This is something that has been plaguing me since I started playing TS3. Attraction scores. You guys know how much I used to love using them in my TS2 stories, and how useful they are as a numerical representation of something that is otherwise pretty intangible—human compatibility.
Well in TS3, attraction is pretty much useless. For some reason, all of my Sim couples chart a 10/10, and they roll pretty much zero wishes to indicate any preference for one romantic choice over another. And though I know TS4 is coming along in a few more months, I don't have much confidence that the attraction system there will be any better, at least not to start. And I won't be playing it in any real capacity from the beginning anyway, because I like to wait until there are a few EPs out. So I'm going to be sticking with TS3 for a little while here, and I'd like to make this work for me.
I've been working on a little project. It requires a basic set of calculations using traits, aspirations, and zodiac, which are factors taken from both TS2 and TS3, because I do note both for each of my Sims. Because of that, perhaps this system will be completely useless to anyone but myself. But if any of this is useful to you at all, by all means, feel free to mix it up and use it!
Showing posts with label gameplay notes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gameplay notes. Show all posts
goldfish, pt. 2: approximating the TS2 personality matrix with TS3
Warning: Nerd alert! Much dorkiness ensues! Proceed at your own risk. :p
Following on from this discussion, part 1, about the particular vacancy of TS3 Sims.
First thing: You need this mod.
You need more than 5 traits per Sim. We were lamenting the reason TS2 Sims felt more developed, and that's because in TS2, you had 5 personality points, 2 aspirations, 1 natural hobby/talent, and several other talents and interests. That's a lot of personality for a little Sim! So it's no wonder having only 5 traits pales in comparison. It's not enough when you've been spoiled on so much personality.
So take more. I like 10, but this mod comes in different flavors, some more, some less. (Note: you will need a mod like Twallan's Master Controller to set all 10 traits.)
Following on from this discussion, part 1, about the particular vacancy of TS3 Sims.
First thing: You need this mod.
You need more than 5 traits per Sim. We were lamenting the reason TS2 Sims felt more developed, and that's because in TS2, you had 5 personality points, 2 aspirations, 1 natural hobby/talent, and several other talents and interests. That's a lot of personality for a little Sim! So it's no wonder having only 5 traits pales in comparison. It's not enough when you've been spoiled on so much personality.
So take more. I like 10, but this mod comes in different flavors, some more, some less. (Note: you will need a mod like Twallan's Master Controller to set all 10 traits.)
goldfish: random and inconsequential thoughts on TS2 vs. TS3
Lately I’ve been going around with my TS3 Sims wanting to assign them TS2 aspirations and secondaries, thinking in my head: Charlie is a knowledge primary and family secondary, Benny is popularity primary, Ingrid is a classic romance Sim primary. What would Sophia be? Or Josh? I hadn’t yet created them in TS2. And how about many of my teens, most of whom were too young for aspirations in TS2, or were never Sims in TS2 at all? I remember how knowing that about them, their primary aspiration in life, helped me form so much of how they looked at the world and approached life as they grew up, because dorky as it sounds, I truly think it’s very relevant to how real life people approach the world and life. People ARE family Sims or fortune Sims or romance Sims. They really are, lol!
on Nessa Phoenix and Sim cancer
I realize now that I never blogged about the gameplay tidbit that prompted Nessa's cancer storyline, which I promised I would write about after her story was finished.
on the play schedule of Alt-LH in TS3
I'm finally settling on playing 24 Sim-days per year, which gives me 2 days per story month. I started out trying to play with half of that (12 Sim-days per year), but my seasons ended up being SO short. This way, my season length is 6 days, and that feels perfect for me! Pregnancies will last 18 Sim-days, and my standard lifespan will be 1560 Sim-days. Also, now that I have about 18 households, two days per month was needed to visit everyone I wanted to, get story pics for the stories, and still do gameplay things like seasonal festivals and birthdays.
I do NOT want to go any slower than this though. I'm holding myself to that, lol! I'm writing and playing this story/neighborhood for fun this time, so I want the pace to be just fast enough that I don't get bogged down in the storytelling, but just slow enough that I can actually pay attention to the details of their little pixel lives.
Yearly play schedule (where "???" marks a not-yet-decided Sim or Household I'll follow):
life and death ROS
I don't know why I decided to do this, lol! Somehow I got it in my head to write up a health roll. Some of the other Simmers I follow have health rolls too, but I wanted mine to be more random, so that it would affect not only elders, but Sims of all ages. I've tried to make the list balanced between both positive and negative scenarios.
Sims will roll on their birthdays at specific ages, and then I'll have to work that scenario into their story at some point before their next roll is due. The standard ages are: birth, 20, 30, 40, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, and then every even-numbered birthday after 80. The idea is that over a lifetime of play, the Sim/character will have built up a health history that may be a good or a bad one - one that may lead to their death, or one that will have no impact until they ultimately die of "old age".
The rolls are pretty independent of character traits, though some will have exemptions. For example, a lucky character cannot die in a plane crash. Mostly, some traits will incur either more or less frequent rolls during their lifetime.
Trait specific frequencies:
- Clumsy, Couch Potato, Daredevil, and Unlucky Sims will have to roll every 5 years, from birth through age 80, then every 2 years after that.
- Adventurous, Light-Sleeper, Loser, Party-Animal, Over-Emotional, and Slob will roll every 10 years, from birth through age 40, every five years from 40-80, and every 2 years after that.
- Athletic, Disciplined, Eco-Friendly, Green-Thumb, Heavy-Sleeper, Lucky, Neat, and Vegetarian Sims will roll at birth, age 20, 40, 60, and 80, then every five years after that.
If a Sim rolls something they are not eligible for, either by being too young or being the wrong gender, the effect is neutral for that roll year.
The list looks like this:
Sims will roll on their birthdays at specific ages, and then I'll have to work that scenario into their story at some point before their next roll is due. The standard ages are: birth, 20, 30, 40, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, and then every even-numbered birthday after 80. The idea is that over a lifetime of play, the Sim/character will have built up a health history that may be a good or a bad one - one that may lead to their death, or one that will have no impact until they ultimately die of "old age".
The rolls are pretty independent of character traits, though some will have exemptions. For example, a lucky character cannot die in a plane crash. Mostly, some traits will incur either more or less frequent rolls during their lifetime.
Trait specific frequencies:
- Clumsy, Couch Potato, Daredevil, and Unlucky Sims will have to roll every 5 years, from birth through age 80, then every 2 years after that.
- Adventurous, Light-Sleeper, Loser, Party-Animal, Over-Emotional, and Slob will roll every 10 years, from birth through age 40, every five years from 40-80, and every 2 years after that.
- Athletic, Disciplined, Eco-Friendly, Green-Thumb, Heavy-Sleeper, Lucky, Neat, and Vegetarian Sims will roll at birth, age 20, 40, 60, and 80, then every five years after that.
If a Sim rolls something they are not eligible for, either by being too young or being the wrong gender, the effect is neutral for that roll year.
The list looks like this:
how to modify an aging mod, and updates on real-time pregnancies/aging...
My Mods:
I'll link to these first in case anyone wants to just swipe my mods and not bother with the tutorials. ;)
These are tested with all EPs except Supernatural. Though I imagine they'd work just fine anyway.
LH Real-time Aging Mod V.1
S: 1 SimDay = 1 year
M: 1 SimDay = 1 half-year (2 halfs/year)
N: 1 SimDay = 1 season (4 seasons/year)
L: 1 SimDay = 1 month (12 months/year)
E: 1 SimDay = 1 day (360 days/year)
LH Real-time Aging Mod V.2
S: 1 SimDay = 1 yr.
M: 1 SimDay = 1 season (4 seasons/year)
N: 1 SimDay = 1 month (12 months/year)
L: 1 SimDay = 1 fortnight (24 fortnights/year)
E: 1 SimDay = 1 week (48 weeks/year)
* aging mods are modified from a realistic aging mod by Absimilard at MATY (original - not mine).
And then you'll need preggy mods for your new timespan, so I have those here too:
LH Real-time Pregnancy Mods to match any one of those lengths above.
LH 36-day pregnancy
update, 6/26/17: sorry, I guess 4shared closed my old TS3 account. I reuploaded what I had installed in my own game, which was v.2 of my aging mod, and the 36-day pregnancy. Sorry, that's all I had saved from my TS3 stuff. But if that's not to your liking, I guess you can modify it by using the notes below.
First off:
This assumes a very basic knowledge of s3pe. Like, enough to open a file and commit your changes, lol! If you worked with SimPe at all in Sims 2, you'll be good to go. If not even, this shouldn't be too hard to figure out.
With modding the aging mod, I figure it's not the modding part that's difficult, so much as which numbers to use.
On Modifying an Aging Mod:
The first thing to do in modding your own aging mod is decide the how short/long your lifespans will be in relation to each other. In the big picture. These are calculated in Sim-days.
Now get yourself a notebook and a sturdy calculator. For real, you need the calculator. I was *awesome* at advanced math in high school, and I had to force my brain around this one.
(But then, you know, it's also been a little while since high school, lol!)
I'll link to these first in case anyone wants to just swipe my mods and not bother with the tutorials. ;)
These are tested with all EPs except Supernatural. Though I imagine they'd work just fine anyway.
S: 1 SimDay = 1 year
M: 1 SimDay = 1 half-year (2 halfs/year)
N: 1 SimDay = 1 season (4 seasons/year)
L: 1 SimDay = 1 month (12 months/year)
E: 1 SimDay = 1 day (360 days/year)
LH Real-time Aging Mod V.2
S: 1 SimDay = 1 yr.
M: 1 SimDay = 1 season (4 seasons/year)
N: 1 SimDay = 1 month (12 months/year)
L: 1 SimDay = 1 fortnight (24 fortnights/year)
E: 1 SimDay = 1 week (48 weeks/year)
* aging mods are modified from a realistic aging mod by Absimilard at MATY (original - not mine).
And then you'll need preggy mods for your new timespan, so I have those here too:
LH 36-day pregnancy
update, 6/26/17: sorry, I guess 4shared closed my old TS3 account. I reuploaded what I had installed in my own game, which was v.2 of my aging mod, and the 36-day pregnancy. Sorry, that's all I had saved from my TS3 stuff. But if that's not to your liking, I guess you can modify it by using the notes below.
*** On How to Modify Aging and Preggy Mods ***
First off:
This assumes a very basic knowledge of s3pe. Like, enough to open a file and commit your changes, lol! If you worked with SimPe at all in Sims 2, you'll be good to go. If not even, this shouldn't be too hard to figure out.
With modding the aging mod, I figure it's not the modding part that's difficult, so much as which numbers to use.
On Modifying an Aging Mod:
The first thing to do in modding your own aging mod is decide the how short/long your lifespans will be in relation to each other. In the big picture. These are calculated in Sim-days.
Now get yourself a notebook and a sturdy calculator. For real, you need the calculator. I was *awesome* at advanced math in high school, and I had to force my brain around this one.
(But then, you know, it's also been a little while since high school, lol!)
university in Sims 3
*warning: this is about to be the dorkiest thing you've ever seen, lol!*
I've been spending far, FAR too much time in CAW this week. I need to stop. Like, seriously - I even took the disk out of my drive as a deterrent, lol!
22 lots already here on campus (planned for: 7 campus buildings, 4 residence lots, 1 science facility, 6 small courtyards or parks, 2 parking lots, 1 campus shops, 1 subway station), and I've even forgot four more lots I need! :o By the time I'm finished with this, my world is going to be so HUGE I can't even play it!!!
Which has gotten me thinking a lot (and getting a million new ideas in my head) about University in Sims 3. (But we have no University for TS3, you say?) No matter though! I'm picking up some old tricks I used to use back in the early TS2 days, before we had TS2 Uni - I faked it! Back in the day, I would just make up lists of classes they had to complete to earn a degree. (This is all outside the game, by the way - it won't make any difference one way or another to actual gameplay.)
I've been spending far, FAR too much time in CAW this week. I need to stop. Like, seriously - I even took the disk out of my drive as a deterrent, lol!
But the good news is, the first segment of my world is plotted and ready to build on! It still needs finishing touches like street lamps 'n such, but I'm going to do those all together at the end, I think. And the district you see here is the future site of LCU!
22 lots already here on campus (planned for: 7 campus buildings, 4 residence lots, 1 science facility, 6 small courtyards or parks, 2 parking lots, 1 campus shops, 1 subway station), and I've even forgot four more lots I need! :o By the time I'm finished with this, my world is going to be so HUGE I can't even play it!!!
Which has gotten me thinking a lot (and getting a million new ideas in my head) about University in Sims 3. (But we have no University for TS3, you say?) No matter though! I'm picking up some old tricks I used to use back in the early TS2 days, before we had TS2 Uni - I faked it! Back in the day, I would just make up lists of classes they had to complete to earn a degree. (This is all outside the game, by the way - it won't make any difference one way or another to actual gameplay.)
the McCullough family and custom schools...
I needed some school-aged children to test out my schools with, and so...
Here's Robbie and Fiona - doesn't she just look like she's up to no good already? lol! After I moved them in, she did nothing but fight with poor Robbie!
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