for two sim teens whose parents decided to get married before they had the chance to grow up and move out!  David was so upset that he even wrote a long letter to SF Forum asking for help!  And they weren't related, they hadn't grown up together from babies, David was only two days off adult (before Uni) and they were besotted with each other.  And that didn't change, even though David was Romance!  He never rolled any wants but be best friends with any other sim! 

[Torkle]

On a somewhat related note, I once came up with the following plan for a nuclear inbred family:

Six starting sims (A through F) pair up and marry.  Each marriage (indicated by flat diamonds in the picture) spawns two kids: a boy and a girl.  Then you breed/braid these three family lines together into an inbred knot of family togetherness.  You can keep going as long as you want - the pattern repeats.  The game allows this kind of thing because it doesn't look farther back than grandparents for family relationships.

[eaglezero]

You have too much time on your hands, Torkle. WAY too much time.

Nevertheless, nice diagram. It might be a bit easier to read if it was oriented so that the time progression was vertical rather than horizontal, as that is how the family trees are in-game.

I have to admit that I kind of want to start a redneck neighborhood now and have them follow this pattern.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Problem if they all have NO lightning bolts for each other!

[eaglezero]

Ah, but I don't have NL yet, so this lightning bolt system is still something of a mystery to me.

Actually, I have a question now. Can't you just disregard the lightning bolt system and force them to marry/have children anyway? Or will they reject those interactions with sims they don't have lightning bolts with?

[BlueSoup]

They won't reject Sims that they have no lightning bolt relationship with.  They may have to work a little harder, and possibly there is less swooning over them, but I've had Sims that had perfectly happy relationships without any lightning bolts.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, true, but I prefer my sims to actually choose each other!  Of course, not possible in CAS, but I do try to make them compatible, though it doesn't always work.  1 lightning bolt seems to work pretty well though.  But couples I made pre-NL who don't have them will not be encouraged to split up!

[eaglezero]

Thanks for the info. I think I'm going to go ahead and get NL this weekend, so we'll see how that goes.

[jennydeenyc]

I thought I'd share some pics of the Hatch family - partly cause I'm bored, but mostly because I love taking pics of my sims but can't be bothered to make up whole story albums :-)

This first one has my vote for most embarrasing labor. Poor Willow didn't even have time to spin back into her clothes before the pains hit!


This is her son (with Sabastian LeTourneau) Nick, all growed up into a teen...you can see he shares his parents' penchant for costume makeup!


Here is Lilly, daughter of Willow's cousin Joey and Caryl Couderc (or whatever her last name was). Caryl actually cleans up decent once you get some makeup on her, but nothing about Lilly as a child prepared me for the exotic beauty of her teen incarnation.


A lonely evening with the telescope brought Willow's brother Riley little Christina here, who as a child had more than her share of run-ins with the family ghosts. One night of multiple hauntings left the poor thing too tired to even make it back into bed!




By the way, I use GunMod's Radiance Light and Camera systems in my game, makes a HUGE difference in my pics, at least I think so. Oh, and the ceilings are a must have IMHO as well. Hope posting these didn't bother anyone!

[BlueSoup]

By the way, I use GunMod's Radiance Light system in my game, makes a HUGE difference in my pics, at least I think so. Oh, and the ceilings are a must have IMHO as well. Hope posting these didn't bother anyone!

Where did you get the ceilings?

[jennydeenyc]

You know, I had a feeling I was gonna get asked that!

Celing tiles are here: http://charlotte.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=42789

Keep in mind that if you get a stuck invisible object indoors & use Pescado's hack to burninate it, it'll burninate the ceiling tile above as well.

Lighting mod is here: http://charlotte.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=101456&highlight=ceiling

It took a process of trial & error (still ongoing) to get the right amount and quality of lighting in rooms using this mod. The thing to remember is not all lights give off the same amount or even color of luminance, so experimentation is key.

Camera mod is here: http://charlotte.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=97642&highlight=ceiling

Simply awesome how it lets you get right in close to your sims. Couldn't live without it now!

[BlueSoup]

Yeah, I have the Radiance lighting mod and the camera mod, which I am still new to.  I love them both, although the lighting mod in a bunker is a bitch!

Thanks for the ceiling tips.

[jennydeenyc]

Hey, just something else I noticed today, and I dunno if its the camera mod or not, or something about my resolution (1280x720), but I find that when I frame a snapshot in Camera Mode, the resulting picture generally has a good deal more vertical image captured than I see with what I'm framing. How much more seems to vary with the level of zoom I use. Lately I've started purposely correcting for this in my snapshot framing and its doing a world of good for my picture composition. Just thought I'd pass the info along...

Of course, I'm a picture junkie. I actually have my Storytelling folder mounted on my laptop over my network so I can instantly check the composition of any picture I take, and then I can adjust the framing if I don't like how it came out!

[JeanMaas]

reading this treat, i thought i drop the confusing familytree of my 6 aliëns.

the founders of my family are Victor and Gary, 2 married (well, the equivilant of that) males. Gary got abducted and gave birth to Starman. in his tree there is Gary and Polination Technition, as his parents. Victor got abducted and gave birth to twins, Starlady and Starnext. Their tree: Victor and Polination Technition, as their parents. so far nothing to be confused about. all 3 are adults now.

Starman got abducted and gave birth to Veron. his tree: only Polination Technition, no second parent or grandparents. i also got the twins gave birth to aliëns, Joy and Stan. same story. if i clic on Polination Technition in the tree all 6 aliëns show up next to eachother, as if they all are brothers and sisters. that is what confuses me.

jean

[ZephyrZodiac]

Unfortunately, Aliens do not seem to be controlled by the same rules as ordinary sims.  Since all of your sims have Pollination Technician as a parent, the game will consider them all as siblings.  This is perhaps why the second parent has not shown up.  You can put the birth parent into the family tree yourself with SimPE. 

I've had alien sims get abducted too, and this happens, and family trees get sooo confusing!  I'd suggest in future if you don't want the problem, only have the cheap telescope on lots with aliens sims. or, you can use SimPE to "treat as female" in which case, I assume they would not get pregnant from an abduction.  However, if they want a baby, or they have a wife who does, you'd then have to treat the wife as male, and let him carry the baby!  (I have a feeling that if you change him back again after he's been abducted, an alien baby would suddenly make itself felt!)

[JeanMaas]

thank you zz. apperently. i was thinking, in this way inbreading can occour in the game. but it can't or won't handle it and make them sibblings, or maybe the tree can not display it, but remembers it in the background.

well, i wanted to have some aliëns to play with and i really love their personallity's. after my first, Starman, i'm comepletly hooked. so i forced the abductions of Victor, Gary and Starman with testingcheatsenabled. the twins, i didden't even bother to abduct them. i hoped that some other Polination Technition's would show up, i don't like the inbreading part.

now i'm thinking about the male in my avatar to be abducted. he is not related to this family. i want him to produce a non related aliën to marry one of the six, but probably Polination Technition will pop up again.

don't have simpe, but reading here about it i'm realy getting intrested. ha, would realy like to experiment with 'treat as female'. of most of the males in this family their 'gender pref' is male. oh dear, do they wear female clothing then? anyway, if i have simpe i will try to do something about treir tree. first i have to sort out some other things, then i'm going to look at simpe.

jean

[ZephyrZodiac]

Until the current Pollination Technician dies or retires (unlikely I think) then all alien babies will be siblings, so it seems it's not possible to iintermarry them.  (I think it might be possible to clone some in SimPE and then put them in a different neighbourhood, but I'm not sure about that.)

If you "treat as female" your sim will have a female voice and be able to have babies, but will still wear male clothing and look male.

[JeanMaas]

mmm. i did hear there are 4 of those technician's, but 25% is to big a risk if that was my only reason to abduct him. on the other hand, a bit of gambling.. well i don't like the idea of intermarry them, even if i can. i even don't like this inbreading, with the first one, veron, i thought he maybe is a clone of Pollination Technician, but after the other two it was obvious that this was not the case. joy is a girl and stan has normal lips as his mother has.

great that they still look male en wear male clothing. i like to be on the edge, but there's alway's an edge. oke, i want simpe. i do have a boy sim and i was wondering what to do with him. his gender pref is males, and i have downd some very nice clothing for that.

thanks zz