Saturday 25 August 2012

Sim personalities and birth control

I haven't played out my next update yet, so instead you're getting another nerdy gameplay post from me.

Anyone who uses ACR in their games will be aware of the havoc it can wreak on your hood's population. Fortunately, ACR also includes a birth control option, which tempers that quite a bit!

For a long time in my game, I've allowed any sim with five or more neat points to use birth control. I snagged that idea from Laura, though I think her sims needed seven neat points. The thinking is that if a sim is neat, they would be organised enough to keep track of their birth control and remember to use it. However, ever since reading this post at Riverdale, I've been pondering how I could use the other personality traits to help me decide who would and wouldn't use birth control.


I found the post really inspiring and I decided I wanted to come up with a little formula to figure out whether or not a sim in my game would use BC. If I don't put down clear rules for myself, I tend to let myself wriggle out of them! And I don't want to do that, because the whole reason I make these rules for myself is to keep gameplay (and by extension, the blog) more interesting.

I used a lot of ideas from Riverdale's post about what the different personality traits might suggest about a sim's attitude towards BC, as well as adding a few of my own. I decided that to use BC, a sim would need to have a score of zero or higher. They start at zero and depending on their personality traits, they can lose or gain points. This is how I calculate it:

Neatness (5 or more neat points) adds one point. A neat sim would keep track of their BC and make sure they remembered to use it.
Sloppiness takes away one point from the score. A sloppy sim would probably lose their BC or forget to take it.

Outgoingness (is too a word! 5 or more outgoing points) adds one point. An outgoing sim would have no qualms about talking to their partner/their doctor/their pharmacists about BC, so would be more likely to use it.
Shyness takes away one point. A shy sim may be too shy to ask their partner to use BC or to go and obtain it for themselves.

Activeness (5 or more active points) adds one point. Maybe we could call this "pro-active". They're motivated enough to do what they have to do to prevent any unwanted babies being conceived!
Laziness takes away one point. A lazy sim just can't be bothered with BC. No way are they trekking all the way over to the other side of the room to get it!

Playfulness (5 or more playful points) takes away one point. A playful sim might be too caught up in having fun in the moment to think about birth control.
Seriousness adds one point. A serious sim wouldn't let a little thing like fun get in the way of being responsible. They would be much more likely to use BC.

I did consider using Niceness as well but after canvassing for opinions on it at N99, I couldn't really think of any good way to work it in. I can see both niceness and grouchiness making a sim both more and less likely to use birth control, so I'm just ignoring that trait, for simplicity's sake. If you adapt this for your game and decide to use niceness/grouchiness, I would love to know what you come up with!

I'll share a couple of examples, just so you can see how it all works out. Let's start by looking at Connor Novak.

It's always bothered me that under my old system, Connor wouldn't use birth control because he's a little sloppy. I mean, can you really picture Connor not taking care of things in that department? I definitely couldn't! So I was pleased to see that under this system, Connor would be allowed to use birth control.

His personality is 4-7-8-3-3 (Neat-Outgoing-Active-Playful-Nice, just to refresh your memory). He's not neat enough to keep track of BC, so he loses a point on that, bringing him down to -1. But he is outgoing enough to bring up the topic with his partners or to buy it himself (+1), active enough to take the initiative to actually use it (+1) and serious enough that he wouldn't get too carried away having fun to forget something as vital as birth control (+1). That brings his total score to 2.

Let's have a look at a sim who doesn't fare so well, Claudia Kirby.

Her personality is 5-4-4-8-5. So Claudia is just barely organised enough to keep track of her BC (+1) but too reserved to really discuss it (-1), too lazy to actually use it (-1) and playful enough (-1) to get caught up in the heat of the moment and "forget" her BC. That brings her to a -2. Fortunately for her, her husband Jacob scores a 3, so he makes up for her slack in this area!

There are things about this that don't really fit perfectly. Like even a moderately shy sim like Claudia would probably be okay discussing BC with her husband of of nine years! I might consider factoring in long-term relationships with the outgoingness/shyness trait later on but for now, I'm going to keep it simple and leave it as is.

Danielle had the great idea of including TS3-style traits with this, which I'm also going to implement in my game. I'm not going to go into detail about that, as I'm sure we all have different traits we apply to our sims and you can decide for yourselves what traits might fit into this and if you're going to take them into account at all. As a guideline though, some traits I have in my list that might apply to this are careless/careful, domineering/submissive and patient/impatient. If a sim has one of these traits, I'd add or subtract a point, depending on what the trait is.

You guys, of course, are free to adapt this however you like and if you make any changes that really work for you, I would love to hear about them!

16 comments:

  1. This was very interesting, and I think you have devised an excellent way of determining your Sims' use of BC in your game.
    Now, in my game, I have no hacks or mods, but I know there is a very small chance of a Simlady getting pregnant with normal woohoo - it has not yet happened in my game, though, even with years and years of playing, and I wonder if it ever will :-)

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    1. Glad you enjoyed reading about my system. :) I've heard about sims being able to get pregnant from normal woohoo but am actually very dubious about whether it can really happen. I've never seen anyone say it's actually happened to them, so I have a feeling it's just a rumour, probably started by someone who thought they chose "Woohoo" but actually click "Try for Baby", due to a slip of the wrist.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  2. So do you require just a score of +1 to use the birth control? I do like the way you've added this in, I found it interesting when Asha had mentioned it as well, but haven't really done any implementation on my own. Other than, the fact that I do allow serious sims to use birth control if it fits their personality, sort of like your Connor, I do allow Morgan. I make my sims have 6 points and up for niceness, and Morgan isn't quite there. But there's no way a 1 point serious, doctor of reproduction would not utilize birth control.

    With my current group of teens/ya's I might look at your system and see how they'd rank to see about changing. I do like the reasoning behind each of the choices. hmmm...

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    1. No, they need a score of 0 to use BC; they just need to break even, basically. I can always reassess that but so far, it seems to make sense. Like Malcolm is very sloppy, so previously he didn't use BC. But he's active and outgoing, plus he's a doctor like your Morgan, I can't really see him not using it. Under this system, he can.

      If you try this out on your teens, I'd love to hear how it works for you. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  3. I saw this at N99, but I haven't had time to comment.
    This really looks interesting.
    I have to say it never occured to me that Connor was too sloppy to take birth control in your old system, like you said yourself it doesn't make sense for some one like Connor.
    If you don't mind I think I'm going to test this out on some of my sims, some of them really don't make sense like your Connor.

    I have a question, not so much about this, but I was wondering how you decide if you turn unmarried try for a baby on or off. I'm having a hard time with that one, and of course every time I turn it on, one of my sims turns up pregnant.

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    1. Fortunately, Lila (and Audrey before her) had enough neat points to use BC, so Connor's never been in any real danger of knocking anyone up! But he's the kind of guy I picture taking care of that himself, rather than leaving it all up to his girlfriend.

      I absolutely don't mind if you test this out on your sims. I wouldn't put these posts up if I didn't want people to use the information for their own games. :)

      I don't really have a system for deciding to turn unmarried try for baby on or off. With Adrienne and Amar, for example, I turned it on because I wasn't sure if Adrienne would ever roll the marriage want. But she was 30 and I didn't want her to miss a chance at having a baby. I turned it off for them this round, because Beau is still so little. I'd also probably turn it on if both sims had the want for a baby. I've never had that happen without both sims also having marriage wants though and when I have marriage wants, I usually let them wait for that.

      Thanks for reading and commenting

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  4. You know I'll steal your system if I ever get motivated enough to put together one for my sims! For now, I'm groovin' on your choice of Connor for your example -- and *of course* he would use bc!

    prudence

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    1. Steal away, Pru! We'll have to get you using ACR first though, lol!

      And I just had to use Connor. He was the main sim who had me dissatisfied with my previous system. The way it worked out for him under that just didn't make sense for his character.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  5. This is a great way for controlling who uses birth control and who doesn't. I have always been a bit unsure on how to manage that with my sims. I also used the 5 or more neat points for a while but, like with Connor, sometimes it just did not make sense! I hope you don't mind if I 'borrow' your system. I tested it on a few of my sims and it made a lot more sense to me! Thanks for posting this. It's always interesting to see how you run your hood.

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    1. Go right ahead and borrow all you like! I was so happy to see the post at Riverdale and have something to work with. I really like how the system is working out for me so far. :) I hope it works out well for you too.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  6. Very cool, Carla! I had never considered personality in TS2 when deciding birth control. I like how you're doing it, though and I would agree that it is a bit weird for a shy person in a long-term relationship to not want to bring it up, lol!

    I do something similar with traits in TS3. It's not a big deal unless I'm forcing it because of a wish, because my sims like to get busy autonomously... (nraas woohooer), but it's still nice to have. I like that the woohooer mod lists trait icons next to woohoo options it thinks are relevant to that trait, too!

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    1. Definitely! But it will be easy enough to just say "okay, long term relationship of two years or more, so shyness doesn't count". Or something!

      I really haven't looked into the woohooer too much, though I do have it, so that is all news to me! I'll have to check it out more closely. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  7. I already made all of my comments about this awesome system at N99 but just had to say again how awesome it is! I can't wait to borrow it and try it out on some more of my sims. I only tried it with Davina and Joel and Kyle and Alicia so far but I need to do it for everyone else in their age range. Wonder if it will all match up.

    I'm also glad Tanja asked about the "try for baby on/off" bit because I noticed that my sims never autonomously try for a baby. But now I know that I actually have to turn that option on! I'm still learning how to use all those darn features ACR gives us!

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    1. I'm glad you like it! I'd be really curious to hear about your experiences with it as you go along. It's easy enough to refine it if it's not working out for you, which is nice.

      You know, that surprises me, because I thought Unmarried Try For Baby was on automatically. That was how Adrienne got pregnant the first time - trying for a baby with that townie on the community lot! I've had it turned off ever since and I just turn it on individually by sim (or lot?) now. But yes, ACR is worth a close look, just to check if you have all the features working for you the way you want. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  8. What a nifty and well-considered system...I'm wondering how to implement something like that in TS3, because I think my town is going a little crazy and I need to reign it in. I have only had a hand in one of the reproductive choices that has occurred thus far, so I'm feeling a bit left out, LOL.

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    1. Ha, yes, I guess you would be feeling that way at the moment! If you ever rig up something like this with TS3, I'd be very interested to read about it. I am not yet totally familiar with the bits and pieces of the Woohooer (which I guess is the main mod you'd need for this in TS3).

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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