Do you give your sims a dream?
We have Aspirations, but I see them as wide guidance and often give my grown up sims a life goal on top of that, but not restricted to their Aspiration.
The game sees "Fabulous wealthy" as having a husehold worth minimum so and so much. I want it to be more specific, like "Owning Art worth minimum xxx" or "Owning x businesses". "Mansion baron" can lead to dreams of "Owning a huge mansion", "Letting rooms to room mates" or "Run a hotel" (who said it has to be possible?). "Have big family" is probably about counting kids and perhaps grandchildren, but I might then give my sim the dream of "have bigger family than my sister", "have minimum 3 daughters", "have many relatives" or "build strong relations to all relatives". My "Renaissance sim" will know which skills to build, not just to max 3 skills. A "Master Chef" will not only max cooking skills, but might dream of running a café or restaurant, and even know the preferred setting (ie modern food, trad. food, vegan, seafood, etc.).
These dreams will of course not be handled technically by the game, but they might give my sims a more exact direction. Btw, I rarely focus on *fulfilling* the game's Aspirations, I only use them to understand a sim's personality and further direction. And, having a dream can some time mean that the sim will do the opposite as in ignoring possibilities - because not everyone is determined to fulfill their dream. A sim might of course live a good life even if not all goals are reached.
I think it gets more interesting when my sims have specific goals. I might give them a short list of exact stuff to aim for, not necessarily reaching level 10 of a career if level 7 sounds good enough to that sim. What skills to focus on might also connect to hobbies (which I also specify for some of my sims). I normally start setting these goals/dreams (in a spreadsheet) while the sim is a teenager. It might affect what private high school they study at. I don't set it for all my sims, I tend to do it mostly for sims I feel I don't know well enough.
How about you, do you ever give sims more specific goals/dreams than what the game's aspirations suggests?
The game sees "Fabulous wealthy" as having a husehold worth minimum so and so much. I want it to be more specific, like "Owning Art worth minimum xxx" or "Owning x businesses". "Mansion baron" can lead to dreams of "Owning a huge mansion", "Letting rooms to room mates" or "Run a hotel" (who said it has to be possible?). "Have big family" is probably about counting kids and perhaps grandchildren, but I might then give my sim the dream of "have bigger family than my sister", "have minimum 3 daughters", "have many relatives" or "build strong relations to all relatives". My "Renaissance sim" will know which skills to build, not just to max 3 skills. A "Master Chef" will not only max cooking skills, but might dream of running a café or restaurant, and even know the preferred setting (ie modern food, trad. food, vegan, seafood, etc.).
These dreams will of course not be handled technically by the game, but they might give my sims a more exact direction. Btw, I rarely focus on *fulfilling* the game's Aspirations, I only use them to understand a sim's personality and further direction. And, having a dream can some time mean that the sim will do the opposite as in ignoring possibilities - because not everyone is determined to fulfill their dream. A sim might of course live a good life even if not all goals are reached.
I think it gets more interesting when my sims have specific goals. I might give them a short list of exact stuff to aim for, not necessarily reaching level 10 of a career if level 7 sounds good enough to that sim. What skills to focus on might also connect to hobbies (which I also specify for some of my sims). I normally start setting these goals/dreams (in a spreadsheet) while the sim is a teenager. It might affect what private high school they study at. I don't set it for all my sims, I tend to do it mostly for sims I feel I don't know well enough.
How about you, do you ever give sims more specific goals/dreams than what the game's aspirations suggests?
