Science Babies

I wish that at least instead of getting a baby instantly that the recipient parent(s) got some kind of 3 day countdown 'anticipating new arrival' moodlet and the 'share big news' interaction (or some variation i know by default it involves an animation gesturing to the stomache) before leaving to get them via rabbithole. Insta-baby feels kinda immersion breaking, even if my baby is growing in an artificial womb in the science center i wish it still took 3 days.

"Babykittyjade;c-18236181" wrote:
I think it starts to get too complex gameplay wise and also controversial. Surrogacy and all those other ways people make babies nowadays that I don't know the name of is a bit of a controversial topic. To just have a "science" baby through some means of mysterious science is a much safer alternative and still useful to tell stories. At some point imagination has to be used too. It's just a game. ?

I have no issue whatsoever with it being called a science baby, that wasn't even remotely the point. Yes, the Science Babies name is good because it can cover so many situations. I am saying that I don't see why you wouldn't still have a pregnancy in that situation.

As for being "too controversial": people have used IVF and other assisted reproductive technology for several decades now, and those babies aren't grown in a lab, they arrive via pregnancy just like any other baby. I suppose after all these years, there might be a small percentage of people who still find that controversial, but the TS4 team doesn't defer to bigots in other aspects of the game, nor should they, so I don't see why they would here, either.

I truly believe it's just an oversight, and that somehow no one realized it would be problematic.

I also can't imagine how it would be "too complex" gameplay-wise. "Try for baby": boom, you're pregnant (okay, 80% of the time). "Return from alien abduction": boom, you're pregnant (a significant percentage of the time). "Pay for science baby": boom, you're pregnant. A sim pregnancy is a sim pregnancy, there's no new gameplay to add.

Again, just saying, if a cis male sim can carry an alien pregnancy, I don't see why a lesbian sim who used her best male friend as a donor, through technology, wouldn't also have a regular pregnancy. Or two married sims who need IVF due to fertility problems, or any of the other headcanon you might come up with- because yes, obviously imagination is involved, we all know this.

Anyway, long story short, if you don't mind, that's your business. But for me, it ruins what was an extremely cool and interesting new feature that I would otherwise have used a lot.

"amydunne;c-18236187" wrote:
I guess a question I have is - if a single sim has a science baby will their genetics be mixed with random genetics as if they'd used a ????? donor? Maybe I missed that during the livestream.

There were two options: one gives you the option to choose the other sim parent (has to be someone with whom you have at least a somewhat friendly relationship), The second option is to do it as a single sim; they didn't show this, but I'm guessing it's just your own genetics in that case.

"LeGardePourpre;c-18236212" wrote:
Next step : Magic Baby

When a sim tell a wish to a genie, no need to go off-screen.

We can wish for a child with the wishing well. Though that needs to be updated since you can't yeet the kid into the well if you want to reroll for a new one.

"Rebbilina;c-18235859" wrote:
Yeah, I', honestly very dissapointed in that and don't really see myself using that feature because of it. I have had quite a lot of lesbian couples where I change the one that's not carrying to be able to impregnate others and have them try for baby, to pretend that they're doing IVF and have a donor that looks similar to the other parent. I was very excited about science babies initially, but I really want that pregnancy.

"Simmingal;c-18235802" wrote:


I assume its because the whole who is mother thing they want to avoid so its kind of like adoption except with genetics

I'm bisexual and have previously been in a long term relationship with another woman, where we tried to have a baby. To me, that would'nt be an issue as long as both women are listed as mothers. The game already does that if you do what I usually do. There's not different in their relationships with the kids, the only reason I know is because I remember who carried which child. People who view the non-carrying person as less of a mum already do so before playing, and aren't going to change their minds about that because no one's pregnant. To me, it feels more disappointing to not get the pregnancy with this at all, than people who already were biggots continuing being bigots.

Not being able to play with lesbian couples and pregnancies was one of the things I really didn't like in sims 3 (yes, I know there was an option in Into the future, but I didn't have it and had no desire to time travel). It's great that the baby showers are for everyone, but I still want the whole throw up every morning and go to the hospital together to give birth with my lesbian couples. It would be way better if you could choose pregnancy or not.

I look at it this way, and it may have been a mod I use, there is a place where you can select the 'seed' donor. In fact I do believe MCCC allows for this. It doesn't have to be the partner, unless you want it to be. You click on the parent-to-be and then select the donor. This would simulate a surrogacy, or InVetro. Either way your Sim goes through a pregnancy, just as if the couple were heterosexuals. Create your own head-canon. I'm very sorry you're disappointed. Are we really certain things weren't sped up? Scary Test-tube baby.

I just had an interesting thought. Since in CAS we can set become pregnant or make pregnant, why not toss a coin or roll the dice to see which one gets to carry the child?

"GalacticGal;c-18236222" wrote:

I just had an interesting thought. Since in CAS we can set become pregnant or make pregnant, why not toss a coin or roll the dice to see which one gets to carry the child?

That definitely works for some situations, and I have used that in the past, but it doesn't work for every situation you could imagine. For example, if you want a scenario where two platonic best friends are going to coparent (Note to devs: this would actually make a great scenario!), you might not want them to woohoo, even as platonic Woohoo Partners. (I would absolutely not woohoo with any of my best friends IRL, regardless of gender or orientation.) Or if you are imagining that, say, Bob and Eliza are having fertility issues, the science baby would allow them the option of the sims equivalent of IVF. Or maybe you have a couple where both of the women are bisexual; if they split up later, they might both want to still be set to "can become pregnant" if they start extended families with male partners down the road.

I mean, there are workarounds already, but for me, the benefit of Science Babies, and the thing that made me momentarily very excited and happy, was the ability to easily do what previously had to be done through cheats, jumping in and out of CAS, making gameplay choices I didn't want, etc. Sure, either way, you would still use your imagination to fill in some of the gaps, but science babies has so much potential to unlock richer gameplay. Which is what makes it sad that it comes with such a massive downside.

Basically, the option of having the pregnancy experience is fundamental for me. And I don't think that's so unusual. After all, there are lots of people in real life who want the life experience of pregnancy, and not all of them are straight cis women in committed relationships with no fertility issues.

"GalacticGal;c-18236222" wrote:

"Rebbilina;c-18235859" wrote:
Yeah, I', honestly very dissapointed in that and don't really see myself using that feature because of it. I have had quite a lot of lesbian couples where I change the one that's not carrying to be able to impregnate others and have them try for baby, to pretend that they're doing IVF and have a donor that looks similar to the other parent. I was very excited about science babies initially, but I really want that pregnancy.

"Simmingal;c-18235802" wrote:


I assume its because the whole who is mother thing they want to avoid so its kind of like adoption except with genetics

I'm bisexual and have previously been in a long term relationship with another woman, where we tried to have a baby. To me, that would'nt be an issue as long as both women are listed as mothers. The game already does that if you do what I usually do. There's not different in their relationships with the kids, the only reason I know is because I remember who carried which child. People who view the non-carrying person as less of a mum already do so before playing, and aren't going to change their minds about that because no one's pregnant. To me, it feels more disappointing to not get the pregnancy with this at all, than people who already were biggots continuing being bigots.

Not being able to play with lesbian couples and pregnancies was one of the things I really didn't like in sims 3 (yes, I know there was an option in Into the future, but I didn't have it and had no desire to time travel). It's great that the baby showers are for everyone, but I still want the whole throw up every morning and go to the hospital together to give birth with my lesbian couples. It would be way better if you could choose pregnancy or not.

I look at it this way, and it may have been a mod I use, there is a place where you can select the 'seed' donor. In fact I do believe MCCC allows for this. It doesn't have to be the partner, unless you want it to be. You click on the parent-to-be and then select the donor. This would simulate a surrogacy, or InVetro. Either way your Sim goes through a pregnancy, just as if the couple were heterosexuals. Create your own head-canon. I'm very sorry you're disappointed. Are we really certain things weren't sped up? Scary Test-tube baby.

I just had an interesting thought. Since in CAS we can set become pregnant or make pregnant, why not toss a coin or roll the dice to see which one gets to carry the child?

Yeah, like I said, I have my work around in CAS that I've used ever since we could go change if the sims can become pregnant, make others pregnant or none of them. That's not my issue with the science baby. I think it's sad that they didn't think "hey, this sounds like something you could use to simulate IVF, and part of that journey is being pregnant". I believe the mod you're talking about might be RPO, which is great in many ways, but the donor shows up in the family tree and I don't want to use my family trees to trace genetics.

If we were to get science babies with pregnancies, I really hope we can pick who's going to be pregnant. I have a very realistic play style, and in my experience you don't toss a coin over who's going to carry the child in real life. Someone's older and want to go first, someone has health issues, etc etc. In my last lesbian couple, one of them was an actress, and didn't carry the first baby to not have to deal with hiding the pregnancy on her tv show.

"Babykittyjade;c-18236181" wrote:
I think it starts to get too complex gameplay wise and also controversial. Surrogacy and all those other ways people make babies nowadays that I don't know the name of is a bit of a controversial topic. To just have a "science" baby through some means of mysterious science is a much safer alternative and still useful to tell stories. At some point imagination has to be used too. It's just a game. ?

Yash I agree IVF is very controversial.This seems away to have something similar.Without rocking the boat.

I also think it would be cool if they implemented an option to have a Science Baby via pregnancy! I guess I can understand why the team chose a more open-ended option to not include pregnancies at all. The omission of a pregnancy does cover a larger variety of player’s stories. Oh well, a missed opportunity.

I think when I utilize this feature, I’ll create a holiday on the calendar for the baby’s arrival and play through a baby shower event to ensure the new addition’s arrival feels just as significant as any other. Luckily we have those options at least!

I thought it was a way for sims that you don't want to have a pregnancy to have a baby. Maybe you've head cannoned the character as cis male and don't feel that a pregnancy fits your story for them. Maybe you also don't want them to woohoo with a partner who can get pregnant, I can think of a few reasons for this. On the other hand, it could just be a way to accommodate players who don't want to deal with the annoyance of a pregnancy.

Personally, I'm willing to accept the lack of a pregnancy, although I would have preferred having it. But, like @Purple-Ink , I'm deeply disappointed that there's no lag time between ordering the baby and acquiring it. I would have strongly preferred a three day wait for the child to develop, a pregnancy period if you will, even if your active sim isn't experiencing that pregnancy first hand. I still think it's worth having, because my platonic life partner households can now have children together, in stead of just raising one or the other's children together. Also my sims who don't want a partner at all don't have to hook up with some random sim just to get the equivalent of a donor.