How Much Personality Do You Give Your Sims?
How much personality do you give your sims within and outside of the game's limits? And how do you do it? For example, things within the game limits would be assigning traits and hobbies or getting...
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Love this thread! Thanks for starting it! I'll need to return to read all, too much to browse quickly.
In my game I add lots of personality and extras! I use extra DNA that determines my sims' personality as well as looks. DNA is inherited, so I use a dice to randomly pass on this extra info from the parents. This includes many small details, and I love seeing how they may (or may not) affect each sim's personality and life. Each DNA thing has 4 possible outcomes, so it gives some variations. CAS details include level of hair growth (incl facial and body hair for men), need of glasses, level of freckles and beauty spot, teeth etc.
For personalities, the DNA gives me info on a sim's masculinity vs femininity, this again leads to how a female sim will dress/make up, hairstyles. It also gives who are gay/lesbian, or tending to be/are unsure etc. I don't play out the g/l bit much, but it's an important factor that can impact on both decisions and lifestyle etc. I also know how fertile my sims are, most can have kids only while YA, while a few also can have kids as Adults. A very few sims can not reproduce at all (they don't know this though, so they might still plan for a life with a huge family... sad stories in the line for them). Finally, DNA also decides a sim's intellect and factor of success. I also have a "social status" integer, which is most important to my upper class sims.
On the traits side, I have a system where most sims will get minimum 1 trait from each parent. I love seeing certain qualities being passed down the generations.
I also have color/material/style preferences on the side, this used to be inherited somehow, but lately I've included more randomness because we are certainly not influenced only by parents when it comes to preferences. It can affect how my sims dress, but mostly how they decorate their homes. Playing 50+ households I must admit I don't always adjust interior according to their preferences, but I wish I had more gaming time and could do this. Anyway, it's useful whenever I need ideas for decorating etc.
During game play I try to reflect all those details. My sims' family life and social life is affected. Careers and hobbies will mostly be affected by traits and social class, and both personalities and stories will turn out very individual in most cases. Also their family background will affect most sims' choices.
Right now I pay most attention to the 5-6 families featured in my ongoing video series.
- Victor F. Tangerin is a powerful man, but mostly thanks to his wealthy wife who has the right contacts. He wants children, which she does not want, but now a baby was born and I guess something about their life must change.
- Bud von Kaching is a typical powerful business man and politician. His focus is business, and he is no longer so close to his beautiful wife or family life in general. He carries a secret from the past that not even his wife knows about. Now that he is elderly I'll need to find a way to leak the truth while he is still around...
- Fanny Silverbone is originally a city girl who adores dogs, and moved to the countryside to breed dogs and sell paintings. Then she by accident became a local politician, and ended up on the regional council. It turned out that the house she had bought, actually held several farm rights, which forced her to start farming. She is Adult and just married a super friendly guy, and the household now counts 2 adults, 1 baby, 3 large dogs + 1 cat... I guess it's time to switch from dog breeding to family life...
- Josue E. Rosewood is a somehow naive enthusiast, but also very laid back and down to earth. A family man who fights for certain rights, and he is a councilor working with Culture. His biggest fight though seems to be avoiding his kids marrying the wrong people. His wife tries to make him let go of their grown up kids, but it's just not easy for him.
- Charloman C. Dougham is my regions current Mayor, His comes from a top class family with a long history and many shady businesses, but Charloman himself is basically a honest and dedicated man. He has no idea that his rich wife is a member of a secret kartel that sees the council as their marionettes. Charloman loves family life, and is a very good dad to this couple's triplets.
There are other families too that I play very detailed. I play all worlds, so there ought to be a good variety :)
In my game I add lots of personality and extras! I use extra DNA that determines my sims' personality as well as looks. DNA is inherited, so I use a dice to randomly pass on this extra info from the parents. This includes many small details, and I love seeing how they may (or may not) affect each sim's personality and life. Each DNA thing has 4 possible outcomes, so it gives some variations. CAS details include level of hair growth (incl facial and body hair for men), need of glasses, level of freckles and beauty spot, teeth etc.
For personalities, the DNA gives me info on a sim's masculinity vs femininity, this again leads to how a female sim will dress/make up, hairstyles. It also gives who are gay/lesbian, or tending to be/are unsure etc. I don't play out the g/l bit much, but it's an important factor that can impact on both decisions and lifestyle etc. I also know how fertile my sims are, most can have kids only while YA, while a few also can have kids as Adults. A very few sims can not reproduce at all (they don't know this though, so they might still plan for a life with a huge family... sad stories in the line for them). Finally, DNA also decides a sim's intellect and factor of success. I also have a "social status" integer, which is most important to my upper class sims.
On the traits side, I have a system where most sims will get minimum 1 trait from each parent. I love seeing certain qualities being passed down the generations.
I also have color/material/style preferences on the side, this used to be inherited somehow, but lately I've included more randomness because we are certainly not influenced only by parents when it comes to preferences. It can affect how my sims dress, but mostly how they decorate their homes. Playing 50+ households I must admit I don't always adjust interior according to their preferences, but I wish I had more gaming time and could do this. Anyway, it's useful whenever I need ideas for decorating etc.
During game play I try to reflect all those details. My sims' family life and social life is affected. Careers and hobbies will mostly be affected by traits and social class, and both personalities and stories will turn out very individual in most cases. Also their family background will affect most sims' choices.
Right now I pay most attention to the 5-6 families featured in my ongoing video series.
- Victor F. Tangerin is a powerful man, but mostly thanks to his wealthy wife who has the right contacts. He wants children, which she does not want, but now a baby was born and I guess something about their life must change.
- Bud von Kaching is a typical powerful business man and politician. His focus is business, and he is no longer so close to his beautiful wife or family life in general. He carries a secret from the past that not even his wife knows about. Now that he is elderly I'll need to find a way to leak the truth while he is still around...
- Fanny Silverbone is originally a city girl who adores dogs, and moved to the countryside to breed dogs and sell paintings. Then she by accident became a local politician, and ended up on the regional council. It turned out that the house she had bought, actually held several farm rights, which forced her to start farming. She is Adult and just married a super friendly guy, and the household now counts 2 adults, 1 baby, 3 large dogs + 1 cat... I guess it's time to switch from dog breeding to family life...
- Josue E. Rosewood is a somehow naive enthusiast, but also very laid back and down to earth. A family man who fights for certain rights, and he is a councilor working with Culture. His biggest fight though seems to be avoiding his kids marrying the wrong people. His wife tries to make him let go of their grown up kids, but it's just not easy for him.
- Charloman C. Dougham is my regions current Mayor, His comes from a top class family with a long history and many shady businesses, but Charloman himself is basically a honest and dedicated man. He has no idea that his rich wife is a member of a secret kartel that sees the council as their marionettes. Charloman loves family life, and is a very good dad to this couple's triplets.
There are other families too that I play very detailed. I play all worlds, so there ought to be a good variety :)
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