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Instructor
Original Poster
#1 Old 27th Aug 2017 at 5:45 AM
The Making of an Interesting Sim
Hello fellow MTS'ers. It is a known fact that making a compelling and realistic sim is , in and of itself, rather challenging. I wish to make my world a masterpiece in both plot, and constituents, however I struggle to add any notable depth to my sims. How do you attempt to substantiate a sim with depth? I am, admittedly, rather curious...

What's going on in your game group here: http://www.modthesims.info/forumdis...546&groupid=906
Check it out ;)
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Forum Resident
#2 Old 27th Aug 2017 at 10:42 AM
IDK how but somehow I always have it like: "THAT SIM DOES THAT" even if it really doesn't work like that. Like I made Lucas a guitarist because I felt it fit him to be that because he looked like that type of person. But yeah idk I just like: "YOU LOOK LIKE THAT DO THAT"

I build small houses *^*
Top Secret Researcher
#3 Old 27th Aug 2017 at 11:38 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Emperor Crat
Hello fellow MTS'ers. It is a known fact that making a compelling and realistic sim is , in and of itself, rather challenging. I wish to make my world a masterpiece in both plot, and constituents, however I struggle to add any notable depth to my sims. How do you attempt to substantiate a sim with depth? I am, admittedly, rather curious...


I like to consider several factors: I consider what their father or their mother does for a career, I think about their Personality and I take into consideration the Sim's Zodiac Sign. I look at the Sim's Interests for clues and I look at how they look appearance wise. Then I decide what their Aspiration should be. Then I roll their Life Time Want, usually based on their Aspiration. I try to have some idea as to what sort of fictional character they would be in a story basically. Some of my Sims will have a more complete back ground and I spend more time with them, but all of my Sims will have some basic thumbnail character sketch.

I hope that I am being clear.

for info on changing the Mac Open File Limit check out my post here http://www.insimenator.org/index.ph...html#msg1628939
Curiosity killed the cat,
but satisfaction brought it back.
#4 Old 27th Aug 2017 at 3:57 PM
There's two main approaches to this. One that's tailored to sims who grow up in hood and those sims you plop into the hood for varying reasons. Both approaches however revolve around background as a prominent feature to the concept though.

If it's a brand new sim then I cannot say this enough. BACKSTORY BACKSTORY BACKSTORY. It must be consistent and ironclad. I've seen to many instances of a sim with an ever changing backstory to fit the current situation and it breaks the illusion. A great example of something that's a somewhat bad choice is what Onaya did up there. You boxed someone into a character choice by a look alone. So should that look change do they suddenly stop playing guitar? What was the reasoning behind choosing the guitar out of all the other instruments? Was it because it was a playable instrument versus something that isn't available? How much of the guitar playing is going to be central to this character development?

Now when I say backstory I'm not talking just about some quirky little blurb that gives a bit of history as to how this character ended up in your hood. That may be relevant to say a toddler or a child sim because they haven't been around all that long so there's not much there to be said. The flip side to that however, is that ignoring those stages when playing older sims means alot of holes in their character history that call into question their actions now without a proper reference point. It's a balancing act of the utmost head banging against a desk if you don't approach it correctly.

The best example of how to do it? Look at an origin story of a superhero. Shows like Arrow, or Once Upon A Time are great for this kind of intricate weaving of character history that pays homage to who they were but also makes sure that who they are now is because of those past choices.

Now to a sim who's grown up in hood. Nearly the same thing, however you have a depth of history already in place to dive into and make use of. Little things they did as kids can greatly play into who they are as adults. For example favorite food. This has absolutely NOTHING to do with anything that is major to a current plot you may be working on. But how many times have we as the player fell into making sims cook the same meals over and over again without realizing it. Does my sims have an affinity for mac and cheese because i'm to lazy to hit next on the options menu or is it because as a child that all his mom would cook so it reminds them of their parent when they eat it? See with that i turned a bad player choice into a story mechanism that while adds nothing to the plot tells you a bit more about your character. If a sim is constantly ordering lobster thermidor while out on the town despite never having it before adulthood is that a show of classness because now he can afford it or is it because he grew up near a beach? This is an example of where you hit a fork in the road and have to decide which option better suits your character. If sim in question has a history of being near the water it wouldn't make sense to say he's doing it for the social implications because that has nothing to do with his past history. Unless this character also slummed in=t at the beach while homeless then you could safely use both options.

That's where i'm going to stop because i got on to download some things to port over to the desktop from the laptop, not write a thesis paper LOL! But if you have more questions about this i'm happy to oblige.
Forum Resident
#5 Old 27th Aug 2017 at 11:24 PM Last edited by SIMelissa : 28th Aug 2017 at 3:13 AM.
Good question. Ultimately, I think it comes down to two things: The player's imagination, and the characteristics of each Sim and how EA has programmed them to respond in various situations.

But I like to pretend that there is more to it than that. I like to pretend that my Sims have desires, attractions, interests and chemistry that runs deeper than computer code or what I force them to do.

I *try* (emphasis on try) to do what Lordtyger9 does. I take what I know about them, their personality, their past history, their childhood and I try to create scenarios in my head that play into those things. I know that zodiac signs are supposed to play into the romance portion, but I could never remember which signs are compatible. So, for me, the zodiac is simply a box of personality points that Maxis hands out in CAS. In my current game, I change those points, based on genetics and a dice roll, when an infant becomes a toddler.

As the controller of the mouse and keyboard, I have a lot of leeway in making just about anything happen. I could force two enemy Sims to talk and flirt and eventually kiss and fall in love. There might be a situation where this fits but, most of the time, forcing something on them takes away the fun--and kills the illusion. Where's the fun in that?

Sometimes, I'll have my mind set on how a Sim will play a certain part in my story. Sometimes it works perfectly. Most of the time it doesn't. Why? Because I use ACR and allow my Sims a bit of free reign in choosing their romantic attachments -- within reason. For instance, in my current game, I created a pretty female Sim with the intent of making her a love interest for the ship's captain. Instead, she got all hot and bothered over the the biggest loser in the story. I stepped in and said, "OK, you don't have to hook up with the captain, but you are not going to marry Otis. Pick another." And, with a little help, she did.

My least favorite female Sim happens to be the favorite of several of my single male Sims. No clue why, unless it's because she's a Pleasure Sim and they are Romance Sims. The romance Sims were not the least bit jealous, even when finding the female in bed with the other. I allowed that to go for awhile, but it got old for me real quick. So, again, I intervened, used my imagination and pushed things in a new direction.

Edited to add a link to a blog that I came across tonight. I'm going to think about it for a bit before deciding if I want to add anything similar to my game: http://thenuidyahub.blogspot.co.uk/...hmakers-oh.html

So many things to learn; so few brain cells to process the info needed to learn things!
Shipwreck Island
Lab Assistant
#6 Old 29th Aug 2017 at 8:26 AM
I look at the tabs below their needs.

Have an interest in politics? Maybe they are an environmental activist? That is if they are interested in both politics and environment. Then I would have that sim garden, recycle, have solar power, and chat with everyone about the environment.

I would look for any clue at first in these tabs from hobbies, and interests or if they had a red negative memory, maybe that had such an effect that there life is never the same after. Sometimes an LTW can really speak volumes about the personality of the sim and what they care about.

Then I just make drama stuff up from random occurances that seem to happen. Like if they meet someone they dislike, make a backstory about them.
Link Ninja
#7 Old 29th Aug 2017 at 10:13 PM Last edited by Charmful : 30th Aug 2017 at 12:50 AM.
Like others above have indicated - taking the data you have about your sim (wants, aspiration, hobbies, interests, personality points) is a good springboard to develop a pixel into an in-depth character.

Like SingleClawDesigns mentioned: If they were born in the game and have a history that can enrich the character's overall story. In my case the Orbinsons have always gained top of the political career so they have a sort of expectation their heirs will be career politicians. That kind of assumption can be a point of contention or concern for any sims born into the family that become heirs.

Going back to your data points can help map out a character's history if you have to fabricate it. This also helps with your internal decisions of what can motivate a sim between the game lines. Like if they roll a want to go to a community lot, it could be because in the game they are a pleasure sim and they just want to do that but the devil is in the details - so take it one step further and combine wants and bring in those other data points to round out the sim to make them an individual. For example:

Yeah sure, Bob wants to go to a community lot because he is a pleasure sim but he also has a one true hobby of fitness so every time Bob goes out you send him to the gym. Bob gets ripped. Bob also rolls a want to go out on a date, maybe more than one because he wants to show off his new physique to some romantic interests. Bob has three outgoing personality points because maybe Bob had low self esteem as a kid and the only way he feels like people will take interest in him is if he is fit? Who knows? That's just one way to start attributing layers based on the given data.

If you have any trouble with fleshing a pixel out, you can always step into their little pixel shoes and take one of those myers-briggs online tests and answer the questions WWYSD (What would your sim do?) style. I use this site and the end-result has a nice little blurb about that personality type and you could use that to further enhance your sim's character. Also if you don't want to go through a hundred different tests to determine your sims personality you could always just browse the types and see what best fits the sim and their data.

Another good way to determine character is to use some kind of questionnaire tools authors use for their characters and answer these but for your sim instead.

Examples:
Is there anything your sim regrets?
What would your sim carry in their pockets? (you know, maybe realistically - not that bed and those five robots they bought at a business shop or they could! I'm not dictating anything!)
Does your sim have any secrets?

And if they don't have any of these things - this is where you go back to the data or game history and use your imagination to fill in the blanks!

This is a good topic, I hope to see more people pitch in with their thoughts.

Edit: If you feel overwhelmed in trying to give each sim a unique personalized depth, don't sweat it, just focus on developing the sims you want to share information about and it kind of just snowballs from there.

Uh oh! My social bar is low - that's why I posted today.

 
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