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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 3:03 PM Last edited by M.M.A.A. : 6th Jan 2014 at 4:17 PM.
How do you decide how many children your sims should have?
Hello Everyone!

I was wondering about how you plan your sims' families. So how? Do you use mods, like risky woohoo? Or ACR? Is it just random, like by rolling a dice? What about Family sims? Is it by LTW? Is it by wants? Etc...

Basically: On what basis? (And, if necessary, when do your sims stop having more?)

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Top Secret Researcher
#2 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 3:13 PM
I have risky, silent woohoo in my game, so I can't just press try for baby.

Usually, unless they're in a situation where they shouldn't have kids, I let them boink without birth control. However, if certain sims have way too many kids already (like Brittany Garden and her six kids, seven if you count her husband's alien sprog), then I hold back and put them on the pill. Unless it's a sim I want to have a lot of babies for shits and giggles, like Natalie, with her horde of bastard kids.

I don't have a same-sex pregnancy hack. They get to adopt all the crotch-spawn spat out by promiscuous college kids.
Mad Poster
#3 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 3:15 PM
I use ACR and let them decide themselves - or get caught out by risky woohoo and end up with children they didn't really want! I don't use mods to allow same-sex couples to have babies together, so they only adopt/use a sperm donor or surrogate mother if they roll the want to have a baby. I do encourage Family sims to have enough children to fulfill their LTW's if applicable, so sometimes I'll get them to Try For Baby to have an extra one or two before they're too old to have any more if they want to Marry Off 6 Children. If they roll a fear of having one I don't though, even if they don't have enough to fulfill their LTW.
Test Subject
#4 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 3:17 PM
It basically depends on their lifetime wish, where they are in their job, and how big of a house they live in. If they have a tiny house that I don't feel like remodeling then they only get 1-3 kids. Generally my sims usually have as many kids as possible because that's just what I enjoy doing. It also just depends on what I feel like doing with them.
Instructor
#5 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 3:36 PM
I have a rule: Only two kids per couple. Though it's increadibly fun to let them fool around as much as they want, I want my neighbourhood's population to stay under control this time. Right now, it's steady, but for some generations I loosen the control a bit and let them have up to four (that's the most I've done) children. Then the generation after them will have less kids to keep the population steady. I like to think that overpopulation in my game has the same effects as in real life, only in different ways of course. I don't have a same-sex pregnany mod either, and my gay/lesbian couples only adopt children if they roll wants to. I'm pretty much a major control freak when it comes to baby-making.
Forum Resident
#6 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 3:47 PM
I do use ACR. Up until now one couple decided on their own to have another child. They had two before. I mostly 'plan' the children by lifetime wants. If they want three they get three. If they want six they get six.
Or if they want 6 grand kids I at least let them have 2 or 3 children of themselves. That way their kids can 'deliver' those six grandchildren in total. Instead of having 6 or more than 3 by themselves when they maybe don't want to, but you don't know yet what their LTW will be.
When there isn't a lifetime want that involves having children I give them 2 max.
They don't have a problem with that because most of my Sims have at least family as aspiration.
I wouldn't stop them from having kids if they themselves decide to have more.
But I don't use risky woohoo. They actually will have to choose themselves to have more by try for baby woohoo. I also don't abort any of my Sims. I read about that here sometimes and I don't even know if that is a mod or something you fiddle with in SimPE or...?
I also don't use the dice to decide on things.
I guess I play a rather simple game play and I like it like that. All those rules other people use in their games I wouldn't be able to follow up on all that. Way too difficult to keep that in consideration all the time, haha.
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#7 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 4:01 PM
Two. TWO DAMMIT.

Quote: Originally posted by ella_in_wonderland
I have a rule: Only two kids per couple.

Works just fine till they have twins on the second pregnancy.

I do have that rule but, like Fivey, I have silent risky woohoo/pregnancy mods in my game so I don't know someone is pregnant till their belly pops. I don't have same sex pregnancy but tend not to use the birth control option in ACR. You would think this is a recipe to bust my rule on a regular basis but it isn't. My sims don't get pregnant that often. In fact, poor Philippa Cox seems unable to get pregnant again since her miscarriage in college. It's not like her and Tobias haven't tried: they're always at it. I think I may have changed the pregnancy odds when I installed ACR - or maybe it's Inteen? Who knows. They do get pregnant, just not often enough for the two pregnancy rule to get broken. Hmmmm.

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
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Mad Poster
#8 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 4:08 PM
Varies from household to household. I don't have ACR, so all my sims use the wonderfully reliable birth control available to them unless I make a conscious decision otherwise for them, and I can hardly make that decision without considering a number of factors.
First of all, am I prepared to deal with the consequences of having a baby in this household at this time? If the answer is no, then they don't.

Does the female of the partnership have an active have-baby want? I ignore the fear most of the time; it'll probably roll away anyhow and the want is worth 3000 points more than the fear, so it's a net gain as long as I lock the want. If only the male half wants a baby, then he has to plausibly seduce her into skipping birth control. Criteria for this depend on the dynamic in the household.

Each family and couple has its individual dynamic. My simmigrant families came from countries less medically advanced and socially liberal than Simerica, and birth control was not part of their worldview. The older a simmigrant is, the less likely he or she is to even contemplate using birth control. The elder Casas never used birth control at all. Their children are all Simerican-educated, but have absorbed Simerican values to a lesser or greater degree. The oldest, Estebanico, is a male chauvanist piglet who insisted his wife be a virgin on their wedding night and forbids her to use birth control; his wife is a sufficient doormat (one of those silly girls who thinks love is a dominance game) to go along with this. His sister Susana married David Ottomas. They used Sim State's excellent family planning clinic while she was at college, but once they graduated their family attitudes kicked in (you can tell by looking at them, the Ottomases are the sim equivalent of conservative Roman Catholics and use the rhythm method); but since their son was born and she lost her job she's reconsidered, and David wouldn't dream of interfering with her decision in the matter. The third child, Emilio, married a strong-minded Simerican woman; he regards birth control as a great boon to mankind but assumes that getting married means having kids and his wife will certainly not respond to pressure on this subject, so they'll have babies when she says they have babies. And so on.

Certain families have established fertility statuses. It is a fact of Drama Acres that any time a Hawkins woman doesn't use redundant birth control methods (usually the Pill and a condom), the woohoo is a Try for Baby. I of course get to define when this situation arises. Pigeon and Ezekial have twice gotten pregnant woohooing in a primitive camping setup because it's so easy to lose condoms, which present a choking risk to wildlife, and their nature enthusiasm is too high for that! Ernest Munny had his tubes tied because his family is so inbred, and he's so closely related to his wife, that the danger of their offspring not being viable is higher than they're willing risk; however, the aliens untied his tubes and didn't tidy up after themselves. Clovis Point had his tubes tied after he knocked up Sadie Hawkins (the last rubber tore and he convinced her that the Pill and the high temperature of the water in the hot tub would do the trick), so if any other Romance sims had seduced him after that they wouldn't have been able to try for baby.

Beverly Ku Spitzig claims to be on the Pill but is horrible about keeping up with taking them, so whether or not her woohoos are tries for a baby depends on the degree to which her partner du jour is willing to insist on the rubber. Romance sims like Ashley Pitts-Upsnott and Billy Ghote regard worrying about birth control as the woman's job, so woohoo with them is a Try for Baby; but her husband knows her really well and will only skip it if he has a reason to hope she gets pregnant (either a have-baby want or a territorial desire to keep her at home). Georgette Skirt, on the other hand, is far too savvy and in control of her life to be caught like that.

And on and on and on. It's all about the story, and what the character would really do, if they really had their choices.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Field Researcher
#9 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 4:10 PM
Gosh you guys have problems. I wish my Sims were so active ;_;
I have ACR and fiddle with the settings all the time but my Sims just never feel the need to woohoo -.-

I usually calculate their "ideal number of children" and then try to aim for that number to be achieved. However they have to roll the want mutually too.
Unless it was an accident of course.

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Mad Poster
#10 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 4:21 PM
If you really want more sexually active sims, julmoo, the remedy's simple: Train them, and make it easy.

Romance, Family, and Fortune are the horniest aspirations. Pleasure wants to date a lot, so horniness can be induced in them. Romance, Family, and Pleasure secondaries will increase the sexiness any sim.

Don't accept random turn-ons and turn-offs, but assign them so that they'll have lots of chemistry with the sim you choose for them. Tell them to flirt and check people out when they're at community lots or parties.

Date them any time their aspirations get low. Lock randomly-rolled erotic wants until you can fulfill them. Use dates as rewards. Make a game of taking as many dates as possible to the woohoo point.

The more you tell them to perform erotic actions, the more likely they are to do it autonomously.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Instructor
#11 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 4:28 PM
Quote: Originally posted by maxon
Works just fine till they have twins on the second pregnancy.


Ah, but there's where the fun comes in. I love breaking my own rules!
Field Researcher
#12 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 4:32 PM
I don't really have a set method - it varies from family to family - I have "rules" but am not adverse to breaking them. A lot.

I calculate a sim's idea number of children from a formula I got from the Apple Valley website, which I think original came from some ACR coding (but I don't have ACR, so I wouldn't know). So far, the highest this has come up with is 14, but I doubt very highly that they'll actually have 14. I also take into acount the idea number of children for the couple, but if hers is 2 and his is 6 then they're combinded ideal number isn't necessarily 4, as the formula used 2/3 of the female's idea number and 1/3 of the male, as I feel she's more in control of the number of children they have, seeing as she'll be carrying them.

For a while I tried to only let them try for baby if they both had the want, and just woohoo if only one of them did, but this was producing far fewer children than I would have liked, so I've pretty much abandoned the idea.

I use the idea number of children as a rough guideline, but by no means a "you must have this number of children or else." Sarah Creech has and ideal number of 7, which averages out as a 5 with her husband Tim's 2, but she's not very fertile and has struggled to have the three boys they do have, so they're not going to have anymore.

Kibwe Ibori is a family sims from a very strong male chauvinist culture, so when he wants a baby, he and his wife get a baby. Her ideal number of children is 2, but she's already pregnant with their third child. At the moment she doesn't mind too much, but I'm sure that'll change when Kibwe's sister Kali gets married and moves out, and she has to step up to both the housework and childcare.

Glen Dalton (AKA The Black Tricou) has a LTW to marry of six kids, and whilst I generally ignore these kind of wants, I've decided to try and fulfil this, even though his ideal number of children is only 2. He and his wife are both currently pregnant. Yay for double pregnancies!

♫Cuz I don't have a home in this life, I have to roam. Got nowhere to lay my head, so I'll follow you instead, and set my gaze on the place I'm going to. Til then I'm homeless, but I'll roam with you...♫

My Simblr: http://natteryaktoad.tumblr.com
Field Researcher
#13 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 4:45 PM
I don't have ACR in my game. Most of my sim parents have 1 or 2 kids. I have a few couples with 3 kids. Brandi Broke is the only one so far who has 4 kids. After she married Julien Cooke, I thought Julien would want a child of his own. I was hoping they would have a girl, but they had another boy. I won't allow her to have any more kids. Little Ryan Cooke is a child now. Brandi's third son, Lemmy is a teen. Beau is in his senior year in college. Dustin is married to Angela Pleasant and they just had twins. I don't want Brandi to have another child who is younger than her grandchildren. That's why I don't think I will allow any of my sim couples to have more than 4 kids. Normally, when my sim parents have kids, I try to keep the kids as close together in age as possible. I try to time it so that 1 day after the first child is born, they try for the second child.
Mad Poster
#14 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 4:58 PM Last edited by Darby : 26th Aug 2012 at 5:13 PM.
In new 'hoods needing to be populated, 3-5 kids per founding family is fine. In my latest newer 'hood, I have the couples' ACR ideal number of children set to four, but they continue to autonomously Try For Baby even after they've had four, so I may have to revise that down to three in the future, to allow for such contrariness!

In well-established neighborhoods, a TWO per couple limit is firm! (eta: Barring unexpected twins in the second pregnancy, of course. ) In overcrowded 'hoods, the limit may be only one. I do have a rule that all sims, regardless of aspiration, have to contribute their genetics to at least one child, somehow.

Needless to say, I don't pay much attention to LTWs that involve large numbers of children. Such LTWs are ignored or (usually) changed to something else.

Of course, challenges can affect my general rules. I have zero interest in most challenges that involve huge numbers of children in one family, but I'm currently playing a Trailer Park Challenge that requires a minimum of four pregnancies per generation. I usually play challenges like this in neighborhoods I don't expect to develop and keep anyway, so am not concerned with overwhelming the 'hood with too many sims from one family. (Have to admit, though, that this challenge would be a hoot to incorporate into a regular neighborhood rotation for something like a BACC!)
Field Researcher
#15 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 5:00 PM
[QUOTE=rogue_55]I don't want Brandi to have another child who is younger than her grandchildren.[QUOTE]

I've got a family where this is happening! I'm actually quite excited about it. Maddison Heath-Couderc had her son Casey when she was 15. Casey is now married with a toddler daughter, Izzy, and Maddison is a few days away from elder, pregnant again (there is another child inbetween Casey and this baby - Bella, who's a freshman in college.)

♫Cuz I don't have a home in this life, I have to roam. Got nowhere to lay my head, so I'll follow you instead, and set my gaze on the place I'm going to. Til then I'm homeless, but I'll roam with you...♫

My Simblr: http://natteryaktoad.tumblr.com
Lab Assistant
#16 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 5:45 PM
Family sims in my games seem to never turn off the "Get moar children" switch.
Alchemist
#17 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 5:52 PM
My ideal is for couples to have between 1 and 3 children, for the most part, although I'd like to keep everyone in the Broke family between 0 and 1 to even out the effects of Brandi's hyper-fertility. It's at least one child per couple, not per Sim, so a Sim in two serious relationships would ideally end up with two children. Other than that, it's up to them, through autonomous trying through ACR or a birth control failure. The previous sentence applies to Sims who never get serious with anyone or who actively fear having children, too.

I'm still working out how to decide whether Sims will keep kids they accidentally had or not.
#18 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 6:20 PM
I use katya stevens ( i beleive it's hers anyways) of 1/3(total of neat/outgoing/active/nice)/aspiration bonus. Though I think adding in all the personality points; then if it's a married couple subtracting highest and lowest score or just choosing lowest if the number comes out negative will work better for me. And it works out too. Romance sims tend to only want 1kid total, while family gets like 7 and all other aspirations get something in between.
Instructor
#19 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 6:29 PM
I can´t really say I decide it beforehand. I mostly just go with what feels right. The only thing I know is that each couple will have at least one child and preferable not more than 5 (for genetic diversity).

What aspiration the parents have is also important. If they both are family sims with LTWs of having 6 grandchildren or seeing 3 children graduate, it´s likely they will end up with 3-5 children. If they are both fortune sims who like to work a lot they will often only have 1-2 children.

The genetics is also important for me. I don´t demand "prettiness" and I like it when the kids end up a bit ugly (that´s actually cute to me). If the kids end up very good looking I´m also happy with it. But I want them to have some character! In my ´hood I have some born-in-game-sims who ended up a bit boring, so I plan to breed them with the "ugly" ones. If I still get boring-looking children I´ll probably not let them have too many children, even if they are family sims.

Another thing that´s important for me is to have an even number of children in each generation. That´s because I normally only allow my sims to marry another playable.
Scholar
#20 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 6:30 PM
My ideal also stems from Apple Valley's calculations, albeit with a few more variables added in. A sim's ideal number of children depends on their neat, outgoing, active, and nice score, with variables based on a sim's aspiration:

(1/3(Neat + Outgoing + Active + Nice))/Aspiration Bonus = Ideal # of Children where aspiration bonus is family = 1, knowledge = 2, fortune = 3, popularity = 4, pleasure = 5, romance = 6. Due to using ACR, the sim's partner's ideal will count in a little, but the major influence will be the idea of the sim who gets pregnant.

Sims also have a variable risky pregnancy rate, based on their neat and playful points: Failure = ((10-Neat+Playful)*Aspiration)/3 where aspiration bonus is knowledge = 1, fortune = 2, popularity = 3, family = 4, romance = 5, pleasure = 6. I do have abortion and adoption rules, so even if a sim is hit by a risky pregnancy they're not committed to raising the child, or even giving birth to it. High risky odds do mean more pregnancies, but so far I seem to have kept about the same number of children born.

So far I've had ideal number of children from 1 (largely Romance/Pleasure sims) up to 7 (Family sims), and risky pregnancy percentages from 1% (high neat, low playful Knowledge sim) all the way up to 25% (low neat, high playful Family sim). If a sim has a child-related LTW and their ideal number of children is below this, I allow myself to up their ideal to match their LTW: example, a sim with an ideal # of 4, but the LTW to marry off 6 children would have their ideal bumped up to 6.
Lab Assistant
#21 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 6:37 PM
I just go with what they roll as their wants. If the male rolls the baby want, the female has to as well ... if the female rolls the baby want, then they can have a baby (since she is the one that has to carry the baby after all) So I try to fufill their wants, though I do have the rule that no babies within 5 days of becoming an elder.

I dont use hacks/mods in my game so we just do it the old fashioned way
Forum Resident
#22 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 7:02 PM
Quote: Originally posted by julmoo
Gosh you guys have problems. I wish my Sims were so active ;_;
I have ACR and fiddle with the settings all the time but my Sims just never feel the need to woohoo -.-

I didn't fiddle with the settings, yet. I use it as it comes and my Sims make use of it as soon as they have free time on their hands. Mostly it is casual woohoo but one couple surprised me by choosing try for baby which promptly resulted in their third baby.
Do you give them enough oppertunity or do you control them too much to do other things?
Instructor
#23 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 7:25 PM
Firsts of all Family Sims are my favourite aspiration.So how many kids my families have depends on how I start a new neighbourhood. If I start at Uni, then I think I could stay at maybe 3 kids. However, if I start in a main neighbourhood and a family already has 1-3 kids, they more than likely will have another one. If I use Don in my games, well, he becomes a father to many from different baby mama's! My problem, and I've mentioned this before is I have an addiction to try for baby, and I have trouble with sticking to logic, and keeping a family smaller. I always tell myself that I will keep my families smaller, and bam their up to 6. However, seeing that now that I have the SimBlender, I can choose what their LTW's are, with options that include their secondary aspiration. So, I don't have to do keep the marry off 6 children, if I don't want to.
I do know -unless it's Don- I won't do the 10 kids again, unless it's some form of challenge, they don't get a memory for it. So at least I have some form of restraint!
Mad Poster
#24 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 7:36 PM
I have a limit of eight, to allow for multiples. With my subhoods, the limit is one, to sustain controlled growth. After this generation, one is the limit as well. If the one kid dies, then they can have another one.


Angie/DS | Baby Sterling - 24/2/2014
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Mad Poster
#25 Old 26th Aug 2012 at 8:41 PM
I like giving my sims lots of children, because I like to see what they'll end up looking like, and what personalities they'll have. Since I have Inteen in my game though, some of my sims will conceive even if it wasn't planned. Suzie Chun(spikey-haired former SS dormie) is one example: she got pregnant THREE TIMES even though I wasn't trying for a baby. And her first pregnancy was twins. The other two were singles. Having four kids in a three room house was no picnic, but it certainly was a wonderful adventure, especially when the coach wandered onto the lot and tried pestering Suzie(who was pregnant at the time) to work out. The twins sucked out a LOT of her skill points.

And with family sims like Nervous Subject, I like giving them lots of children to make them really happy. I especially like fulfilling baby-wants for Nervous because he is so good at caring for children and loves being around them. He also looks super-cute with a baby-bump and a pink manternity outfit.
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