So, how do YOU start a family?

[Rarit3a]

Just wondering, in general, how do you guys start your families. I usually go with one sim and get used to them before adding on. Sometimes I start with two, but usually they make too many kiddies too quick for me to handle. What about you guys? (Sorry if I made this in the wrong forum, or there is a thread like it, I'm new >.<)

[Orilon]

I tried making one and then finding a mate, but that didn't work very well. Now I make a married couple and wait awhile before having them try for baby.

[applefeather2]

Welcome! :) I usually make a married couple and work their buns off in the garden before I let them have a baby.

[screechingvilnce45]

I play with twallan's mastercontroller a lot, so when I finish making a sim, and realizing I don't want to breed my sims out with any EAxis premade sims, I take a homeless pudding face, reconstruct its face and personality in CAS based on the mess it was wearing prior to the make over, have the sim hook up with my sim, and being that I always play with male/male couples, I either adopt and edit the kid or I use master controller to give my sims an instant baby, just to see what that union looks like.

[StardustX]

I normally just play as a young, single mother with a female toddler. I have so many of them placed now that the female to male ratio is probably 10:1.
I just prefer making female sims over male sims since male sims always look feminine no matter how much body hair they have. :I

But sometimes I make a married couple or an engaged couple, I don't want my sims reproducing with EA sims. Blech.
I almost never make same sex couples, not because I'm against it but just because I enjoy playing with male/female couples more. :3

[eskie227]

I start out with one sim and get them established. I usually have a mate prepared and waiting in the bin/library. When I'm ready to play a couple, I merge my predetermined mate into the household. Once in a while I find a resident who seems like a good match and go with that (after some "editing" of appearance and personality with Twallan's MC).

I also found that when playing custom worlds, I like populating them out of my library collection, and use Twallan's SP to speed things along. Lately, I've been eliminating the population in EA worlds, and repopulating them as well. Much better looking sims walking around that way.

[Rarit3a]

So many replies! o: Anyway, for my current sim, she's neighbors with the Luck brothers in Starlight Shores, so I am trying to pair her up with one of them :P If I'm too lazy to make a boyfriend for her from scratch (Such as in this situation) I just edit random simmies to my needs (Someone else said they did this too c: ) xD

Edit: Oh yus and I love Master Controller :D So useful~

[AdamantEve]

I used to only make one sim, but Sims 3 is too easy with one sim. One sim can afford a house nice enough that they never have to upgrade it ever again (but then, the way I play doens't have much to do with decorations or excess- I have one couch. I do not put a couch in the bedroom, or the porch, or the study. I don't need more than one couch! And because of that it's hard for me to spend lots of money anyway).

So lately I start with two sims and a pet. That seems to be enough to make things start out harder.

[mswilson2007]

I usually just start out with a Male sim and go through the whole dating process. I used to just spam romantic interactions until Propose Marriage was an option but now I take things slow and old school. I even "Invite Household Over" and try to have a dinner. Rarely works that way though lol

[ani_]

I don't make Sims in CAS, I only made one guy when TS3 came out, and plaid only this one family until his grandchildren started moving out of the house. Then I switched to TS2 style ageing so I could play all of his grand-kids households as well. When I lost his game, I started a new hood with 5 downloaded single sims and grown up Pansy Prudence from Twinbrooks.

Currently the hood has 1 woman left from generation 1, the rest are generation 2 and 3. When my Sims moved hoods a month or so back, I bough 4 new households into the hood, Mortimer and Bella Goth, Bella's mother and brother and Agnes. I only wanted Mortimer, Bella and Agnes, but then felt bad for leaving the rest behind, so I bought them as well.

Then something fun happened, a friend was able to restore the sims from my original hood, so I got another 7 household into my town all decendants of the first Sim I created when TS3 came out.

In my hood I have one household that is filled with interesting looking Sims I have stolen from other hoods, sometimes some of them will become playable. Like Genevieve Colby and her husband from hidden spring, I thought the husband looked very interesting so he and his wife became playable and he currently owns the bar in my hood.

Mary Baker from Twinbrooks became playable when she accepted to take over the retirement home my random legacy heir was running very badly. One of the evil step sisters and their mother, from Hidden Springs, will became playable in the next round because one of my playable guys knocked her up, and the mother comes with the package so her daughter wouldn't grow older than she is. Chase Bayless became playable when she first became Komei Tellerman's live in house-keeper, now Komei is dead, and his son didn't need her services so she moved out and became her own household. Also I have another sim who became playable by becoming a live in housekeeper.

I also have one household in my hood where I will put a few of these unplayable townies and play them. Some I'll play longer, some a shorter while. This is because I don't like my playable Sims marrying Sims who are on their first day of adulthood with no skills. This way they get a bit of life experience before I ship them back to the un-playable household. Currently in this house lives Kimiko Nakamuro and Jules O'Makey. I usually just play Kimiko. If Kimiko ever moves in with Komei's son I'll have some other townie move into this house on her behalf. Jules on the other hand is so boring I'll just let her live in this house until she become an elder and then ship her to the retirement home and then somebody else can move in on her behalf.

I don't create new Sims in CAS. If I get new households into my hood it's usually because somebody had a kid and the kid is now grown and move out. I currently have 21 households in the hood. One of my ROS events is that a new family moves into the hood, and I already have those families in my bin, but I'm not adding any more Sims into the mix until the household count is less.

[IzzyBess]

I usually start with one female sim + one or two pets. Then after a while I'm off for looking a partner, and same as someone else has already written, if I can't find anyone matching my sim I just use MasterConroller to edit any sim in town.

[pico22]

I started my very first TS1 game by creating a Sim. I never really changed my ways. I tried out all the original Maxis families in TS1 and played some (like the Newson family) in TS2 because of the difficulty but I never found any of them really interesting. I did not even try that in TS3.

[zigersimmer]

Master Controller all the way. Reproduction sans utero.

[StarlightBeauty]

Start with a lone Asian lady and have her adopt tons of kids

[Ranissa]

I start out a neighborhood with one male and one female, both young adults. Sometimes they're roommates, sometimes siblings, sometimes they don't even know each other and live in separate houses - they are never married, however. Either way, Twallan's StoryProgression and MasterController usually help me find mates for them because I'm nosy; I will wander away to a pre-made family like Agnes Crumplebottom and when I come back to my original household, they have a relationship going. Right now, my main 'hood is in Sunset Valley and is actually two different saves merged (thank goodness for Twallan's Mover!) and I'm loving it. Lots of drama, bed-hopping, jealousy and even teens marrying. Surprisingly enough, several of my playable families in the 'hood are pre-made Sims tweaked with MasterController (like Agnes Crumplebottom who's husband is alive and kicking and a great writer).

[lauratje86]

I generally make a male YA sim and then find him someone to date and possibly eventually marry, producing one or more babies along the way :-) I play mainly heterosexual couples, but do also play bisexual and homosexual sims. I'm bisexual myself, so if I play a selfsim they're always bisexual too. I do like my sims to reproduce biologically though, because I like seeing how the genes are passed down, and I don't use a same-sex pregnancy mod so I prefer heterosexual couples or m-f bisexual couples so that they can have their own children. I do also impregnate sims using MasterController and a "sperm donor" or have gay male couples have babies using a surrogate mother. I like all my sims to have kids, because that's the fun part of the game for me - seeing how the town progresses over time..

If I'm playing an EA world I like my sims to be involved with some of the premades (especially Bella and Mortimer!), or if I've playing a custom world I use Twallan's SP to populate it and my sims find someone to love from the new inhabitants :-)

[dragon01]

I usually play legacy style, start off with one YA sim male of female, move them into a empty plot and use the familyfunds cheat to take there funds down to 1300 (atm i'm taking it down to $200) and purchase a sleeping bag and get them into one of the new professions. Once thats all settled i usually start the breeding process at adult stage, allowing the YA stage to get them high up in their chosen profession. =D

[Ive]

Make one sim and take it from there.

I always found it so much fun to find a game generated sim to marry in TS2. Now that that "mystery" is no longer there as you see them around town I still think it's funny to marry some weird sim and do him/her up. Can't have too much perfection!

[wolfsbayne]

I usually start with one female sim and wait for them to get established before looking for the baby provider!

[JaneeMinx]

I usually just make one sim and let them float around and talk to other sims, then find a soul mate (or several) and whether they're married or just whoring around, they always leave children playing in the neighborhood.

[kiatyn]

I always tell myself that I am going to have a regular family for my sims. It never happens because I find that I let the sim sort of decide what or who they want to be with, and inevitably, it's not who I'd pick. :) But! I like those little surprises. I also tend to play legacy style when first entering a neighborhood, and go from there. ANd yes, I do makeovers on the more horrendous townies.

Inevitably, though, I find the families I stick with are the ones that aren't the 'normal' sort. They're just more interesting.

And, I am not sure why, but I seem to wind up playing gay couples more than any other. :) I also use Twallan's mods to help with same sex pregnancy and clothes' meshes from MTS. :)

[PunkyBreester]

I used to most often make a single female sim and let things go from there, sometimes I'd make a young couple or roommates. But recently I've only really been playing my Legacy, so I don't make sims in CAS all that often anymore! The most I do is pull a bunch of sims by other creators out of my simbin, make them all roommates and move them in to give my NH more variety.

[Smashed Cat]

Well lately, I've been playing this guy who is very evil looking, with red skin and white eyes and devilish facial hair, with the Heartbreaker LTW. He's a suave guy who pretty much can walk up to any chick now and do "try for baby" and they'll go make one... I guess they just over look his bright red skin. lol So far he's got 8 or 9 kids with several townies pregnant with his children (still not even close to Wilde Oates (http://wildesoates.wordpress.com/)!). And so far they're all really ugly or creepy. Hah! That's how I started his family. ;)

[Rarit3a]

All of these are so awesome :D I'm must look so weird sitting here reading these whilst snickering... xD

[piggypeach]

What I do most usually is make a "family" of one man and one woman that I think would be cute together. Then, (since I'm quite lazy) I set their relationship to fiancee (and partly because I love throwing wedding parties). I RARELY ever let my character mate with a computer generated person, I just can't stand them...

NO CC! THE VERY THOUGHT...

But I often create just one woman, but I usually don't intend her to mate.

[charmedqueen]

I usually make a YA couple in CAS, and wait til they're nearly adults before having kids. And for the second generation, depending on if there's sims around town, I will pair my sims up with one of EAs.

[myonlyappeal]

I usually start with a single lady or male Sim, and have them find a mate. Sometimes the funniest part is seeing them utterly fail out on the town.

[BringTheBoysOut]

I usually make a female YA Sim, then get her high enough in her career to have enough money to pay the bills. I add a cute guy to her house, and babies happen.

[Vault boy]

I follow these steps:

1. Create self-sim.
1.1. Create a sim based on a friend, or some other interesting character.
2. Buy the cheapest home available.
3. Get a job.
3.1. Go self-employed or get a profession.
4. Know coworkers, and go up to Level 5.
5. Find good-looking female sim to turn into self-sim wife. And depending on the location:
5.1. (Bridgeport) Anyone will suffice (but for some reason, it's either Matilda Smart, Olive Kipling or Flo-Flo Chique).
5.2. (Twinbrook) Immigrate some female character (most of the time being sims based on female characters from my favourite videogames)
5.3. (Hidden Springs) Woo any female service sim (the default maid is rather pretty), or Jennifer Sato, or Cassidy Earthsong.
5.4. (other EA town): Tweak them a bit in CAS if necessary and begin process of wooing her.
5.5. (Empty custom world) Same as 5.2
6. Marry.
7. Produce Children.
8. Raise children
9. Expell any child who isn't the heir.
10. Repeat the same process with heir. My self-sim must be gramps by now.

For female sims, the process is similar.

[vertigoinyellow]

I roll a dice. The first roll is number of sims. Then I roll for ages and gender, Makes for some interesting family structures.

[goteampink]

lol, when I first read the title I was thinking "...Umm...well when a daddy loves a mommy very much..."

On topic, I usually either start with a couple. OR I make two seperate sims and play only one, hoping that through game play the couple will meet up under normal circumstances before the sim I am not playing ends up with some random townie.

[Skullith]

I always start with one Sim and pair them up with another. But the game gets really boring for me every time I get a family of 4 or more, I don't know why.

[jessica x gore]

I usually create a couple in CAS and set them as already married or engaged. If I'm not feeling lazy that day, I'll set them as roommates to shake things up. Then I'll get bored of that save game, delete it and start the exact same process over again...somehow expecting different results. Wash, Rinse, Repeat.

[lisfyre]

I usually create a couple in CAS, set them as engaged or married and put them in my game. They get jobs, they work all the skills - I play EPIC lifespan, get to the top of their jobs and then they can go on vacation to work visas, have babies and sim life goes on.

If I make singles, I make a female and a male and make sure they get together somewhere in the game and get married eventually. I don't like my sims fraternizing with those EA canned sims... ewww gross.

[VampireSim]

I put 8 sims into one household and let the games beginn!
When all sims find their partners, I move the couples out.

[lilehkawaii]

I usually make a large family in a very small house, make all of their relationships negative and watch the madness :p

[wildrose1366]

I normally make an engaged couple, normally with 2 pets that can breed. Then I throw a wedding party when my sims have a celebrity level of 4. After they are happily married I try for 2 girls and then raise them. My pets normally have kids before my sims.

[McChoclatey]

The way I start off my families is pretty random. It kinda depends on what kind of family I want to make and what role I'll have them will in the future. Most of my families are created with the idea of a lot of romance in mind. All of them would have someone to admire, love, or marry, sometimes maybe even all three if the neighbor is just right. But usually, I start with roommates, and let their lives go down different paths from there. Their children (from whomever they'd laid with to have) will grow up to have children with their neighbors' children and so on, until almost everyone in the entire 'hood is connected to each other in some way. In short, I create everyone with different roots so that everyone can come together into a great big family, even the ones who'd just moved in would have a spot if they're up for friendship, marriage or some baby-making. :)

[RedCherries]

I either create one sim (and do the legacy challenge)
or I create a couple and as soon as they both hit level 5 of their careers either adopt/ get pregnant.

[mithrak_nl]

For the same neighbourhood : As different as possible compared to the last families I created for that neighbourhood. With conflicting traits or sometimes traits that have a lot of synergy. This depends on how I imagine the family. I tend to look at it as if I'm creating a family for a tv series.

I play with high free will and usually only focus on one member in a family for the skill/job progression. The rest is mainly there to surprise me :p Sometimes I treat the neighbourhood as a game of Monopoly, where the sim family will devour all purchasable property muahahaha. Then I grow bored with that family and create a new one for the neighbourhood, usually with a very different theme. But I like to see other created families still wandering around town ( so no EA storyprogression for me, yay for modding community!). During this I also develop the neighbourhood to my liking, trying to make it look more cohesive (this is my Sim City trait) by adding/cutting public spaces and creating new houses.

[tiffyandthewall]

I usually start with one sim, unless I'm making families more to fill a neighborhood than to actually play. Usually female, but sometimes male. Gender preference varies. I usually have them date whatever sims catch my eye until one of them seems right.

[MannyR_]

I make a single Sim and have them flirt with someone they find, if they accept, that might be my Sim's partner. But if the flirt-ee is in a relationship, I just have them become friends until I can convince them to break up with their spouse.

I just love breaking relationships.

[Shimrod101]

It appears to me that if you're going to start a new family specifically today, the only way allowed is to download the Chuck Norris sim and start with him.

[MannyR_]

Dang. I didn't know that. I thought I had free choice over what to do in my game! Well, guess what? I do. And Chuck Norris can't come do something because it's already past April-- *ding dong* Sorry, I have to go. Someone is at the door.




And this user was never seen in the forums again. Ever.

[Ketsu_sama]

Start with a couple and then use a random number generator to roll for gender (1 male, 2 female). Then, careers and babymaking.

[Ive]

Make one sim and take it from there.

To add to what I said earlier, I always just hit generate random sim a couple of times and make them after how they look. Like if they look shy and puny, I make a shy and puny sim! Do tweak them some tho, the random generator doesn't always make very human looking sims...

[sundazzle]

I usually start with a young couple and a baby daughter (or sometimes son). Then after raising the child and earning some cash I move the grown child out and play with her household. That way she has some backstory when she takes on the world. Oh, and of course I create a similiar household with a baby who becomes a potential mate for the active households baby, which means there will be a cute sim for my active sim during all the stages of her life :D

[nikkiforest99]

I start with either a single YA or a married YA couple, and get to makin' those babies :cool: That or I start with premades, or I might even create a household of 8 YAs and leave story progression to deal with them...

[AnnaBubblegum]

I got bored yesterday so I made two friends, got them both pregnant, shoo'ed the father off the house and now the live happily ever after with their 6 kids and Henry the robot :D

[Sorelligirls]

I almost always go in this exact order:

1) Make a couple. Give them a cat or two (rarely do I add a dog or a horse).
2) One partner is a novelist or a painter. The other partner is more often than not a scientist, chef, or a doctor.
3) Make them work their butts off for the first Sim Week, make money and get good at stuff.
4) Allow them a child. Then a few more kids.
5) They grow up.
6) I pick an heir and marry her out of the house.
7) She has a cat, and a kid or two.
8) Then I get bored.

I really need to mix it up...

[Lord Vetinari]

I make an elderly family with one or two young adult sons, then move the first one to an empty plot the very first day and make him/her my active family. I like to have relatives around the map, otherwise I feel that my sim just comes from nowhere.

[aGOLDENbox]

I make one sim in CAS and hook them up with a townie. I sometimes make a spouse but I like finding an interesting looking sim and having my sim get into a relationship with them.

[Ephy]

I usually start off with a teen or young adult, get them a job etc.. and then use the mod "more options" ( I think this is the one) and select the ""Consider Attractiveness"" and ""gauge attraction"" options while talking to other sims. I guess this compares traits/signs/fav. color/and fav music etc... and gives a score based on how similar they are.

If my sim finds another sim that scores a 10/10 on consider attraction - I usually consider this as my sim falling in love with that other sim.. and if the other sim scores a 4/4 on whether they find my sim attraction, then that means they are loved back.

When I managed to find a perfect match, I have them marry have kids etc...

One time, my sims only managed to find a perfect match with a guy sim that was already married with kids... I searched the entire town and could not find anyone else that scored high enough. When I "make active" with that male sim and did the same consider attraction/gauge attraction with his wife... they scored 0/10 and 0/4 - I took this to mean they were in an unhappy marriage and got them to break up with each, so he could be with his true love, my sim. :)

[Elledee]

I used to just start off with one female sim and get her established with a job and buy some better things for the house. Sometimes I'd hook her up with a townie and if nobody appealed to me I would make her a partner and get him established with a home/job. If her future partner is out and about in town I will have her meet him and other times I've just sent her knocking on his door instead of just merging him into her home.

Now I just make a married couple and send them to work outside the home until I can get some better things. When that time comes I will have them start a family and have one sim work from home, sometimes they'll have just one kid and sometimes I go nuts and they have lots of kids. Sometimes the dad works from home and sometimes it's the mom. It just depends on my mood and what career and level they are at. I had a couple that both had the fertility treatment boost so they would have twins and triplets. They had 14 kids but I quickly realized that would totally screw up my town and everybody would be related somewhere down the line, lol.

I seriously hate it when I switch households come back and discover one of my young adults has hooked up with an old fart or the town freak and moved them in. The elder sims are letches, they never seem to hook up with each other. Both the male and female elder townies always go after the young ones!

I have also done same sex couples with adopted children as well and tweaked the child's features. It seems the adoption agency sends me the ugliest kids they have so I take pity and modify them more times than not.

I change the way I play every now and again because I get bored. Sometimes I just can't deal with babies and toddlers and age the babies up right away, teach the toddler the starter skills and immediately age them up into children after that. I always let the kids and teens be kids and build up their skills.