4 years ago

How to make your sims more "real" without script mods

Physical:

1) To avoid Same Sim Syndrome, roll two sims. Play with genetics and randomize a teen until you have a sim you like. Delete the original rolled sims. Change the newly created sim's age to the age you want to play.

Personality:

2) Give your sims one negative trait. This doesn't have to be anything terrible, you can make them clumsy or squeamish or something. Flaws will make them more realistic as well as more interesting.

3) Once your sim is on a lot, cheat them 1 to 3 reward traits that fit the personality you want them to have.

4) Give your sim a hobby.

5) Give your sim a visual preference for clothes, decor, or both. For example: bright colors, neutral colors, pastels, rainbows, minimalist look, cluttered/busy look, shiny things, things with texture, whimsical/fun things, dark/macabre things, etc.

6) Give your sim a favorite animal or insect. This doesn't necessarily have to be an animal available in game. For example, if you have a child who really likes ladybugs, you can decorate their room in black and red.

7) Have your sim be a collector of something. This doesn't have to be something officially collectible. For example, they can collect snow globes (an official collectible) or wall art that features nature (not an official collectible).

Romantic Side:

8) Without downloading any mods, assign your sim a physical preference for potential romantic partners (in your head). Only allow them to date other sims who fit that preference. For example, they might prefer redheads, or sims with brown eyes, or sims with big boodies, etc.

Skills:

9) Cheat your sim skills they would already have at that stage in their life. Don't go above about 50% of total points available so that they still have some room to grow.

Friends and Back Story:

10) Who your friends are says a lot about you. Give your main sim a friend group of 2 to 3 sims that you create to specifically be their friends.

11) Start your sim off at the life stage BEFORE the one you want to play. Have them do things with their friends and family to build up experiences and relationships before starting their journey. For example, if you want to play a young adult who just moved to the big city, first start them as a teen in a small town. This gives them some history going into whatever story you're creating for them, and they're not just some nube sim all alone in the world.

12) If your sim is YA or older, think about what clique they were in in high school and how that influences their behavior and attitudes today.

What else? Share your suggestions for making your sim more realistic without using script mods.

tips

17 Replies

83bienchen
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
The title is a little irritating because from what I read here you mean without mods at all, not only without script mods.
There's a vast variety of tuning mods aiming to give Sims more personality (e.g. Polar Bears More Personality Please to Just Name 1), so maybe you want to adjust the title a little and get rid of the 'script'?
cyncie
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
Great suggestions. Actually, this is pretty much how I prefer to play. I don’t wait for, or even want, the game to give me everything. I set up my Sim’s story then play it out in the game’s world. And I definitely use cheats to get them the skills they should have in the life stage they are in. Cheating in reward traits gives them some additional personality. I also create a friend group and cheat the friendship bars up, as well. Other friends come in through the game. I use money cheats to place them in the lifestyle needed for their character right at start. I also give my main sims unique personal clothing styles and reserve those wardrobe items for just them. That also contributes to their uniqueness and individuality.

One main suggestion I have would be to create sims with aspirations that go beyond those in game. For me, this makes the game activity have more depth. For example, I might have a young spellcaster who grew up on the run due to human rejection of magic, who finally makes their way to the Magic Realm. In-game aspiration would be to master magic, but the bigger aspiration would be to influence humans in a positive way to accept magic. This bigger aspiration helps to guide choices and continues to give them direction after the in-game aspiration is met. The larger aspiration helps with selecting new game aspirations, as well. For example, that Spellcaster might choose the “friend of the world” aspiration next, in order to have more influence, and the gameplay with this sim can then go in a new direction that is still consistent with their beginnings.
QueenOfMyshuno
4 years ago
@83bienchen I was trying to differentiate between regular cc and mods that change gameplay when I wrote the title. I’m not a modder, so I might not have the lingo down exactly. Sorry if that was confusing. :smile:
QueenOfMyshuno
4 years ago
@EdieAppleby Hi, Edie. I love yourname. :smile: I’ve had a lot of fun with custom-made friends in game, doing everything together from ice skating or house parties when they’re single to having parent child play groups once my sim and their friend group get married and start having kids. Glad I could inspire you with a new idea to try in your game.
QueenOfMyshuno
4 years ago
@cyncie Sounds like you play VERY similar to how I do. I like your aspiration idea. :smile:
83bienchen
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
Never mind, @QueenofMyshuno, you got some great ideas there especially for Vanilla players, but they can also be used by Players who also use mods.
I've always been a fan of making the best of what we got in the game.
Spoiler
despite using mods, and actually also when creating mods, I Always try to interfere as little as possible with what we have and try to add on, carefully adjust and combine what EA gave us.
mightyspritesims
Legend
4 years ago
I also like the idea of having some things be random, or choosing between limited options that are randomly generated. Here's what I'm doing these days. The random rolling allows sims to be more individual and I end up using more diverse traits and aspirations than I would choose on my own. I like that they surprise me.

When it's time to choose traits, I roll 3 choices. If a trait appeared that's shared by both parents, I choose that one. Otherwise, if a trait appeared that one parent has, I choose that one. If no parental traits appeared I choose one of the 3 choices that I just like for that character the most, but I still roll 3 additional times to give a parental trait a chance to show up. So some of the time they inherit a parent's trait, and some of the time they show us that they are their own people no matter what the parents try to do ;)

Toddler trait is just randomly rolled once.

Aspirations- I roll 3 choices and choose the one that I like for that character the most. (I tend not to switch aspirations until completing one-- in my gameplay, aspirations aren't about collecting aspiration points since I usually end up with way more than I need regardless, aspirations are about giving a sim's life some direction.)

Gender- when a sim ages up to child I roll a number from 1-100 for gender identity. 1-95 is cisgender, 96-98 trans, 99 anatomical/chromosomal intersex condition, 100 non-binary.

Sexual orientation- when a sim ages up to teen I roll a number from 1-100 for sexual orientation. 1-75 is straight, 76-90 is bisexual/pansexual, 91-100 is homosexual. Sometimes I also roll gender identity and sexual orientation for NPC sims a child has grown up with, but not often.

Oh, and for reward traits, I limit myself to one when they age up to young adult and one when they age up to adult, based on what's happened in their life experience so far. All Elders get the Observant trait.
Scobren
Legend
4 years ago
Parenthood pack and Get Together pack helped a lot making Sims feel more realistic with being able to use the club feature to ignore the default go to robot interactions troll the forums, drink, and do push ups, more realistic life stages and moods, and parenting skill. Likes and dislikes helped too. Cottage Living made Sims feel more real with the market and animals. I kind of wish we had more slots because testing with mods five slots make Sims feel more real. Lot traits can help a lot too especially the challenges which are thankfully unlimited now. I would even love unlimited negative traits like how challenges work. Also environmental noodles have a very strong emotional buff, so having Sims use cheap furniture helps make them more realistic.
Harukotyan
4 years ago
"mightysprite;c-18025986" wrote:
When it's time to choose traits, I roll 3 choices. If a trait appeared that's shared by both parents, I choose that one. Otherwise, if a trait appeared that one parent has, I choose that one. If no parental traits appeared I choose one of the 3 choices that I just like for that character the most, but I still roll 3 additional times to give a parental trait a chance to show up. So some of the time they inherit a parent's trait, and some of the time they show us that they are their own people no matter what the parents try to do ;)

Toddler trait is just randomly rolled once.

I try to choose child trait after the toddler one. Otherwise with just random rolling Energetic toddler can become Lazy or Angelic could end up Evil. I prefer more character inheritance. So I've made a sheet where I group all traits under the corresponding toddler once and when sim ages up to child I roll from this pool for their trait.
QueenOfMyshuno
4 years ago
@mightysprite I was going to manually assign parental traits for the sims I have coming up, but I like your idea of rolling for them. Thanks! Also, very cool method with realistic percentages for assigning gender identity and sexual preference.