Family Relations

[ZephyrZodiac]

Hope so, or they'll end up selling their story to Hello Magazine!

[Witches]

As far as I can tell, once a sim becomes more removed than a first cousin they can date, flirt, etc., in theory.

In practice, the game is inconsistent. I've got some sims who lust after their in-laws and others who can't, even when I want them to. I've even had spouses unable to flirt with their spouse's first cousins! Quite vexing. But I've also got fathers-in-law who lust after their son's, or grandson's, wives, and who presumably could act upon that lust if I let them.

As for kissing cousins, it's really the only way to control your population, IMHO. Once you get past generation 4 you're going to have to have sims who are vaguely related get romatically involved, unless you want to keep creating more sims. At least I've found that to be true in my neighborhood.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, if you don't give them the family aspiration when they become teens, they'll probably only get the want for a baby once!

[vilia]

China rules is the best policy.  If however there a family sim concered and they consistantly roll the want for another child I may let them have another (providing they don't tick me off).

[Jelenedra]

Lord too many children stress me out. I had a family that had 4 kids back to back.

[starrling]

I do have some consistency on the family/flirt thing on my legacy family.  I'm on the 5th generation and every father has become obsessed with (in rolling constant flirt wants) their daughters-in-law.  Ick.  The DIL's don't have the same wants or I'd have had a huge catfight on my hands I'm sure.  Weird. 

And lately, playing large families has been stressing me out too. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

It kind of amused me when Joe Carr had his twins and Komei his daughter (all due to alien abduction, of course!) on the same day - at a time when I didn't use any cheat but the always abduct telescope - and they were constantly exhausted and having to change nappies etc.  But it's hard work keeping them alive!

[vilia]

Luckily the new OFB thing of storing food in inventories makes it much easier to cope with children - you can just whip out a bottle or some food and tell the tyke to go eat.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, if you have Carrigon's Little Baker Pizza Oven you don't need inventories!  And the best thing about pizza for harassed sim mums - no washing up!

[RainbowTigress]

Have you seen Carrigon's new Toy oven?  Kids can fix anything in there now.  She still has the Pizza oven as a separate object, so you can have both, but sim kids can fix just about any meal, prepare a snack, or "warm" leftover pizza or Chinese.  I just started using it, and it's interesting to see what they'll decide to cook.  I've used the pizza oven for a while, and it's true that there are no plates to clean up, but I hate those stinky pizza boxes!  I make the kids clean up after themselves if they aren't neat enough to do it on their own. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, macro-clean on an active sim and it's gone in no time!  I'll have to go and take a look at that new oven, Rainbow!  I used to love C&C's fridges and stoves for Sims1, when kids could cook!  Although I do have the option as I'm still using smart-serve, but I only let them make things that don't involve using the stove! 

Have you tried the buffet counters from Paladin's?  I don't know if kids can use them, or the replicator, though, as I've only had them in houses with teens and up.

[jrd]

Dizzy2's smart serve also enables child cooking and meal serving. I've been using it since it came out, and while it isn't 100% OFB compatible it doesn't conflict with actually working code (only bakeries are broken, and these don't work right anyway).

[ZephyrZodiac]

That's what I use, and the only problem is, as you say, in sims not being able to make many and stick stuff in their inventories.  But it saves all those uneaten rotten plates which  don't get cleaned up autonomously until they get fly-blown!  And they're always in the way too!  (Although now I have Numenor's corner counter hack I have more space in my little kitchens, so it's less of a problem.)

[RainbowTigress]

I'm not using Dizzy's Smart Serve hack anymore.  I took it out when I installed OFB because I loved the idea of making a lot of plates of food and sticking them in the inventory.  So far it's working pretty good.  If they are hungry enough, Macrotastics will have them whip out a plate of food, grab a serving, and stick it back real quick.  Especially useful for kids on the Skillinator who can't normally cook or sims who are too hungry to spend time cooking.  The best thing is that the food never spoils while in their inventory!  I also got Monique's hack that makes food last longer before spoiling.  It comes in three flavors:  12 hours, 24 hours, and never.  I started with the 12 hour but now I'm using the 24 hour.  I probably won't use the never spoil one though.  I think of it as having left overs, since you can't put them back in the fridge.  Anyway, I'm really loving the ability to store food in the inventory now.  I just have them cook up a bunch of food when they have time and store it, kind of like keeping it in the freezer, and thawing out a portion when you need it. 

[jrd]

I think of it as having left overs, since you can't put them back in the fridge.

Now there is an idea. Wouldn't it be great if you could return uneaten (but unspoiled) plates to the fridge to refill it slightly?

[J. M. Pescado]

Delayed-spoilage or leftovers-to-fridge are no longer really necessary since you can packrat them to inventory now.

[RainbowTigress]

Do you know if putting food in the inventory will reset how long that particular plate has until it spoils, or will it remember how long it has been out of the inventory?  For example, if a plate of pork chops spoils in six hours, and it was sitting on the counter for three hours before being put in the inventory, would it then spoil in three hours after taking it back out, or would it reset back to six?

[jrd]

How realistic is placing food in the inventory, though?

I don't tend to carry food in my pockets for days. And not just because of the smell factor.

Whenever possible I play as realistically as possible. Otherwise TS2 just becomes a skill building race, after which the only goal left is to achieve perma-plat (if that hasn't happened yet) and spawn  the next generation.
Enforcing some restrictive "realism" rules on the game is the only way I can find it worthwhile to keep playing.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Me too, which is one of the reasons I like using smart-serve.  If you have a couple of people living in one house, no kids, no visitors, and they have dinner, they don't normally cook enough to feed next door as well!

[RainbowTigress]

I tend to run larger households.  I get bored playing just two or three sims, and just playing one sim bores me to tears.  Plus, my sims almost always have friends over, and they stay longer if you feed them. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

But if you have ten hungry sims, smart-serve means you make enough for ten plates!  If you only make six, you have to have another sim cook as well.

[J. M. Pescado]

Do you know if putting food in the inventory will reset how long that particular plate has until it spoils, or will it remember how long it has been out of the inventory?  For example, if a plate of pork chops spoils in six hours, and it was sitting on the counter for three hours before being put in the inventory, would it then spoil in three hours after taking it back out, or would it reset back to six?

It will remember its present state, but why would you leave it out 3 hours anyway?

How realistic is placing food in the inventory, though?

Well, you can put an entire car in one's inventory. Presumably, one's inventory involves some abstracted space where stuff can be appropriately stored in whatever form is needed. Or maybe it's extradimensional Hammerspace. Who knows?thwhile to keep playing.

Me too, which is one of the reasons I like using smart-serve.  If you have a couple of people living in one house, no kids, no visitors, and they have dinner, they don't normally cook enough to feed next door as well!

I doubt Smart-serve actually charges the fridge appropriately for the amount of food taken. Plus the entire "inventory" thing obviously doubles as "vacuum freeze". I suppose you could buy a freezercase and use that, if you want to go into buy mode to have to get it every time.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, that's only too true!  So sims are actually 4-dimensionsl beings - three dimensions are visible, the 4th is invisible and limitless!  (Or is it 5 - there's the invisible place where they store the mops and buckets etc. that are only visible when in use!)

[jrd]

Obviously Sims' inventories are the same as adventure games pockets.

The part in Gabriel Knight 3 where Gabriel stuffs Mosely's coat down his pants still cracks me up, the animations are so overplayed it is an obvious reference to the pocket dimensional inventories.

[vilia]

In best Mae West impersonation - "is that a cheesecake, pizza, spaghetti, car and bouquet of flowers in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me?"