As I am getting a new PC, what is my safest option here? Fake name, second non-admin account for Spore (with fake name), just not share, or what? I'm afraid simply not installing it isn't an option. I want to make creatures! I'll be honest, that's what got me into the Geneforge series of games, which are awesome, but Spore is probably closer to what I was looking for. Though I am quite fond of the RPG nature and storylines of the Geneforge games as well, which I highly doubt Spore can match. (Even the third game, with all that stupid annoying island hopping. If I never see another dock again, it'll be too soon!)

...

I think I have to make a Fyora now, once I've got my new PC set up. (They said 2-3 days, and it's day 3...)

I do recall an EAxis mesh exploding like that, though. Having no 'fat' state, in it's original released condition. I think it was an elder formal wear, the dress with the little fur thing around the shoulders? Think it's been fixed since, but, I haven't put elders in elder clothes forever, so I honestly don't know.

I have precisely one sim with family as the primary aspiration, and I don't really see that changing any time soon. Personally though, I prefer the elevated chance to the 100% chance, I even have a 'fix' for the cheesecake odds. Sims who I want to have single births will have single births, regardless of what they were going to have. But occasionally I like to let a family do what they will, give them a bit of free rein. (Though not free will, I have some standards.)

Mostly I was curious about the odds, and how they're applied. Which I now know.

I know I should be looking at Weird Beard Man's beard, but, I cannot tear my eyes away from the glasses. I am not sure why.

Also, on a whim, I googled beard championships. I am pretty sure this is the same guy: http://www.worldbeardchampionships.com/elmar.html

World Beard Championships. Not only do people compete at this, enough do so to justify a worldwide competition, with multiple categories.

And, further off track, are The Beards who, and I quote, only play songs about beards and having beards. Their bio is peppered with beard references. "The rhythm section of Nathaniel Beard, John Beardman and Facey McStubblington is complemented by the immensely talented frontman, Johann Beardraven." They actually sound alright, though I lack the beard required to fully appreciate their lyrics. Also, they apparently have a policy that the bearded get in free to all their gigs.

I was actually not going to post this, thought it was far too off-topic, but then 'Big Bearded Bruce' came on, on The Beards' website. "And when he walked, the beard swayed back and forth, like it had a mind of its own. And they say that he's killed a dozen men, throughout his many long years. Oh, but where does he hide the bodies? Well, they're all buried deep within his beard!" ... It goes downhill after that, though. In a face-to-beard encounter this beardless guy rips Big Bearded Bruce's beard out from the roots, and escapes with his life. All Bruce does is scream, "My beard! My precious precious beard!" Pfft.

I've been wondering about the super fertility benefit, may have to carry out my own experiments later, but does the father's benefit affect the twin odds at all, or does the 'mother' have to have it? Also, does giving both parents the benefit increase the odds, or does it only apply once? (If it's just forcing a re-roll at each bump, it may still be using the standard twin odds?)

I have one family sim who I'm planning to let go at it, and see how many kids she gets. She has all the benefits already. Her husband's primary aspiration is wealth, so he doesn't have it. #1 is on the way, single birth, no bump yet. I'll take notes, perhaps report back once she's done having kids.

Supposedly they've been fixed recently... I haven't tried to play them through again yet, but I've dipped into two different lots since FT - Curious and Lothario - and they seemed to get all the right pop-ups.

Did the toddler max creativity on the xylophone, or by drawing on the activity table? The latter could conceivably count towards 'paintings painted', though I wouldn't have thought it would. That's too logical.

Huh. I could have sworn I had a Sim gaining creativity from novel-writing the other day. I clicked on the computer and queued it, if that makes any difference.

Creativity should be maxed, definitely, but I think there's also a hidden 'Painting' skill, which has to get to a certain point before you can sell masterpieces. Even then it seems a bit (sado)random. Any painting that can be sold for over $500 is a masterpiece, no matter how it was painted.

Well, they're easy to lose when you don't want to use them... I once somehow lost my Pets discs for months, and I actually used them. Couldn't play at all until the next pack came out. This was obviously before I thought of using a NoCD exe. Why would I ever need one of those? Heh.

(Of course, I have the ARRRfficial version of FT, so...)

The Sims 1 did need patching. I remember this because of the big brouhaha about needing to buy the next expansion in order to obtain the necessary patch. Yes, that's right, the patches were in the next expansion.

I will point out though that the Sims 1 was still far more stable than the Sims 2, there's no way they would've gotten away with that 'buy to patch' crap this time around, no-one would even play that long.

I married in a dancer as you would any townie. Her husband was a CAS adult, and I did the whole thing on his home lot. She's an elder now, everything ran as smoothly as it ever does.

I have only had 'Wish for Peace of Mind' show for sims that aren't yet perma-plat, seems to be as designed. (They don't really need it if they've already got it)

Funny you should say that. It may be coincidence, sadorandom, etc, but, once the toddler grew up a couple of times, I packed him off to uni and played a couple of semesters. As soon as I returned to the home lot, the family got another lamp, and youngest sim on the lot got the lamp memory. Further supporting the 'youngest sim gets it, rendering the family not eligible until they leave' hypothesis. I find myself wondering, now, if 'death' counts as leaving...

On an unrelated topic, it seems that hitting the top of the teen career counts as 'Max Career' in terms of lifetime aspiration. (Which I presume was done this way for the pre-FT elders?)

What would be awesome - and squash the BFF with the Dead - would be if you had to interact with the sim before they attained BFF.

Sim teen A has been best friends with Sim teen B since childhood, enough time has passed to be eligible for BFF status.
Sim Teen A calls Sim Teen B for a chat, or brings Sim B home from school, or runs into Sim B on a community lot. BFF!

It's crazy that you can just make best friends, more or less ignore them, and still get BFFs.

My adult-to-elder transition was a simple click on 'Grow up', no party, no cake, and he got a list of adult townies to age. (About 90% of which he had not yet met, nor were they on the lot)

My child-to-teen transitions were the same, but I don't think they knew any townie children. This may have been a factor.

Okay, so I aged two sims last night:

Adult to elder - had the option to age any three adult townies, even ones he hadn't met. (Part of me wonders if he'll get the option at his next 'transition')

Child to teen - no option. Could be because he didn't know any townie children, though the adult could age ones he hadn't met.

The child in question was the result of the adult's alien abduction, so, not adopted.

Fake edit: And another this morning, another child to teen - this child a product of the above adult and his wife. Still no option.

Lamp theory: (Note, I have nothing to back this up)

Could the lamp be gained because of the points of the family as a whole? Possibly delivered to the youngest member, as it may not be possible to get another until the first sim that got it is no longer around?

Or is it simply random, as I first thought?

I also had the toddler get the lamp -- largish screenshot in the 'Lifetime Membership Indeed!' thread -- and was able to get the toddler's older brother, a child, to wish for peace of mind. Though I know that's not perma-plat in the lifetime bar, I've only had that for one adult sim so far. (Haven't really played that much recently)

Seemed a bit odd to even get that far with the lamp, but I suspect that's just EAxis at work. It wasn't throwing any errors at me, at least.

I thought it was only for teens and up?

Thus, with Uni installed, remarkably unhelpful.

Toddlers can also raise science on the logic toy.

Man, as if that wasn't enough...



The toddler can't even use it, but the child (toddler from first screenshot) and parents each had a wish. (Child was able to 'Wish for Peace of Mind', so did, but didn't seem to get any more aspiration points to use.)

That's kind of funny -- in an 'I won't be playing Pleasantview any time soon' sort of way -- as Don Lothario's home is frequently my own little science club, and Don my lab rat. More biology really. He could have his woohoos, as long as they satisfied my curiousity about sim genetics. My most bred sim, he had over 30, to 30 different sims, in one of my earliest installs, but I never did get any 'memorable' spawn from him. Cassandra, on the other hand, spawned what would later become my pollination tech.

To get back on topic, if it were my game, I'd just remodel Don's lot to suit. Put in a few telescopes, ant farms, etc... Does the hobby instructor still show up? If so, it might be salvageable, if a little fiery and ball-shaped.

Second thing I'd try, being fairly less awesome, would be to restart Pleasantview from scratch...

I'll have a look in my recently restarted Pleasantview. I think I'll use Don.

...

Don got in, went to the [correct] lot, went home again. I used 'Walk to lot...' if that makes any difference.

I can confirm that no sims were deleted or had even died yet in this neighbourhood -- though it was the new Maxis one -- this was the first played family, and the first offspring. I also must add that I am loving the 'reach X in Y' skill wants, my toddlers tend to be able to afford the elixir reward before they even become children, it's hilarious. But, this seems to be working as intended.

I did wonder about the toddler who just kept spinning up the old toddler 'gain a charisma point' want after each charisma point gained, but the toddler still had a 'reach 8 in logic' want, so it wasn't like it was going to keep him from platinum.

Funny thing happened the other day, my tinkering toddler got a membership to the secret tinker lot. (And then proceeded to get memberships to every other lot his array of toddler toys and skills could get him.)

A screenshot:

I'm also not sure why he had a One True Hobby yet, as he'd never done anything to do with science. (He got the 'wow, this is great' message later, when I gave him the logic toy.)