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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 20th Jun 2018 at 11:50 PM
Default Creating Families
When you create a custom neighborhood (for your personal use only, not to share), how usually are the first families you create to inhabit it? Do you create families with more than one generation or just the founders? Do you write a biography/story to them beforehand or they are just blank slates that you will "shape" while you play them?

As for me, I usually like to create only founding families (just the first generation) and let they have children in game, however, sometimes I created relations among the founders (couples or siblings, for instance). I also always have a theme or a basic story for each family before I create them, but I tend to develop it better only after a play with them a little.
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Link Ninja
#2 Old 21st Jun 2018 at 12:02 AM
I don't have a 'usually' since I've only done this...like twice but when I created my custom hoods, I made a handful of (maybe 6 or 7)families. After moving them in and playing them for awhile and watching them interact I decided what their story was and how they fit into this new 'community', and even further into that, the community's history. The families weren't 'founders' in the sense they founded the hood but more of like, just important families, or 'focus familie's and everyone 'else', like NPCS were there but not of any interest. I had a phase where whenever I would get new CC eyes or skin I would create a new family for a genetic mix up, but that only lasted a couple years and I was set in having a good amount of differing families populating the hood and spawning.

I'm way more into letting all the families intertwine and have their next generations all in game. I barely create families anymore since offspring of the first generation did a good job populating the hood and so on a so forth. Sometimes I throw in some single adult sims to mix up genetics pool again.

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

Alchemist
#3 Old 21st Jun 2018 at 12:02 AM
so far this time playing, most custom neighborhoods I made were temporary ones.

past times playing, there were few neighborhoods I populated with sims.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#4 Old 21st Jun 2018 at 12:14 AM
I start by making married couples in CAS. They are my founders. Occasionally I will make siblings, so a couple might also come along with a sibling. A long time ago I would role for families so some came with elders, toddlers and other ages, but I prefer to not have kids of any age but to have them be born in.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Forum Resident
#5 Old 21st Jun 2018 at 12:28 AM
I did only create founders in most of my families minus 1 family because I simply needed there to be a runaway single parent

Unfortunately a virus killed that neighborhood and I had to remake them which resulted in me making gen 1+2 since I wanted to continue more or less where I left of
Though only 6 families instead of 12

I build small houses *^*
Scholar
#6 Old 21st Jun 2018 at 12:35 AM
As I play a extra large Uber-hood I don't create any more families as 500+ sims (!) is way plenty for me now.

When I played Medieval theme, I created them either by what type of sims I wanted them to be (i.e, what kind of ruler family I would have) and write it down. Later on, I randomized everything as it's easily become to similar as I used have about 100 sims as my founders (no townies and minimal npcs though)!
Instructor
#7 Old 21st Jun 2018 at 12:39 AM
When I created my integrated hood, I rolled a dice first, to determine how many founding families it would have. Then I rolled again, to see how many sims would be in each family. To determine each family name and background, I went to Behind the Name. It was my first time randomizing names, and it was really fun.



There's no drama, like Sims drama.

Currently Playing: Sims 2 again!




Meet Me In My Next Life
#8 Old 21st Jun 2018 at 12:57 AM
if it is my own private custom hood than I create my own Sims and start from there, but I have at times took months to create or sometime I will download another creator Sims if I like it and want to add to my custom hood.
As far as a generation to generation Sims I never play that route yet. Mainly because I have a very hard time letting my Sims grow older as an Elderly or my Child becoming teens or my teens becoming young adult than to adults. oh well

"Nothing in life is a Surprise it just happen to come your way at the time".
Mad Poster
#9 Old 21st Jun 2018 at 1:07 AM
For Drama Acres, I created six families, each with at least one teen. The smallest families were a single parent with one teen child; the largest was a couple with two teens, one child, a toddler, and a dog. The actual numbers were governed by how many puns I could make with the chosen last name during one CAS session (so the Onions family should have had at least two more children).

In the BACC I recently started, since Drama Acres is on its last legs if not actually defunct, I more or less followed Nepheris's rules, rolling randomly. They're all adult-only families, but in addition to the two married couples and the singleton I have one set of three siblings (including a werewolf and a witch) and one group marriage.

And of course when I make a hood for sharing, I make sure that all age groups are represented, which is really my preference. When I made Drama Acres I didn't know I had a preference; and when I started the BACC I didn't see a rule for randomizing ages and I didn't think, till afterward, that an elder or two would have been nice. Especially since one of the siblings has a gray hair turn-on. But life is rough.

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.)
Mad Poster
#10 Old 21st Jun 2018 at 5:05 AM
I prefer making single CAS pixels and then playing them to become families. In that way, the genetics and history of the family become established, and it creates the illusion (if not the reality) of how the pixels came to become intertwined with one another.

Receptacle Refugee & Resident Polar Bear
"Get out of my way, young'un, I'm a ninja!"
Grave Matters: The funeral podium is available here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/e6tj...albits.zip/file
My other downloads are here: https://app.mediafire.com/myfiles
Mad Poster
#11 Old 21st Jun 2018 at 7:25 AM
It depends on what I want to do with the hood. Besides my big hood, where I have all the bin sims as well as random CAS sims made when I felt/feel like it, my other 2 hoods are more experimental in a way.

I made 24 (12, then 4 more, than another 8) single sims, 2 for each star sign, for Kipling custom hood, since I wanted soldiers doing military duty - I made that hood after testing Jawusa's empty hoods back when, and it is kind of fun. They had lots of time to do things - work hours are not so long in the military career - like going to the gym in groups, etc. Of course there are families now and some have left, and some have been fired, so not all of them are soldiers anymore So it is turning into a normal kind of hood now.

For my other hood, Gardenia, I made 6 families of different combinations and generations. Here I am trying out all the farming cc. I pretend that the food in the other hoods all come from the Gardenia farms - but the idea with the families was to have enough people on each farm so that the work can actually get done.
Scholar
#12 Old 21st Jun 2018 at 9:20 AM
I used to make only adults, singles or couples, in CAS. But I found that it created a better and less artificial neighborhood if I from the start made children, teens, pets, grandparents etc in CAS.

Paladins/SimWardrobes downloads: https://simfileshare.net/folder/87849/
Undead Molten Llama
#13 Old 21st Jun 2018 at 9:52 AM
I've done it all sorts of ways.

That sounds dirty.

No, seriously, usually I create a certain number of founders. How many mostly depends on whether or not I'm going to allow townies in the neighborhood. If yes, then I'll often create single (independent)teen/YA/adult founders and then let them find their own partner(s) amongst townies/dormies and then breed from there, allowing future generations to also find partners amongst the non-playables. If no, then I create enough initial breeding pairs/groups to assure that future generations will be able to find a non-related partner. Usually, that means at least 6 breeding pairs/groups who each produce as many children as possible...although a few more would probably be better, especially if the breeders are strictly monogamous pairs. (Mine often aren't monogamous, and I also tend to throw alien genes into the mix for further genetic diversity.) I don't often create elder founders or pre-existing children of my founders (because, like Jo, I prefer those to be born-in-game so that I can get to know them better), but sometimes I do, if what I'm creating is supposed to be a community-already-in-progress as opposed to a "here we are, brave souls bravely settling this virgin land!" sort of scenario.

Very few of my Sims ever have "stories" that I give them. They tell me their "stories" and about who they are by their (randomly-assigned) aspirations, their LTWs, their wants/fears, the things they tend to choose to do autonomously (my pixels free-will a lot), etc.

I'm mostly found on (and mostly upload to) Tumblr these days because, alas, there are only 24 hours in a day.
Muh Simblr! | An index of my downloads on Tumblr.
Forum Resident
#14 Old 21st Jun 2018 at 12:52 PM
When populating a completely new hood, it's a mix of couples and couples with a kid or two. Elders are rare unless I have a gameplay or storytelling purpose in mind for them.
Mad Poster
#15 Old 21st Jun 2018 at 6:04 PM
I forgot to mention that all of the BACC families have one pet, except the future mayor's, who has a cat and a dog. Because I like pets. If I wanted to make local breeds, though, I should have given at least one family a pair of the same species. Maybe that'll be my first CAS family.

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.)
Forum Resident
#16 Old 25th Jun 2018 at 4:55 AM
I usually create a mix of families. I have maybe one or two single sims living alone, a few small families, maybe one single parent/child duo, a large family, and I always like to have at least one supernatural. I usually use plantsims or aliens for the supernatural sims, but now that I'll have AL again maybe I'll mix it up with a few witches. I like to include a variety of skintones/eye colors/faces as well as many different personality combinations so that the next generations have interesting genetic and personality diversity. I enjoy the variety of having a lot of different lives happening in the neighborhood. I usually have backstories for them as well, even if it's just that their family runs the grocery store. I used to have a complex thing going that was sort of like a drama, where one sim was a recluse but had a child that was a sort of Rapunzel. It's always fun to see how different sims get along (or not) and how the community shapes itself, especially in regards to the next generation. With having to start over again so many times though, my neighborhoods never last very long and I'm ok with that.


I'm starting over again, and I haven't decided what I'll do this time. I've been downloaded new neighborhoods that are decorated but don't have sims, so I'll keep doing that. I may actually use the bin sims this time and mix them with a few remakes of my old favorite families, just for some variety.
Scholar
#17 Old 25th Jun 2018 at 2:59 PM
I usually create about half a dozen families, and use dice to decide on family size and membership. First I roll a regular D6 to decide how many people are in this family. A single person is always male (to keep the household and family names the same when they marry); two people will be an adult couple. Then I'll roll a D4 for each extra family member: 1 is a toddler, 2 is a child, 3 is a teen and 4 is usually an elder or sometimes an adult sibling. I let CAS pick the sex. Elders are usually set as the husband's parents so they can keep the same surname, but if I get two elders of the same sex I make one of them the wife's parent and use Christianlove's Namechanger in-game. I had one family with toddler triplets, but usually I get decent mix of ages.

Now that I have the Simblender, I can give everyone except the toddlers a few skills, adjust the parent's ages to suit the age of their children, and maybe make one teen or child three or even six days older than the other, which makes the family feel more natural - otherwise I find newly-created families can be a bit 'flat' to play. I rarely give them any kind of backstory, though I may have specific roles for them to play in the hood.

I use a D6 rather than a D8 so that they can have extra children born in-game, if they so wish, without having to wait for an elder to die or a teen to leave home.
Mad Poster
#18 Old 25th Jun 2018 at 3:32 PM
Randomly. Had a founder household start with one sim or more. In two neighbors they were blank slates, in other, I already thought off for a story arch for them.

P.S. Sorry for my bad english.
Forum Resident
#19 Old 25th Jun 2018 at 4:23 PM
I made all my founding families when I first started my hood and haven't touched CAS since. I started with a mix of parents with a few children, and elderly parents with adult children. There were 2 families that were 3 generations. The only singles I had were a few young adults at university. I wanted to have someone at every age group to make it feel like an existing story. Also, I wanted more opportunities for game play than spending the first few weeks pairing off and dating a town full of single sims.
Scholar
#20 Old 25th Jun 2018 at 4:29 PM
Depends on the hood really. BACC only had the single "founder" in the first family, and everything went from there.

My Garden of Shadows hood, named after the website and housing all the sims from the GoS Good Genes challenges, has each challenge sim as the founder of that particular household. As there are 14 challenges now, and the later ones have had more than one option for starter sims, we're currently looking at somewhere in the region of 20 families. It'll increase with each new addition. I'm also planning on using the uploaded sims from those challenges (the "chosen ones") and turning them into townies.

Other hoods have had a mother & daughter pair, or a male-female couple with no children. It usually depends on the basic story I've got for the family/hood.

No need to use my full name, "Selly" will do just fine.
Field Researcher
#21 Old 25th Jun 2018 at 5:46 PM
My usual method is to start out with a single sim for each aspiration. I'll have gender balance , so three single guys and three single women. Secondary aspirations will be chosen or randomised. Each sim will have a theme (this is the punk rocker, this is the elf, this is the cowboy, this is the "normal" one etc.) but I won't bother with a backstory. Then I let them have at it. First gens are all required to have mates and at least one child, so the 'hood will carry forward. Gameplay is usually pretty fast as these families establish themselves. The game really picks up with the 2nd gen growing, relations deepening across the hood and the backstories and memories building up. I'm a big fan of emergent play and not to overplan, and just enjoy the ride.

I've gone through several long term hoods. But when I reach 4th or 5th generation (which take me a RL year or two of steady playing), I'll suffer a computer crash or a life distraction or just need a break and the game will sit idle for months. When I restart I'll have bunch of new mods in hand and new gameplay ideas to try and like to start fresh. I usually don;t like to revisit old hoods, though I do remember them with a great deal of fondness.
Forum Resident
#22 Old 25th Jun 2018 at 10:43 PM
I always start with a handful of single sims - usually 4 since I have them all live together. Then as they interact, I start making townies playable by having my founders ask them to move in. I hate having random townies wandering my hoods with no backstories and no families and no homes, so my goal with every custom hood is to move them all in and have them live somewhere.

Because of that I don't really make a lot of sims. I hate creating sims without giving them a point or purpose, and after a certain point I don't create any at all - once sims start to be born in the game, I let the hood take its own course and don't create anymore sims unless there's a specific need for a sim with particular characteristics.

For my four founders, I prefer to have each one pair up with a townie and have some babies - I like to blend my templates with maxis ones to moderate the fug, but sometimes the cute sims all fall for each other (which is tragic, but results in adorable kids) or one of the bin families befriends a playable so intently that they have to be moved in to spread more maxis-ness through my hood. Ideally, founders spread their genes (and I like to make a romantic playboy out of one of my founders for exactly this purpose) and get a whole bunch of townies to <cough> have some moderately attractive offspring.

I used to make whole families - kids and parents, and so on, but I don't really like having kids out of sync on ages and unable to attend a playable school (because I haven't built one yet). I do still sometimes create an adult and their parent(s) or sibling(s) though.

Like Saskganesh, I like emergent play and don't micromanage my sims. I let them fall for who they want, and have as many kids as ACR sees fit to give them. I also extended my sims lifespan around a 1 day = 1 month calendar, and that brought me so much joy and entertainment because now there's time for my sims to do little detailed things, like throw birthday parties for each family member, and celebrate holidays, and sort of just... be. I like to do outings and holidays more because again - I don't have to rush a couple to get pregnant before they age up to Elder. I also get a perfect age distribution on the offspring so that they're minimum of 9 days apart in age. Each lifestage just holds so much more enjoyment for me now that I have time to play it and send the kids to school and skill more slowly, and really watch them evolve.
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