Gameplay: How do YOU keep track of sim lifes?
sleep:
Quote from: ingeli on 2008 September 05, 00:48:56
Hi - what I do is that I take pictures in game, as a rule when I fix the look of the sim, in "mirror mode" (...)Then I edit it in PSP so that the size is always the same (100x150 pixels)
Thanks, I'll try that way. I did work out how to attach one of the snapshots from in-game, so this isn't much more to learn. I was being lazy and not wanting to take photos of each separate sim, but there you go. (At least there are only about fifteen sims in my hood at present.)
Thanks again.
ingeli:
I do agree it takes time to do it this way, and if there had been a simple way to export the facts about the sims that I need from the game with simpe or another tool, including the pics, I would probably have chosen that path. Then I really started to like the quality of the pics done in "mirror mode", and of course it was a bit tedious to get all the pics needed when I first started the database with appr. 500 sims. I still have many NPC:s to "catch" and take pics of. I am lucky to have a second comp and lots of this stuff I do while game is loading or something. I now do the updating of records in batches of 25 sims or so, exporting the basic data to a CSV-file, editing it, importing to my own database (sharepoint list), then adding stuff like pictures and descriptions and various types of data like group associations, classes, and such. It is time consuming but it enhances the gameplay for me.
maxon:
Quote from: Quill on 2008 September 05, 06:09:57
I've been playing the same hood since I got the game when it first came out, and I'm still only on what is actually part of the first generation of kids starting college. Obviously their parents are actually the first sim generation, but these kids are the ones who I've gotten to "raise" if you will. They're the second group to go to Uni, as their older brothers and sisters have already graduated and started families.
Wow - even slower than me. I'm impressed.
Quote from: Quill on 2008 September 05, 06:09:57
Outside of the game I use MyHeritage Family Tree maker, which is really easy to use and free. It can export my sims' records into Excel if I want an easily readable list. At the moment there isn't much in there other than the sims' names and relationships.
OK - thanks for that. I shall have a look at it. I've used Genopro (as have others here) but somehow I can't find myself too interested in it. Don't know why.
Quote from: Quill on 2008 September 05, 06:09:57
I also have several Excel spreadsheet lists of the current group I'm playing; one lists all the females and another the males, their hair colors (I'm trying to keep a range rather than end up with all brunettes)
You know, you don't have to worry too much about that. The whole point of the genetics systems is that it allows genes for the recessive characteristics to carry forward. You only need two brunettes with recessive blond genes to pass those on to their child and, voila, you have a pure blond new sim to spread more blond genes to the next generation. As long as you have enough blonds and redheads to start with, they will keep popping up in the following generations. Part of your problem, I guess, is that you haven't got far beyond the second generation who will tend to be all dark-haired if you're breeding from CAS sims.
Zazazu:
Quote from: Quill on 2008 September 05, 06:09:57
I have a limited amount of playing time and tend to not want to spend too much of it on organization, which is how things got to be such a mess.
Organization, at least my type, doesn't take very long. It's all part of my pre-'hood setup, when I decide what major tenets are going to guide my gameplay. I decide if I want the community to grow with my sims from one house to a whole 'hood, or if I want my starter sim to be someone moving to an existing neighborhood, which will grow with time, but which already is fairly established. I decide if I want the game to be OFB-driven or use EAxis careers and only go OFB if a sim rolls an OFB career. I decide if there is a public school system or if everyone has to pay for private. My current main 'hood is an existing town, not OFB-driven, no tax system, public schools available, mix of my lots and Plasticbox's lots with a few random ones thrown in that fit. My secondary 'hood is still mostly in my head, but it is OFB-driven, hard taxed, public school (played), and grown. Probably isolated, too.
I also map my 'hoods. I like there to be a numbering system and street names.
Anyways, once you've decided what you want to do with the 'hood and what's important to you, you set up a system designed in such a way that the day-to-day takes extremely little time. In Coggeshall Village, my daily play only includes about a minute and a half of maintenance time. Roll for new teens to determine their path, note come-back days for college students and place the house number I'm to play next in 'hood notes.
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There will probably be a few who I'll just ignore after they graduate except to age them with the other sims.
I don't ignore anyone. If they are boring, I move them in with someone who isn't. I recently moved Nate Vitelli's gay son Aaron in with him, since both sims were kind of boring to me (Nate's almost an elder and single, Aaron is full-on Knowledge and has no romantic prospects since the few gay men in town are repulsive to him) and together they are more interesting than playing two nearly-empty homes.
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I also have a list of names I liked from one of those name your baby websites so that I don't have two or three of the same name. I can sort them by gender and by whether or not I've used them before. Whenever I have a new simbaby, I find a name I like on the list and mark it as used. Does anyone else have a list of names?
I have a list that I'd estimate at around 3,000 lines of names in my RandomStuff script. For every roll, I get three male and three female names. I pick the one that matches with their last name the best. In the case of the Vitellis, I do roll again if I don't get one that sounds slightly Italian.
Coggeshall Village sims started out from a blond, green-eyed, S2 sim. She bred with an S3 blond, grey-eyed sim. So my second generation was all blond-blond, grey or green eyed, and S3. The third generation and at least half of the fourth will be black-haired and S4 with a few S3s. It's weird how they've switched from the lightest values to the darkest in such a short time.
Quill:
Quote from: maxon on 2008 September 05, 09:15:17
Wow - even slower than me. I'm impressed.
Yeah, I've taken numerous breaks from the sims, so I haven't gotten nearly as far as a lot of people. I also kept creating new families that I wanted to be at the same generation as families I'd already played, so there are families I haven't played since well before Seasons came out. Some of my sims are very lonely while they wait for me to play all the other families up to the right point!
Quote from: maxon on 2008 September 05, 09:15:17
Quote from: Quill on 2008 September 05, 06:09:57
I also have several Excel spreadsheet lists of the current group I'm playing; one lists all the females and another the males, their hair colors (I'm trying to keep a range rather than end up with all brunettes)
You know, you don't have to worry too much about that. The whole point of the genetics systems is that it allows genes for the recessive characteristics to carry forward. You only need two brunettes with recessive blond genes to pass those on to their child and, voila, you have a pure blond new sim to spread more blond genes to the next generation. As long as you have enough blonds and redheads to start with, they will keep popping up in the following generations. Part of your problem, I guess, is that you haven't got far beyond the second generation who will tend to be all dark-haired if you're breeding from CAS sims.
I know that the game mechanics are supposed to work like regular genetics and it isn't such a problem now that I can get into SimPE and edit the genetics of the parents prior to them having kids, but for a while it seemed like everyone's genetics were borked by the in-game CAS, so I'm rather cautious. Knowing their hair color also helps me keep track of who they are, as it's something to narrow them down if I forget.
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