I'd like to hear what you guys do prior to creating a sim. I usually:

- Create a back story for the sim.
- Search the Sims wikia for potential spouses.
- Play around on name generators.
- Decide on town (based on career).
- Plan out first few life stages of sim.

I usually do most of those.

Sometimes I create Sims based on old TV shows I used to watch. Sometimes I hook up a Sim with a pre-made. Depends on what I'm in the mood for.

I don't usually create a backstory so much as I choose an archtype and then build a sim to suit that archtype. Everything else is seeing how it develops from there and considering the story behind their actions.

Nothing much. I choose a town to play in before I make a sim, so I make sure some traits and LTWs aren't selected (Star Singer in a tiny little farming community? Good luck!).

I spam the random button until I get a sim I like, tweak their features and clothing, pick traits, then throw them into the world with a "have fun" and no expectations of what they're going to do beyond what their LTW points to.

If I create random NP-Sims for my town, I basically just make them look something and give them a vague in-my-head backstory. Like the Amano family of a very demure, typical Japanese wife, a cool father who is rather strict on his son, who is rebellious. Basically that. I don't actually write anything down (I don't know if that actually makes any difference) but just an idea.

C-A

Nothing. I just create them.

I start working on one, and decide the backstory and culture while I'm working. (Including which cheats the sim is allowed, and how often they are usable. My sims are never human, and the number of occult types available in Supernatural is woefully limited. TCE and Master controller cheats module make things like a renegade imp or a nephalim possible. ) If I'm making one that I'm hoping to hook up with another one of my sims, I do pull the copy of the other one out of the library and test-breed 10 boys and 10 girls to see how they look in each life stage. If there is more than one of either gender that is a "what's THAT" through all life stages, I do more editing. But I have been known to take a sim, put it in the library, pull it out a few days later and do some more work on it, save the second version, do some more work a few days later, etc. (I once had 9 copies of essentially the same sim in my library until I realized it was getting hard to find the one I wanted and deleted 8 of them.)

Uh .. choose a neighborhood I guess, I like to play around in CAS to see what character I end up with and after that I determine the personality

My basic survival plan is to always make sure my coffee mug is full, snacks are available, and my tablet is handy to catch up on some reading while I'm waiting for CAS to load all the goddamned clothes and accessories for every category I have to sit through whenever I'm throwing a new sim together.

I put on an episode of Law and Order or something so I have something to watch while I wait for CAS to stop lagging.

A lot of the time I go in with a basic idea of the type of story I want to play, and I make a sim to live that story.
Sometimes I'll go in with just about nothing, and after naming the sim, I get an idea of their personality (and I get a better idea as I choose clothes) to the point when it sin't even hard to choose traits-- I know all about them!
I will say I almost never really "choose a neighborhood first." Sunset Valley's really the only town that works for me, although I'll play Bridgeport once in a while.

I follow the eskie plan, but I also sacrifice a womrat to the simgurus to insure the game doesn't crash as I exit CAS into the town.

Normally i get a idea of a new sim, like i plan their future and then i make them
Nothing special

Download so much CC that I feel quilty.

Usually I create the sim first before I even think about a background story, a name or anything like that. I may chose the gender first and then decide what kind of sim it will be (human, vampire or else) and then I start sculpting the face and body. Nothing special, actually. I often abandon my sims if I don't like the way they look at the end. Sometimes best ideas for background stories come up while creating sims - same for the names. I also think that it is more fun creating a sim if you just create "something" without too many expectations for how it should look at the end. I hate creating sim look-alikes of real people. It's SO difficult and very frustrating if you can't get it right. Creating stuff should be fun - always!

I think about what their role will be, what kind of personality they'll have and their social standing, That influences which hair, clothes, hair and eye colors I choose for them, and even their looks sometimes

Like some simmers do, I like to create backstories for my sims. Sometimes the backstory is either planned out before I create them or during creating them, it differs. To me, I feel like I can become a lot more attached to my sims if I give them a good backstory, idk if anyone else feels that way but that is just how I feel.

- First, I have to get an inspiration, which can happen if I see a person or character with a certain look or even the way they dress, and I think, "hey, that's pretty cool, I want to make a sim that looks similar".
- I move my mouse to the TS3 shortcut on the desktop, hover over it, and then have a mental struggle: "Do I really want to spend my next 10-15 minutes waiting for the game to load to create a sim? I could just... play something else."
- If mental struggle passes with a "Yes", then I launch the game, all the while grumbling at how long that intro progress bar takes to load up.
- Initial progress bar doesn't take that long, less than a minute, but feels like a long time if I'm staring at it, and that gives me enough time to grab a snack. So I grab a snack.
- When I get back, it should hopefully be ready for me to load my save, so I do.
- While the save game is loading, I might read the news on my phone, go to the bathroom mirror with some tweezers and pluck some gray hairs (getting old sucks), do #2 if I feel the need, go out and get the mail, watch a little TV in the other room, or accidentally take a nap on the floor next to my desk. Depending on the size of the hood and how long it takes to load, maybe some or all of those things (reading the news and doing #2 can be combined, for example).

That's pretty much everything I do before creating a sim. I come up with a backstory and names usually while or after I've created the sim.

I don't do anything before going into CAS. I just think, gosh...I need a new sim. Then I go into CAS, hit random a few times, and hope for the best. (I'm super lazy.)

My Sims are usually not based-off anybody, they are result from my sculpting experiment. Only inspiration is required for the background story. The inspirations came from real-life, for examples, movies, real life person, and my own personal life. The plot twist may varying from comedy, drama, even to action and conspiracy.

Creating a backstory for each Sim is a must for me. Usually the backstory is came up after I randomly sculpting Sim's face. You know, writer's block could hit at the moment. If I don't know what story, background that fits for the Sim, I will postpone the backstory later. After I finished creating a Sim, a wild idea of the story suddenly emerged. I like realistic background story, like real-life people have, All my Sims I created more resemble to real life humans, rather than just pixel pudding-faced dolls that act like robots. They can have imperfect life and personalities. I won't gonna abandon them because every Sim I created is unique in his/her special background story. That's the way I could relate and attached to all my Sims creations. I don't have much preparation to do before creating a Sim, because after I create a Sim then send him/her to World lot, I normally will edit him/her continuously in CAS mode, giving makeover, changing name, until it's perfectly shaped based on my imagination. .

Probably the most tedious task in the process of creating Sim is.. giving name. First name and last name. My TS3 is in windowed mode, so I can open my browser tab anytime to find list of baby names from all origins. I don't want to naming my Sim with random words Olastar, Amberlyn, Wakamini, Flobersochksfueufbdhkfb or standard names Elizabeth, Sam, Michael, ... I rely most names on baby name list to sound more accurate and really exist in real life.

With custom sliders in my game, I don't even dare to hit randomize nowadays. I did make the mistake of doing that several times, and believe me, the sims I saw were the stuff of absolute nightmares. O.o

I normally think of what to name them and their personality and what I want them to accomplish. Then I base their looks off of that.

I kind of assign color schemes to each sim I make ((I can't *not* do it, I'm just really obsessive over color coordination)) and then I make sure each of their outfits matches it. 8'D

I do that, too! Especially complementary colors and their color-coded clothes ends up their favorite color, too.

C-A

I choose a book.

I love to read and I love designing houses. This means that all of my creative energy is spent building. So by the time I'm ready to play, my families end up very vanilla. As a result, I like to create sims from books I've read. I prefer to start playing a generation prior to when the book's hero and heroine meet. (Or in their teenage years, if their family connections aren't terribly important). The books provide me with histories and descriptions of the characters. I end up basically creating sequels and prequels to some of my favorite story lines.

For example, I'm starting a family based on a historical romance I read where the young heroine is in love with her deceased sister's husband. He's a widower twice over with a daughter, from his first marriage, who is the heroine's age (and the heroine's best friend). This is far more interesting than my standard sim meets sim, marry, whoohoo, and live together forever surrounded by their massive produce garden until the Reaper comes for their wrinkly bodies.